Chris fought back and forth with J.R. Schnabel throughout the main event, finally making a small mistake that let the Wisconsinite by at race end. The result was another podium, with Carr in third, still in control of the Championship. The next round takes place in Parkersburg, West Virginia this Saturday night, a track the series hasn't visited in six years.

Chris and wife Pam were headed out to the Bonneville Salt Flats to test the Dennis Manning streamliner when we talked, and he fills us in on how that project is progressing in this interview. They will be tripping the FIA lights officially this September.

That's a rarity.

"Yeah, it is. We got lucky this time, and that was cool. The track wasn't bad, they were battling quite a lot of wind, though. We had twenty to thirty mile an hour winds, with gusts higher than that, all day long, so it was kind of hard for them to keep any moisture in the track. But they did a pretty good job nonetheless. I think, in the end, it was probably a good thing that they held practice off as long as they did to help give us the best possible track they could, and it just ended up being a fairly one-lined - about an eight foot wide - groove around the racetrack, with only a couple of feet of it being very good. That's kind of typical of when you're fighting wind conditions.

"We did well in practice and qualifying. We were in the first group out, and unlike Lima, that wasn't the best group to be out in, I don't think. The track was getting faster every time out. Every time I hit the track, I'd go quicker, then the next session would go faster, and the next session after that would go faster, and we ended up twelfth fastest, which put us in the fourth heat race with Jared Mees, Jake Johnson, and Rich King. I got off the line fourth and I had to get by King on the first lap. I slotted in behind Johnson with Mees out front. It took me a couple laps to get by Jake, and I got by him, and Jared had about five bike lengths on me, and I was able to close the gap up, but wasn't able to make a safe, clean pass on him. I thought I had a couple of runs a couple of times, but Jared was doing a good job, not making any mistakes, so we came home a close second in the heat race. Fortunately, it was the fastest heat race, which put us on the front row for the main event.

"First start of the main event, I just squandered that, big time. I was about twelfth, I think, after the first lap. Unfortunately for Joe Kopp, who was involved in a one-bike crash, we got a red flag. I hear he's doing okay, with some bumps and some bruises, and more concerned about his beat up motorcycle than anything, so that was good news hearing that yesterday morning.

"l;Second start, I changed my whole start procedure and got off the line fourth, and battled pretty much all race long with J.R. Schnabel. He was in front of me. Mees was out front, (Kenny) Coolbeth was second, Schnabel was third, and I was running fourth. I got by Schnabel about lap six or seven after he made a bobble and I got a good run on him, and I held that spot until about lap, oh, seventeen or eighteen, and then I about pitched it away between one and two. I tucked the front real bad on a little rut that they had going there, and Schnabel got right back by me, and I chased him down and then Jared had a flat tire, and I inherited third. I made a little inroad on Schnabel there at the end, but I couldn't get up there and put enough pressure on him to retake the position, so we ended up third. But Coolbeth checked out. It was a solid night, could have a been a lot better, could have been a lot worse. We'll take it and move on to Parkersburg.

"How's that for one, long run-on sentence? (laughs)"

Perfect. You're headed out to Bonneville to test the streamliner. Is this the second test you've done?

"Second test starts tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward to pointing that thing and shooting the dart."

What can you tell us about the project?

"The first test out, I did nine total runs, seven of them were without the motor running. The thing I found - up until this point - it's harder to get it going, and it's even harder to get it stopped. The hardest part so far has been stopping it. I've put racing stripes on both sides of it without the engine running the last time I was here, and that's the way it goes. I'm looking forward to going out there and doing a little more practice and getting it going and getting it stopped and then firing her up and running her down and bringing her up to speed."

So you're getting towed behind a tow vehicle?

"I get towed behind a tow vehicle, and the released at about sixty miles an hour. I did mostly coast-down runs in the first test. That's just getting used to how the thing handles where it's most difficult to handle, at low speeds. I did - on my two powered-up runs - got up into second gear with a rev limiter, hit the rev limiter in second gear at 150 miles an hour, and that's the fastest I've gone so far, and I expect this week we're going to turn it up a little bit, maybe get it up in the gearbox, a little bit higher revs, and I'm hoping by the time we're out of here that we're somewhere between 200 and 300 miles an hour."

What motor is in the thing?

"It a Dennis Manning project, a 3000cc V-four that's twingled, so it's like a big single, so I'm familiar with those."