The race went off, however, and although the Ford QCCPOV Team was at the front in the opening laps, a mechanical failure forced Chris to back off and circulate off the pace. A rear suspension problem turned out to be responsible.
Chris was philosophical about the result, and expects to climb back up to the podium at the next race in Columbus, OH this weekend.
"He was going real good, and we had been running a high line, blowing the cushion off of it. Right before the heat races, the sun came out and dried the race track out, so we made a few changes to the bike for the main event to adapt to an ever-changing race track.
"The groove was starting to form down at the bottom on one end, and it was kind of a skitter/free-for-all down in turns one and two. I got a decent start, and was battling for the lead - Hacker came by me and looked like he was going pretty good - all of a sudden, I developed a pogo action on the rear of the bike, and I had to back off of it at that point. I knew something in the rear suspension had failed, so I just circulated the rest of the race.
"We felt like we had something that was good for a podium - I don't know - Hacker was going pretty good, I don't know if we could have beat him or not, but we felt like we could have gotten on the box anyhow. We just didn't have that chance."