After close to nine months, Charles Carpenter made his long awaited return to the national event scene at the 2nd annual Shelor.com Motor Mile ADRL Independence Drags in Radford, VA.

Make no mistake, however: the time away from the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League presented by the National Guard series was not spent idly. Carpenter sold his trusty ’55 Chevy soon after the close of the 2007 season, and spent the remaining months working with up-and-coming chassis builder Terry Murphy on the creation of brand new “shoebox” Chevy.

Since taking delivery of the car, Carpenter has been running the wheels off of it on the local Quick 8 scene in hopes of getting all the new car bugs worked out. After running a 4.05 on its very first pass down the track, Carpenter and crew have worked diligently on learning the new car’s personality.

After close to nine months, Charles Carpenter made his long awaited return to the national event scene at the 2nd annual Shelor.com Motor Mile ADRL Independence Drags in Radford, VA.

Make no mistake, however: the time away from the Flowmaster American Drag Racing League presented by the National Guard series was not spent idly. Carpenter sold his trusty ’55 Chevy soon after the close of the 2007 season, and spent the remaining months working with up-and-coming chassis builder Terry Murphy on the creation of brand new “shoebox” Chevy.

Since taking delivery of the car, Carpenter has been running the wheels off of it on the local Quick 8 scene in hopes of getting all the new car bugs worked out. After running a 4.05 on its very first pass down the track, Carpenter and crew have worked diligently on learning the new car’s personality.

“I’m very confident that this is going to be one of the baddest rides out there once we figure out what it wants,” said the Charlotte, NC native. “It ran a 4.04 at Farmington this weekend, but we experienced more of the same traction issues down track. This car is so radically different as far as weight and weight distribution that I’m having to re-learn all the tricks all over again.”

Carpenter made the qualified field at last weekend in Farmington in the 5th spot, earning him a first round matchup with number one qualifier Steve Vick. Carpenter easily dispatched a tire-shaking Vick with a modest 4.12, running the car on just two nitrous systems. The rain-plagued race was then called due to curfew before the next round could be completed. Nevertheless, Carpenter believes the team is very close to getting a complete handle on the lightweight ’55.

Carpenter is currently second in Radford with a 4.042 elapsed time at 180.22 miles per hour.

“We’re really close,” said Carpenter. “I would love to have a few more runs to try a few different things, so the Friday testing at Motor Mile was critical.”