Shawn Carpenter

Sunday $5K Finale

Elm City, N.C.'s Shawn Carpenter is a rising star that could attest to the level of competition at the American Doorslammer Nationals. Although Carpenter has found the winner's circle at Fayetteville before, capturing a $3,000 Carolina Bracket Series victory in February, that never makes it easy. He might not have even been racing on Sunday, if not for Robbie Draughon of Redline Speed Shop for welding up a broken rack on his Camaro. Welding rod is hot, but the competition on the track was even hotter.

"I was perfect second round," recalled Carpenter, but going down to the fourth digit put his and Arnold Smith's identical .0005 reaction times behind Daniel Woodruff's .0004. "Then I had to run Derrick Willard third round on my one entry, and he was perfect on me. I ain't never seen so many double-oh's. In 32 passes over the weekend, I had 21 double-oh's. I couldn't believe it. Everybody was killing the tree!"

Down to six cars, each winner was double-oh on the tree, including Carpenter, Woodruff, and Alford. Carpenter's .004 was the best of the bunch, giving him the bye to the finals. Alford, this time driving Danny Lawson's Mach 1, made his second final of the weekend after Woodruff bulbed it away with a -.003 foul. Alford tagged a .007 light, and with the win light already in hand, shut it off early.

Even with all of the runs he recorded on Sunday, Carpenter's .021 in the final was only his second .02 bulb of the day. Alford trumped it with a .005 start, but took just .001 too much stripe. Carpenter ran a closer 5.996 (6.00) for the double-breakout win over Alford's 5.405 (5.41).

"We've run before, but this was the first time in the finals. He's a good guy. Richard's taught me a lot over the years," said Carpenter. "I live it, breathe it, love it. I still get giddy when the win light comes on."

After the win, Carpenter drove back up the track. "Larry Chapman does it when he wins. I knew he was down there on the line. When the win light came on, that's the first thing I thought of!"

Carpenter thanked his wife and kids, Junior at Bissette Performance, and Ron's Flying Toilet.