6/28/03

Carr Struggles, Finishes Sixth at Legendary Lima Half-Mile.

Looking for his fifth win at the legendary pea-gravel cushion track in northwestern Ohio, Chris appeared to be on track early in the evening , winning his heat race and locking up a front row start for the final. The track surface constantly changed during the night, with a short rain delay wreaking havoc on solid preparations. Chris struggled to an eventual sixth after running at the front in the opening laps.

His point lead intact, Chris heads home this week and returns to Ohio again Saturday night to take on Sharon Speedway, just over the Pennsylvania border. Sharon Speedway is a new addition to the schedule in 2003.

"The day started off pretty good. I started off by having a really good battle with Kenny Coolbeth in the scratch heat, which I was able to come out on top of. We were second-fast qualifier behind (Geo) Roeder, who always goes good at Lima. Things were set for the (evening) heat race. Got a really good start in my heat race, got out front and set sail. The track was really nice after the three-hour rain delay, and the first couple of heats, the track was pretty good, Roeder was in the first heat, and I was going equally as fast in the second heat. I think I ended up having the fastest heat race by about three-tenths of a second overall. We knew were in the hunt for the main event, and were looking forward to it.

"That rolls around, and it seems like, with the threat of (more) rain here there and everywhere, that they forgot to put water on the race track - at least for me - and the lines I was able to run in the heat race, I just couldn't run in the main event, and we weren't quite set up for it. The track moved back down to the bottom, and we were off for our gearing. We ended up struggling our way to a sixth-place finish. Another year of Lima is in the books."

How was the pig roast?

"The pig roast was good, we had a good time. Steve (Morehead) didn't quite have the turnout that he expected- the weather was cloudy in the morning - but it cleared out real nice in the afternoon, the pond was nice and refreshing, and so was the pig, and so was the beer that he had laying around. We hung out at Steve's for about four or five hours and then headed over to watch the sprint car races in Attica. It's the second time I've had the opportunity to do it, and it's the beginning of Ohio Speed week for sprint cars. That was fun to go watch those guys go around, lay a little rubber, and have a good time. It was a great weekend."


Back to the News page