Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Today in motorcycle history, May 6, 1967

  

  











  Seven-time Grand National Champion, Flat-track legend and AMA Hall of Famer Chris Carr is born in Stockton, California.









 Growing up only a few miles from the Lodi Cycle Bowl,  Chris started competing at the age of 6 on a 38cc Moto Villa.  Who would've thought four decades later, he would collect seven Grand National Championships and would be second on the all-time win list behind fellow Hall of Famer Scott Parker.




  Chris Carr won his first Grand National in August 1986 at the legendary Peoria TT. In 1989, he became a member of the Harley-Davidson factory racing team. After finishing second to his H-D teammate, Scott Parker in 1990 and 1991, he finally claimed the Grand National Championship in 1992. He ran the Grand National Series full-time until 1995 where he finished third while winning rookie of the year in the AMA Superbike road racing series.



  In addition to kicking ass on the dirt oval, Carr is one of the world’s leading land-speed racers. In 2006, he became the fastest man on two wheels when he set a motorcycle land speed record of 350.884 mph piloting Denis Manning’s BUB Enterprises streamliner at the AMA/FIM International Motorcycle Speed Trials by BUB on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Although Rocky Robinson and Mike Akatiff surpassed them in 2008, Carr and Manning returned in 2009 to reclaim the record with an eye-poppin' 367.382 mph through the measured mile!





  Chris Carr won the 1992, 1999, and 2001-2005 AMA Grand National Dirt Track (Flat Track) championships, the 2000 Formula USA Dirt Track Championship and the AMA 600cc Dirt Track championship seven times (1988–1993, and 1995).  



  Today in motorcycle history is a proud supporter of the National Association of Bikers with a Disability (NABD). Check 'em out at www.nabd.org.uk