CARPENTER FINDS CANADA MORE LIKE CAROLINAS

GRAND BEND, Ontario, (June 15, 2005) – With 31 years of racing in the logbook, one would expect that Charles Carpenter, owner/driver of the Embee Performance “World’s Fastest ’55 Chevy” would be hard pressed to find a dragstrip in North America unfamiliar to him. But such was the case with the 6th Annual IHRA Mopar Canadian Nationals at Grand Bend Motorplex.

But it was not just a matter of an unfamiliar track to overcome. The weather was a huge factor in the weekend’s racing with temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit and unusually high humidity. In fact, Thursday’s pre-race activities were curtailed due to a powerful storm that ripped through the area, dropping several inches of rain and leaving a path of destroyed awnings and canopies.

“This facility reminds me of going to Darlington (S.C.) years ago. There isn’t much asphalt, they definitely have more grass parking than asphalt which is not a good place to be when it is pouring rain, but we came through the storm ok in the end. But I can’t believe how humid it is, it seems more like the South than Canada,” Carpenter joked.

After waiting for the facility to dry out, qualifying went forward Friday night and finished out on Saturday where Carpenter put up his best effort of a 6.374 elapsed time at 221.74 mph, which was just enough to get him in Sunday’s finals in the 16th position.

After losing in first round eliminations to Shannon Jenkins, Carpenter explained, “We are fighting a power issue right now. We also have a nitrous consumption problem, we just aren’t using as much nitrous as we should be, which is a concern.”

The team is struggling to find a reason for these problems and will spend the next few weeks carefully going over the car in search of an answer.

Carpenter’s next outing with the IHRA will be at the Motor City Nationals, July 15 -17, at Milan Dragway in Milan, Mich.
 

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