Charles Carpenter Racing ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III Wrap-up

Courtesy of Carpenter Racing

CHARLOTTE, NC – Going into the third annual ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags at Virginia Motorsports Park, Charles Carpenter was looking for a clean sweep of the event, aiming to win Best Appearing Car, Best Appearing Crew, and take home the Pro Nitrous Minuteman trophy all in one weekend.

After it was announced that Carpenter’s fresh paint and airbrushing, applied by Chandler Robbins and East Coast Refinishing, had garnered him the Olson Paint & Body Best Appearing Car award, the team set its sights on the other task at hand: taking the momentum of two consecutive ADRL Pro Nitrous final round appearances and turning it into a win at VMP.

Capping Friday’s qualifying with a 3.946 at 188.99 MPH, his quickest of three full passes, Carpenter was qualified in the number eight position heading into Saturday’s final qualifying attempt.

Just when everything seemed to be going well, the gremlins started to rear their ugly heads.

During the standard warmup routine on Saturday morning, the team struggled to keep the engine running. Things went from bad to worse as the engine wouldn’t fire at all after a few of the sudden shutoffs.

“In all my years of racing, I’ve never encountered a problem like that one,” Carpenter admitted. “We immediately went to work replacing every electrical component on the car, but none of it provided the solution. Eventually we thought we found the problem with the rotor out of phase, so we adjusted it and the engine fired and stayed running.”

The thrash caused Carpenter to miss the final qualifying attempt and lose valuable track data heading into eliminations. He lined up against perennial Pro Nitrous front runner Jim Halsey in the first round, who was off his normal pace and qualified ninth.

When the tree flashed green, both drivers were away with stellar reaction times, but Halsey’s 3.91 was too much for Carpenter’s slowing 4.07.

“We thought the problem was with the rotor phase, but we’re not so sure now,” said Carpenter. “Adjusting it seemed to rob a lot of our power, and on top of that we were light on clutch. The track was a ton better Saturday than it was Friday, but by missing the last qualifier we didn’t know that and went out there way too soft.”

“It seems like we’re either gone after the first round or in the finals,” Carpenter continued. “Luckily, we didn’t tear anything up and it’s all in one piece, so we’ll take the engine apart at the shop and see if we can solve our mysterious problem before we make the long haul to Martin, MI for the Summer Drags. We were able to maintain our position at second in the points, so we have to get it figured out and keep the championship push going.”