Chris Carr is among the fastest men alive, what with his Bonneville exploits. He retired--okay semi-retired--from racing as a dirt track legend. But, the always quotable and very fast Carr was a hugely competent roadracer in his time—first on a Ron Wood Rotax, then the H-D Lucifer's Hammer BOTT bike, Rob Muzzy's Raptor and of course the VR 1000 factory Harley Superbike.
Among the things that Carr was notable for in his roadrace career is, of course, putting the VR 1000 on the pole at Pomona. And, also, a not close friendship with then AMA Superbike top dog Miguel DuHamel. Did we have to stand between them once so as to prevent them from raining blows on one another in Vegas? Memory fading but seems maybe something like that happened.
Imagine our surprise when a photo of Chris Carr wearing Miguel DuHamel's leathers fell out of a folder in the massive yet hugely disorganized Soup Archives a few weeks ago.
Carr is now an announcer for Speed's dirt track coverage, thus we saw him at Daytona last week. He didn't seem to remember ever wearing DuHamel's leathers but once he saw the photo it all came back to him.
"That was the first time I rode the Harley, at Blackhawk in Illinois," Carr said. "The roadrace leathers I had at the time were a bit small on me and were kind of tight in the arms. DuHamel had raced the VR that season and was at the test. I borrowed a set of Miguel's leathers late in the day."
After he stared at the photo for a few moments, Carr's powers of recollection returned and he remembered not only the year and month that the photo was taken at Blackhawk, but the day. And he also remembered that was the day of one of DuHamel's most infamous spills.
"He crashed the Superbike at high speed and the bike flipped and slid for something like a football field. It was a 160 mph crash and with only grass to slow it down the bike went forever."
