"That was the first race I have ever been to that we were not able to get down the track in three tries," Carpenter said. "We simply forgot how to run in a mineshaft. I could not get the car through first gear without really squaring up the tire. I made some changes, but I went the wrong way with it. As they say, that’s racing."

A bad weekend at the race track is a welcome problem for Carpenter and it pales in comparison to the decision he had to make back in 1999 when he parked his ride. It was admittedly the hardest choice he had ever made and one he hopes he never has to make again. "99.9% of that decision was based on money. I have an auto repair shop that pays my bills and provides for my family, but it would not support that kind of racing budget," Carpenter said.

"I was not going to race myself or my family into debt, so we decided to park the car. It was very hard. I had been looking for sponsors and doing everything I could to get some funding, but I couldn’t close any deals." By pulling himself off of the bustling circuit of IHRA National events and regional Quick 8 races, life took on a much slower and more unfamiliar pace.

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"Racing these cars is like a sickness or a disease," Carpenter said. "It starts to drive you crazy if you’re away from it for awhile. You start to think of all the places that you went and all the people that you hung around with at the race track."

Probably the most painful part of the entire experience was the fact that the car, his iconic 1955 Chevy, was right there in his shop. It served as a silent reminder of all the fun he was missing out on the road. "The car was ready to run. All it needed was a motor and a transmission. That was a tough time, having to see the car waiting there and not being able to do things the way I wanted to," Carpenter said.

Then a shaft of light pierced the dark clouds that Carpenter had been living under. Old racing pal Steve Vick approached him and asked if he would go to the races and give him a hand. Vick also encouraged Carpenter to take on the role of color commentary announcer for the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge, when that program was just taking wing.

It was in 2002 that Carpenter’s big break finally came. Northeastern Pro Mod racer Pat Doherty (who runs a nitrous-injected 1957 Chevy) approached him at the IHRA National event in Rockingham, NC.

As Carpenter put it, "I had run a match race at the track that Pat used to own in Maine and we talked a little about racing together. I saw him at Rockingham some time later during the time I had my car parked and we talked more about it. A couple of weeks later I got a call from Pat and he asked, ‘do you want to go racing?’ My answer was, ‘Hell yes!’ The way we work it is that Pat owns the engine in my car and I maintain it. We help each other as much as possible."

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All of this support from fellow racers leads to just one conclusion; Carpenter is one of the most respected racers in the history of the class. Many have traveled the path to financial ruin in the pursuit of high speeds and lower elapsed times, but few have had the self control to put the brakes on when necessary to maintain an even keel in their lives. Even more inspiring is the fact that the racing community, whether it was intentional or not, brought Charles Carpenter back into the fold, back to compete and back to win.

"I have a good name in racing," Carpenter said. "I have always kept my nose clean and I may really hate my competitor at the starting line, but that all melts away once I am out of the car. We love racing and I like to compare it to people who go out on big Harley rides. It is just a group of people getting together doing what they love to do."

After teaming up with Doherty, Carpenter was able to make some of his own luck. "I met up with John and David Dahlberg of Embee Performance, which is located in Santa Ana, California. We met and everything worked out so well that they came on board with us as sponsors."

The partnership has been great on both ends, according to Carpenter. "This is the third year that they have been with me. This company makes high performance coatings and let me tell you that their product has extended the life of every part we have used it on. They are pushing the edge of technology with their coatings and we’re happy to be testing them out under some harsh conditions. Lots of people are looking at the product now."

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With his racing operation hitting on all cylinders, Carpenter was racing at the level he had been craving for so long and life was pretty good. Unfortunately, one night in 2004 everything came to a sudden stop. Carpenter and his son Mike, who is his dad’s right-hand man, were racing at a Quick 8 event at North Carolina’s Coastal Plains Dragway when disaster struck.

"That really was a devastating deal. It was a strange wreck because of the way it happened. The spool in the rear-end broke, but it didn’t break where anyone would suspect it to, which is on the starting line," Carpenter said. "The spool broke when I hit the button to shift the car into third gear. It was the most violent thing that I have ever been through. I was not wrestling the car down the track; it was on a clean, quick pass when it felt like a semi-truck t-boned me."

Amazingly, Carpenter credits the wall for saving him and his car from further destruction. "The wall at that track is backed up by dirt. When I hit the wall the car was getting ready to start rolling, by what we saw on the video tape. The wall absorbed a lot of energy and the car didn’t bounce off like it would have on a normal concrete wall."

