Chicago, IL. — Garrett Carter Racing’s Yamaha rider Garrett Carter has had a rough 2007, after losing a mechanic at the 2nd round in the season, and working only with his dad as his tuner, Carter has had more than his fair share of hard knocks trying to find a setup that suits his riding style this year. “I didn’t have any feel in the front end,” said Carter, “I had a few low side incidents, and ended up destroying my A bike at Infineon Raceway.” Things started to take a turn for the better at Mid-Ohio with the team hiring a new Crew Chief/Mechanic, Boyd Bruner to work with Garrett. After working mainly on the front end, and a little with the power delivery of the bike, Garrett was starting to feel a little more comfortable with the bike, and he was 11th fastest during the warm up for the 600 Supersport race that never was. V.I.R. was also going well running 11th, until Garrett lost the front in turn 11, the downhill right hand turn that eventually claimed Herrin a few laps later. “Going into Road Atlanta we knew we still hadn’t solved all of the issues with the front end of the Bike, but with a little help from Mike Fitzgerald at Ohlins we were able to get much closer and start to get some of the all elusive feel we had been looking for,” says Bruner. All was going well with Garrett qualifying 12th in Formula Extreme, and 13th in Supersport, that was until he crashed in the FX warm up breaking the forks off of the new A bike when Aaron Gobert had a big highside right in front of him, and with nowhere to go he collided with Gobert’s bike in the fast uphill turn 1. Both riders were taken to medical in the ambulance, and Gobert was out for the weekend. Garrett did miss the FX race but was feeling well enough to start the Supersport race Sunday. Luckily we were able to get the bike back together for Sunday, and with Garrett almost unable to lift his arm over his head, he still finished 12th after being passed by Ben Attard 4 laps from the end. “I think I could have battled with him, but my shoulder was really starting to ache, and I we really needed to get a finish in the books,” said Garrett after the race. “The front is getting better, I can’t wait for Laguna, we still have a few more things to try, and the bike is the best it’s been, I wish it was like this at the beginning of the year, things would have be different.” You can follow the teams progress and plans for next year after September 20th on Garrett’s new website, www.GC31.com