Charles Carpenter loves racing at the Texas Motorplex and with good reason. Twenty-three years ago the famed facility provided the Pro Modified pioneer with one of his fondest drag racing memories.

  Saturday evening, Carpenter of Charlotte, NC, drove his way to the Pro Nitrous final round at the season-opening ADRL Len-Mar World Finals. That was his second proudest moment at the track.

The famed facility located outside of Dallas, was where he earned the title as the King of the ’55 Chevy, by beating west coast racer Dave Riolo in a head-to-head competition sanctioned by Super Stock and Drag Illustrated to determine the best 1955 Chevy driver.

Charles Carpenter loves racing at the Texas Motorplex and with good reason. Twenty-three years ago the famed facility provided the Pro Modified pioneer with one of his fondest drag racing memories.

Saturday evening, Carpenter of Charlotte, NC, drove his way to the Pro Nitrous final round at the season-opening ADRL Len-Mar World Finals. That was his second proudest moment at the track.

The famed facility located outside of Dallas, was where he earned the title as the King of the ’55 Chevy, by beating west coast racer Dave Riolo in a head-to-head competition sanctioned by Super Stock and Drag Illustrated to determine the best 1955 Chevy driver.

“We raced Riolo that day and all of the big time shoebox racers of that time,” said Carpenter, who is qualified sixth in the Pro Nitrous division at the ADRL World Finals. “We brought a brand new Tommy Mauney-built 1955 Chevy out here that was so new … the primer was still wet. I hadn’t even let the clutch out on the car one time when we brought it out here.”

Carpenter made one test hit and by the second run drove his way to a personal best elapsed time.

The rivalry was one that had been cultivated by the leading drag racing media outlets at the time, SS&DI and Hot Rod’s Drag Racing.

Carpenter was considered as the “World’s Fastest 1955 Chevy” until Riolo stepped up to challenge his throne and in a media-fueled frenzy, the two drivers battled to the wire for the honor of becoming the first to take the lumbering body style into the seven second zone.

Carpenter was the first to crack the seven-second barrier running a 7.99 during an IHRA Top Sportsman points race in Richmond, Va. Three hours later, in Fremont, Ca, Riolo ran his first seven second run and wrestled away the title with a 7.97.

“We ran our 7.99 with a car that was built to run 10-seconds,” Carpenter admitted. “That car got pretty scary towards the end. Here we were, running the car two seconds quicker than it was supposed to. It was supposed to have a small block and we ended up with a 540-inch big block.

“I’d say the car we are running today would have been more than a dream car back then.”

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