Like a true racer Carpenter clearly remembers his E.T., "The car ran 4.90, in my own lane as it skidded sideways through the timing lights."

All kidding aside, it was a devastating blow and Carpenter didn’t know if his car, which was like a comfortable pair of slippers, was even salvageable. Chassis builder and fellow doorslammer racer Tommy Mauney was the man who provided the answer to that particular question. "It tore the hell out of the right side of the car from the front wheel area all the way down to the back of the chassis," Carpenter said. "Tommy looked at the car and said he could fix it, but it was going to be a major expense."

Again Carpenter’s reputation and integrity paid off when his sponsor, Embee Performance, stepped up with an increase in funding to offset the major repair bill. This was more than a trip to the local Maaco shop. Even with the extra help it was not easy to get the job done, "I sold every extra part I had," Carpenter said. "Everything that I didn’t need got sold to finish the car. Once we got going with the project I wanted everything exactly as it was. Today every decal is in the exact same spot it was on the other car. I’m not sure why, but I really wanted it to be the same. Tommy updated the rear-end housing and he also updated the four link when he was in there working. We turned the car around in nine weeks."

Once Carpenter was able to get the new and improved car back to the track, it took a couple of weeks to get used to everything again. To his credit, Mauney did the job right and the famous ’55 "shoebox" Chevy is now a contender once more.

The father and son team love to compete in the barnstorming Quick 8 world of the Southeastern U.S., "The quick 8 races are a lot like mini-national events," Carpenter said. "We love them because they are close to home in most cases and are only one day long. Not that we do not love running with the IHRA, because we do, but these are easier races to run."

Quick 8 events get notoriously wacky at times, but being the cool, calm, and collected guy that Carpenter is, he just takes it all in stride. "Normally we have one hour between rounds, so we are working at a pretty quick pace. The competition is on a level equal to that at national events; there are a ton of great racers at these events. Typically bump spots are in the 4.10 to 4.12-second range for the eighth-mile."

As one of the most experienced guys in the Pro Mod ranks, Carpenter offers some interesting observations on the current state of the blower versus nitrous war that has been raging in the class ever since its inception in 1990. "I think right now it is as close as it has ever been," he said. "The whole idea of one set-up being a little better in certain conditions is something that I believe you have to accept when you run this class. Every track offers a different set of variables, but if you average out the elapsed times of both combinations, it is pretty close."

The racers who favor the supercharged engines have more technology and research to rely on. They also have a larger cross section of racers to learn from. Nitrous racers have often made the claim that they are at the top of the nitrous food chain (aside from a couple of fuel racers who used it in the early 1980s) and had to basically rely on each other for any and all development.

"Some people have said that the nitrous racers have not been trying hard enough. Go and ask [engine builder] Gene Fulton how hard he has been working on new technology," Carpenter said. "He has been busting his rear-end. This is a volatile combination; we use six pounds of nitrous during one pass. That’s a pretty staggering number. The pendulum has swung back and forth several times in this class and I believe that it really is close to the middle now."

The bottom line is that Charles Carpenter is back. He is racing at the level he wants to race at. He is competitive and he is able to share it all with his son. "Being able to do this with my son is just the best," he said. "We have been able to spend a lot of time together that would have been lost otherwise. He’s a graphic design major at UNC Charlotte. He’s a real good kid and I am not just saying that because he is my son. He has a good head on his shoulders and he is going to go places."

Carpenter plans to make a number of changes over the winter, uppermost among them will be the installation of a new Gene Fulton 738-inch powerplant under the hood of his potent "double nickel" Chevy. Sounds like one heck of a Christmas present!

Carpenter wanted to give a big thanks to his wife Terri and his daughter Katie. He also wanted to thank the other sponsors that have been with him for an awful long time. Custom Auto Sound has been sponsoring Carpenter since 1989, an impressive union! Buddy’s Automotive Concepts in Bryan, Texas, is another company that helps the team out. The team’s Geo tow vehicle comes courtesy of Buddy’s. He also wanted to thanks Paul Albino. Albino. who serves as Pat Dougherty’s crew chief, often helps Carpenter at the track.

Charles Carpenter is loving life now that he is able to live it at full speed again. "We’re have a great time, but it’s funny because we are also working harder than ever. This is a great, tough, class and we are always running on the edge to keep up," Carpenter said.