FLEETWOOD, Pa., (June 2, 2005) - Team Ford Quality Checked Certified Pre-Owned racer Chris Carr extended his Ford Quality Checked/AMA Flat Track Championship series points lead to 14 points with a solid second-place finish as at the legendary Illinois Motorcycle Dealers' Springfield Mile this past weekend at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

This weekend Carr and the Ford Quality Checked Team will travel to Peoria (Ill.) to contest a Hot Shoe Series race in order to tune up for the Ford QC/AMA/Peoria race in August. The next stop on the Ford Quality Checked/AMA Championship tour will be June 11th at Granite City, Ill. The series returns to the Granite City track after being off the schedule last year. The last time the AMA raced there ('03), Carr finished third.

At Sprinfield Carr utilized a strong set up and crafty racing technique to power his 750 through the weekend's fastest scratch race, then parlayed his first place finish in his heat to a front row spot for the Mile.

"The ten lap heat race was critical for us," said Carr. "I was able to get out of there with the win over Joe Kopp and a spot on the front row for the main. And, for the first time, Springfield had a holeshot award (GutteridgeHD.com). So we had to have a spot on the front row to get a chance at that."

Carr pulled the holeshot in the main ($500), followed by a strategic 'cat & mouse' fade soon after that. "A typical Springfield Mile," as Carr would call it, had Carr running in sixth to seventh place for the first nine laps.

"There was a lot of drafting and passing going on, so I settled in and began to study the field," said Carr. "Up front were Rich King, Kenny Coolbeth, Shaun Russell, Joe Kopp - followed by myself. I waited until about lap ten, then moved up well into the front of the pack and started switching positions. I was as high as first and as low as fourth. But over the last five laps I never fell below third."

Beginning the last lap, Carr was in first place heading into turn one. Coolbeth moved to the outside and King finessed his way up the inside - but Carr was able to re-take the lead. King then caught Carr and won in dramatic fashion - his fourth consecutive win at Springfield.

"King got ahead and I couldn't re-establish the draft, so he ended up winning it," said Carr. "We came into Springfield leading by nine points and left leading by 14 points. So the Ford Quality Checked Certified Pre-owned team's pretty happy about the weekend."

Carr's Ford Quality Checked teammate Willie McCoy brought his 750 home in 11th place overall, just missing out on a top ten finish.

On Saturday, Carr raced to what he called the "unlucky 13," finishing in thirteenth place in Springfield's TT event. "We struggled a bit and didn't get a good start in the main," said Carr. "I gained three spots early, two from attrition, but couldn't make up the time on the group in front of me. It was a tough track to pass on and I was in a gaggle of riders and did not want to take the chance this early in the season to move forward.

"We chalked it up as our one bad race this year."