The following is from AMA Pro Racing…
Chris Carr has been working at a dangerous job for 25 years: a professional motorcycle racer. He has been successful, winning the Grand National Championship seven times. If things go as planned, he will make his 200th GNC podium on June 20 at the half-mile race at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn.
Winning the race is his goal, but a second or third place finish will get him on the podium, another milestone in a career full of them. He was a 16-year-old Novice in 1983, won the Junior Championship in 1984, and won Rookie of the Year honors as an Expert Pro in 1985. He won his first GNC race in 1986, and went on to win the GNC series championship seven times. Carr also won the AMA 600 Series championship seven times, and the Formula USA Championship once. In 2006 he gained the title of the “Fastest Man on Two Wheels” with a 354 mph run in the BUB streamliner on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Carr is looking forward to the Bulls Gap race. “It’s like a long short track to me, more than like a half mile. Any race with 16 second laps means short track.” The 3/8-mile length of the track classifies it as a half-mile race in the GNC rulebook, but the track’s high banks mean “short track” lap times.
Carr’s drive to win may have come from his first race, at age 6. He still remembers the date and the result. “May 12, 1973. I fell during the race, and I remember being upset that I wasn’t going to get to take a trophy home.” That 6-year-old grew up and won many trophies. He is second on the all time win list for GNC races, with 78 victories.
Does Carr have a chance to ‘podium’ at Volunteer Speedway? His odds are good whether it is really a half-mile or really a short track. He leads the all time GNC Short Track win list, and is third on the all time GNC Half-Mile win list. No other GNC rider in history has come close to 200 podium finishes.
