8/10/04

Kopp and Carr Fight to the Finish at Rapid City

The AMA series returned to South Dakota in 2004, holding the Grand National race at Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City for the first time since 1999. Chris had previously won the event there twice and was looking to pad his point lead over Joe Kopp.

Kopp, however, had other plans, taking an early lead in the main and stretching his lead. Chris fought back and passed his rival near midway in the 25-lap feature, but Joe went to school on Chris' lines and took over the lead before the finish, beating Chris to the checkered flag by just a few bike lengths.

"Rapid City went pretty good for us. We had a heckuva race. We won our scratch heat pretty easily and we were looking good in the heat race. I had a pretty good battle with (Joe) Kopp. He got out front and I chased him the whole time. I never really had anything for him in the heat race, but I kind of figured with him sitting on pole for the main event, It was going to be a good race up front.

"I got a decent start in the main event, Joe was out front, I was running second, and he started to march away from me in the first ten laps. I started gaining back in him - he had changed his line down in three and four and had gotten a little bit defensive, and I was able to roll around him on the outside fairly easily. In hindsight, it was probably a little bit early to go by him, knowing that he was struggling. By doing that, he was able to watch my lines down in three and four, and he picked up on that. Then he ran one and two better than me and got back by with about three laps to go. I gave chase as best as I could but came up a couple of bike lengths short at the finish, but it was a really good race, probably one of the better half-mile races of the year. It was a good to have a night like that out in Rapid City, we needed that."


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