MOTOR RACING : It Didn’t Take Long for Carr to Learn Lesson

Chris Carr turned 25 Wednesday, but he has been racing motorcycles for 19 years. Like most racers, he says he learns something every time he races. Even so, the most important lesson of his career might have been learned in his first race.

He was 6. He had been asking his father for a minibike for nearly a year and he finally got one, a new 39cc Moto Villa mini-cycle. His first race was on his sixth birthday in the Pee Wee class at the Lodi Cycle Bowl.

“I remember it only vaguely, but I’ve been told about it so many times I can tell you all about it,” Carr said. “I crashed and fell and got up and stormed off. I was really mad.

“I got madder when my Dad said if I’d got up and finished the race, I would have got a trophy. It was a good lesson to get early on.”

By the time he was 11, Chris had won two national amateur championships, and when he turned 16 he became a professional racer while still a student at Manteca High.

Carr, who lives 30 miles east of Sacramento in Valley Springs, missed winning the American Motorcyclist Assn. Camel Pro dirt track championship last year by the narrowest of margins. He and Scott Parker, his Harley-Davidson teammate from Swartz Creek, Mich., tied in points after 16 events, but Parker was awarded his fourth title because he had more victories, six to four.

Carr might have won outright if he had better fortune in two races at the L.A. County Fairplex in Pomona. In May, Carr finished fifth while Parker won. In September, Carr was fourth, Parker second.

He and Parker and all the other Camel Pro series regulars will be back at the Fairplex on Saturday night for the third race of the 16-race season. Carr has won the first two, a short-track event at Daytona Beach, Fla., and a mile event at Sacramento.

“I don’t think Pomona owes me anything because I probably lost the championship (last year) at Rapid City (S.D.) when I was leading, had a flat and finished ninth,” Carr said. “I don’t have too many good memories of my last race at Pomona, though.”

Three riders went down in front of Carr early in the race and to avoid colliding with them, he slid into the hay bales. “I got a little straw in my fanny,” he said, smiling. “That dropped me to the back of the pack with 14 laps to go, but I still managed to finish fourth.”

Carr, one of the smaller riders at 5 feet 5 and 126 pounds, considers Pomona one of the roughest and most difficult tracks on the circuit.

“In the first place, it’s closer to five-eights (of a mile) than a half mile and it has very long straightaways and very tight corners,” he said. “The straights are so long that you can catch a draft at the end of them, and that is very unusual for a half-mile track.”

Carr used a draft in the Sacramento Mile last month to nip Parker at the finish line. Parker had taken the lead going into the third turn of the final lap and Carr got it back on a slingshot pass coming out of the fourth turn, winning by a foot.

“Another problem at Pomona is that . . . it’s a horse training track, which means it’s soft. Soft spots become potholes after a couple of laps. It’s as rough a track as we ride. It might be exciting for the fans but not for the riders.”

Carr, in addition to seeking his first Camel Pro championship, is also leading in quest of his fifth consecutive AMA 600cc dirt-track crown. He is undefeated this season after winning last Saturday night in Fresno.

Motor Racing Notes

MIDGETS--Saugus Speedway, after canceling its stock car program last Saturday night because of the civil disturbance, returns to action this Saturday night with a combined United States Auto Club midget and TQ show. The midgets completed a five-week television series on the dirt last week at Ventura and resume their USAC Western Regional season on the pavement at Saugus. Sleepy Tripp, in full midgets, and Jay Drake, in TQs, are defending champions. Also on the program will be Grand American modified stock cars, ministocks and a train race.

STOCK CARS--Rob Hornsby and Ed Owens will continue their battle for supremacy in the stock pony division Saturday night at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino. . . . Winston Racing Series sportsman cars headline the Saturday night card at Cajon Speedway. . . . The Coors Light series for street stocks, ministocks and modified minis at Ventura Raceway resumes Friday night. . . . Late models and dirt cars race Saturday night in a Mother’s Day Special at Santa Maria Speedway.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Four nights of racing are now available for speedway fans with the opening of Glen Helen Speedway in San Bernardino for weekly Wednesday programs. Glen Helen is under new management, with former national AMA Grand National champion Gene Romero the promotion director. Other sites are Lake Perris Speedway on Thursdays, Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Fridays and Speedway USA in Victorville on Saturdays. New Zealand sidecars will also be on the program at Costa Mesa.

MISCELLANY--Gary Campbell has replaced Bill Marcel as president of the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group, producers of off-road and motorcycle Supercross events. Marcel, who replaced the late Mickey Thompson in 1988 after Thompson and his wife Trudy were murdered, is leaving to pursue other business interests. Campbell’s wife, Collene, is chairman of the board. . . . Top pro and amateur personal watercraft racers will compete in the opening round of the Yamaha Hot Water Tour on Saturday and Sunday at Silver Strand State Beach on Coronado Island.