MARTIN, MI (6/10/10) – Charles Carpenter’s hot start did not materialize into a desirable finish in Pro Nitrous at the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III at Virginia Motorsports Park in late May. Carpenter fell in the first round of eliminations to Jim Halsey, halting the momentum he had built through the year’s first two races. Carpenter and his head-turning ‘55 Chevy never could quite find a rhythm in Virginia, suffering through a multitude of mechanical troubles in the ADRL’s third race of the season. He ran a 4.07 in the loss to Halsey, far off the mid-3.90 times he consistently put up the first two races. “It’s extremely frustrating when those small problems ruin your whole weekend,” Carpenter said. “That stuff just happens from time to time, but we’ve been fortunate to completely avoid any problems like that since we brought the car back out after the wreck.” There is good news, however, and it is two-fold. First, Carpenter remained second in the point standings in the Speedtech Battle for the Belts. Carpenter’s 997 points trail only Mike Castallana (1,217). Perhaps more importantly, Carpenter is confident his team found the culprit of the problem, which makes it perfect timing heading into this weekend’s ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VI at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI. The problem was traced back to a bad ground wire – a problem that was fixed at his Charlotte, NC shop – and Carpenter now expects a better weekend in Michigan. “The main goal this weekend is to go back out there and get consistent again,” said Carpenter. “Once we get that back and make sure the car is going to go from A to B every time, we can start tuning on it and see what we can do with this new powerplant. The competition is getting tougher and tougher each race, so we’ve got to step it up and find some elapsed time.”
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