Thomas Carter Milan preview

Carter looking to stay hot in the 'Motor City'
photo courtesy Roger Richards, CompetitionPlus.com

<img border="0" src="http://insidetopalcohol.com/carter.jpg" width="360" height="238" align="left">MILAN, Mich. - Just two weeks off of his second career national event win, IHRA Alcohol Funny Car pilot Thomas Carter will be looking for win No. 3 during this weekend's Suzuki Motor City Nationals presented by GM Performance Division and Heritage Newspapers at Milan Dragway just outside of Detroit. Carter enters the event third in points, and hopes to make a move on points leader Mark Thomas and second place Rob Atchison.

Carter, who is a practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeon from Cuero, Texas, hopes that his Jeff Fowler lead team can once again find the consistency that put him in the winner's circle two weeks ago in Edmonton, Alb., and Rockingham, N.C., in April.

"Jeff has always told me to just worry about the race in your lane," said Carter. "We just try to worry about our car, and I just try to do my job as a driver and get the car from point A to B. That's one of the most important things I've learned since I started driving one of these cars. We don't worry about who we have to run or how fast they ran, we just try to stay consistent and go down track. Jeff and this team have done an excellent job of giving me a competitive car when we go to the line, I just have to do my job, and it usually makes it down track."

While some racers may have taken a vacation over the weekend, such was not the case for the Jawbreaker Racing team as they had two motors to repair and rebuild during the off weekend.

"We had some debris go through the oil pump and lock it up, and we really grenaded a motor as a result in qualifying," cited Carter. "Then we hurt a crank in our other motor and had to keep an eye on it through eliminations. It took the guys almost four days to get back to Jeff's shop in Ohio from Edmonton. It was a busy weekend for the team, but we're ready for another win this weekend."

Heading into the weekend, Carter trails second place Atchison by 33 points and points leader Thomas by 88 points.

"All we can do is try to keep go rounds and keep the momentum going," stated Carter. "If we can continue to win races and go rounds, the points will take care of themselves."

Professional qualifying begins on Friday with two sessions, followed by two more sessions on Saturday, which culminates in Saturday's "Night of Fire" qualifying under the lights. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday.

Contact: Will Hanna/ Pro Race Communications
Email: Will.Hanna@InsideTopAlcohol.com