Overall, it turned out to be a good wekeend for the Ford Quality-Checked Team, especially considering the was the Singles class has gone for them this season. Chris took a second at the TT and a close-fought fourth on a one-line short track to move up to eighth in the Singles points.
"I made up for my poor start in the heat race. One of the local kids - one of the Vernon brothers - got put on the penalty line. I had lined up second row, and he was on the outside front row. He got put to the penalty line and that opened up the outside of the track for me. I got a good start, railed around the outside, and came out of turn one in third place from the second row. That was a nice way to start the race, to be able to move up eight positions off the start is always good. Jake Johnson passed Sam Halbert for the lead and was starting to get away, and I caught up to Halbert and followed him for a couple of laps, and made a tight move on him through the sweeper in three and four, and actually, in going by, clipped his handlebar.
"I didn't go in there and stuff him. I stuck it in there and I kind of gave him an option; either you can pick up and try and get me later, or you can fight it off and go down, and unfortunately, he fought it off and went down. Then I sat in second - I would say I was about two seconds behind Jake, and I whittled away at that, narrowed it a bit, but I could never get a good solid run on him to get close enough to put any extended amount of pressure on him, and I ended up coming up short by a second-and-a-half when it was all said and done. It was kind of a yawner of a race, he went into first, and I went into second, and it stayed that way for the remainder. I had about five seconds on third, who ended up being Jared Mees, at the end. So it was kind of uneventful, but a good finish for us. We moved up the points in Singles, and went into a tie with Coolbeth in the overall, so that part of it, that was good. That's the TT."
"Well, it was and it wasn't. You know, the track that they set up for us was really, really fast. I think it was a lot faster than everybody expected. We were essentially running the same track as the TT, we just don't have the dogleg through the infield, and we ended up taking about three teeth off the rear of the motorcycle to run that short track - that's how fast it got on Sunday. It's amazing what a little bit of calcium chloride will do to a race track, that thing got pretty quick.
"I caught a break in qualifying. In one of our sessions, we had somebody lost an exhaust pipe header, and it kind if clogged up the front straightaway coming off turn four for a few laps, and we were informed going into our last session that we were going to get a three lap qualifying session following the Pro Sport practice, so that allowed us to make some changes. It probably wasn't the best thing to do, they probably should have just red-flagged it on the spot, but it was one of those deals where we caught a break and went from thirteenth to first in qualifying by having that last three laps. We were fortunate in that, but again, that put us in the first heat race, and I would have preferred to have been in the third or fourth. But, we got a good start, I got the holeshot, and Coolbeth pretty much chased me the whole race, and he was right on my rear wheel throughout the entire ten laps on the heat race. It was one of those tracks where, not only was it fast, but it was difficult to pass, because the fast line was pretty much around the bottom, and you could protect most of the fast line.
"That's exactly what (Johnny) Murphree did in the main event. He got the holeshot and did a good job of mot making any mistakes for twenty-five laps. Shaun Russell was all over him like flies on stink, and I was all over Shaun like flies on stink, and I had a line of guys, at times, all over me like flies on stink. Joe Kopp was the only guy to move forward in the race. He actually made a great pass around the outside of me in turns three and four with about four laps to go, and I think that was the only position change in the top four the entire race, other than Schnabel, who was pressuring Murphree pretty hard, who blew up early in the event. So we ended up fourth, six-tenths of a second out of the lead. I think the top six guys were covered by 1.2 seconds, so it was pretty competitive, but very difficult to pass. Sometimes you get that on daytime short tracks.
"So I moved up into eighth in Singles, and into a two-point lead in the overall, overall Coolbeth, who ended up sixth in the short track. So we didn't win any races, but we moved forward in two different points series."
You talk about leading the overall. Has the AMA considered naming an overall Champion now?
"I don't know that there has actually been a change, but it's important to everybody in the pit area, all the riders anyhow, because that's how the Grand National Champion had been determined in the past, and it's also how they're paying the point fund this year. Instead of splitting the point fund between two different series', they're combining them and paying the top twenty. I think everybody's kind of keeping an eye on that. I think we're all hoping that the AMA will change their mind, so we'll see what happens, but whoever wins the overall this year can sit there and say, 'Had the AMA not done what they had done, I'd be the Grand National Champion,' and they can rub it in their face, and I think, quietly, everybody wants to have that opportunity."