6/30/06
From a press release:

Chris Carr And The Ford QC Team Take AMA Twins Lead Into Lake Odessa, MI. This Saturday

Seven-time and defending AMA/Ford QC Flat Track Championship Series champion Carr expects a tight battle with rivals King, Kopp and Coolbeth

FLEETWOOD, Pa., (June 29, 2006) - Ford Quality Checked Certified Pre-owned backed Chris Carr, the prestigious Twins Division leader of the 2006 AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship series, heads up the field of the world's top flat track racers that'll chase after it this Saturday at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, MI.

Carr, who finished on the podium in third last year at Lake Odessa, has never won the home state event of his team's title sponsor, Ford Quality Checked.

"I've got a handful of third and fourth place finishes, but never have been able to win there," said Carr. "Kenny (Tolbert, Carr's mechanic) has been working hard to put the bike back to together after the beating it took at Lima (Ohio), so we'll be good to go this weekend and I'm confident we'll be in a position to challenge for the win."

The I-96 Speedway track marks a departure from the softer surface at Lima. Said Carr: "We're going from horse tracks to car tracks," referring to the packed clay surface that the super modified cars run on at Lake Odessa.

Also posing an interesting obstacle for the racers is the layout of the track, which Carr says that one false move can end you up in a number of precarious situations. So concentration will be key on the Michigan half miler.

"If you happened to run off the end of Turn Two you'll wind up in a cornfield," noted Carr with a slight laugh. "Go off in turns Three and Four and you end up in somebody's backyard."

Shunts aside, Carr said there's a great deal of strategy that will play into capturing the so far elusive Lake Odessa win for him, citing his main competition - Rich King (currently second in the points to Carr), Joe Kopp and Kenny Coolbeth as the guys he must beat to win the Lake Odessa title.

"Leading the overall points Twins points chase is exactly where I want to be and it's those three (King, Kopp and Coolbeth), specifically, that I need to beat to win this weekend," said Carr. "We'll for certain go for the win, but we'll also take points however we can."

Carr's XR-750 took a serious pounding last week during his hard-fought fourth place effort at Lima. "She got skimmed up pretty good," he said, adding that this past week Tolbert's been hard at work on prepping tires, changing the gearing and suspension setups as the series moves from horse/dirt to clay/cars.

"We will for sure have a bike that's capable of winning," said Carr. For more information on the Lake Odessa race, check out www.I96Speedway.com.


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