Chris Carr (born May 6, 1967 in Stockton, California) is an American motorcycle dirt-track racer and seven-time winner of the A.M.A. Grand National Championship. [1] He has also competed as a motorcycle road racer at the national level and was a motorcycle land speed world record holder.
Carr began his racing career as an amateur racer in 1983. He turned professional in 1985, finishing seventh in the Grand National Championship earning him the A.M.A. Rookie of the Year Award. [1] Carr won his first Grand National in August 1986 at the Peoria TT and finished the season ranked fourth in the championship. [1] He slowly climbed the points standing each year. In 1989, he became a member of the Harley-Davidson factory racing team. [1] After finishing second to his Harley-Davidson teammate, Scott Parker in 1990 and 1991, he finally claimed the Grand National Championship in 1992. [1] 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. [1] Carr left the dirt tracks to go road racing for two years (1996 and 1997). [1]
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). [1]
Carr was in contention for the 2006 Grand National Championship at the final race at Scioto Downs in Columbus, Ohio before dropping out with mechanical problems. He ended the season tied for fourth in points behind chief rival Kenny Coolbeth. [2]
Carr was inducted into the A.M.A. Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2004. [1]
On September 5, 2006, Carr broke the motorcycle land speed world record at the Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah), with a two-pass 350.8 mph (562.6 km/h) average. [1] He was the first motorcyclist to break the 350 mph barrier. [1] Carr's fastest run was at 354 mph (567.8 km/h).
On September 28, 2008, Rocky Robinson broke Carr's record driving the Top 1 Oil Ack Attack streamliner. Carr regained the title on 24 September 2009 with a speed of 367.382 mph.(Pending FIM ratification). This was later topped by Rocky Robinson and the Top 1 Ack Attack team on Sept. 25, 2010. Robinson set a new record of 376.363 mph (kilo average)(Pending FIM ratification) and had an exit speed of 394 mph. [3]
Carr is part owner of American Supercamp, a nationally renowned dirt track school taught on 80cc-230cc bikes.
He will be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on March 17, 2020. [4]
Away from the track, Carr is an active golfer and reader.
Wayne Wesley Rainey is an American former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he won the 500cc World Championship three times and the Daytona 200 once. He was characterized by his smooth, calculating riding style, and for his intense rivalry with compatriot Kevin Schwantz, between 1987 and 1993.
Kenneth Leroy Roberts is an American former professional motorcycle racer and racing team owner. In 1978, he became the first American to win a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship. He was also a two-time winner of the A.M.A. Grand National Championship. Roberts is one of only four riders in American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) racing history to win the AMA Grand Slam, representing Grand National wins at a mile, half-mile, short-track, TT Steeplechase and road race events.
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Jay Springsteen is an American former professional motorcycle dirt track racer.
The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires 2 passes the same calendar day in opposite directions over a timed mile/kilo while FIM Land Speed World Records require two passes in opposite directions to be over a timed mile/kilo completed within 2 hours. These are special or modified motorcycles, distinct from the fastest production motorcycles. The first official Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at 104.12 mph (167.56 km/h). Since late 2010, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at 376.36 mph (605.69 km/h).
Motorcycle racing is the motorcycle sport of racing motorcycles. Major varieties include motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing and land speed record trials.
Kelvin Carruthers is an Australian former world champion Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and racing team manager. After his motorcycle riding career, he became race team manager for world championship winning riders Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson.
Yvon Duhamel was a French Canadian professional motorcycle and snowmobile racer. A six-time winner of the White Trophy, the highest award in Canadian motorcycle racing, he was one of the most accomplished motorcycle racers in Canadian motorsports history. His motorcycle racing career spanned the transition from the 60 horsepower four-stroke motorcycles of the 1960s, to the 100 horsepower two-stroke motorcycles of the 1970s. Duhamel was a versatile rider competing in numerous motorcycle racing disciplines including; trials, motocross, ice racing, drag racing, flat track racing and most prominently in road racing as a member of the Kawasaki factory racing team.
The following outline is provided as an overview of motorcycles and motorcycling:
Gavin Trippe was a motorcycle racing promoter, journalist, and publisher who was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2005. He died following an automobile accident in California.
American Flat Track is an American motorcycle racing series. The racing series, founded and sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) in 1954, originally encompassed five distinct forms of competitions including mile dirt track races, half-mile, short-track, TT steeplechase and road races. The championship was the premier motorcycle racing series in the United States from the 1950s up until the late 1970s.
The TOP 1 Ack Attack is a specially constructed land-speed record streamliner motorcycle that, as of March 2013, has held the record for world's fastest motorcycle since recording a two-way average speed of 605.697 km/h (376.363 mph) on September 25, 2010 in the Cook Motorsports Top Speed Shootout at Bonneville Speedway, Utah. The Ack Attack's fastest one-way speed was officially recorded at 634.217 km/h (394.084 mph). This was the third time in four years the Ack Attack had broken the motorcycle land-speed record.
BUB Seven Streamliner is an American-built streamliner motorcycle that held the motorcycle land-speed record from 2006 to 2008 and again from 2009 to 2010. BUB Seven and two other streamliners traded the title of "world's fastest motorcycle" during official speed runs at Bonneville Speedway in the summer of 2006. The other two competitors were Ack Attack and the EZ-Hook streamliner. In 2017, Valerie Thompson rode BUB Seven for more record attempts at Bonneville.
The Harley-Davidson KR or KR750 was a 45.125 cu in (739.47 cc) displacement V-twin engine racing motorcycle made by Harley-Davidson from 1953 through 1969 for flat track racing. It was also used in road racing in the KRTT faired version. When the KR was first introduced, it dominated motorcycle racing in the United States. In 1970 it was replaced by the long-lived and US race-winning Harley-Davidson XR-750.
"Smokey'" Joe Petrali was an American motorcycle racer, active in the 1920s and 1930s. Petrali was a Class A racing champion who competed in board-track and dirt-track racing circuits, speed records, and hillclimbs. Petrali won a record 49 American Motorcyclist Association national championship races, with his last coming on August 29, 1937. The record stood for 55 years until broken by Scott Parker in 1992.
Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (BMST) (AMA Land Speed Grand Championship) is a motorcycle land speed racing event, held annually at Bonneville Speedway, US. The event is sanctioned by American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). AMA-certified US National land speed records, and FIM-certified Land speed world records are created in this event. The event features motorcycles ranging from 50-cc to 3000-cc, as well as electric classes.