Patrick Carpentier, driver of the No. 7 Forsythe Championship Racing Lola, has established himself as one of the top drivers in the Champ Car World Series

source: champcarworldseries.com

Now in his eighth season running in Champ Cars, Carpentier has scored seven top-five finishes this season, including his first victory of the season at Laguna Seca two weeks ago. Currently fourth in the championship standings heading into this weekend's event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Carpentier reflects on his second straight win at Laguna Seca and talks about racing in his adopted hometown.

YOUR VICTORY AT LAGUNA SECA HAD TO FEEL REALLY GOOD, ESPECIALLY AFTER ENDURING A SPATE OF DNF'S IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON.

"It's been a pretty good season, but I had a run there of some pretty bad luck and some things happened that really took us out of championship contention, but things have been pretty good over the last couple of races. Things have been going pretty well and I was really happy with how things went at Laguna Seca. I wanted to go there and do really well, but it's been more and more competitive this year and we didn't know if we could pull it off. Montreal went really well and we had a really good race car and a good strategy for the race and it worked out well, so we went to Laguna felling pretty confident and the car was just working really well."

YOU'RE THE FIRST DRIVER SINCE BRYAN HERTA (1998-99) TO WIN BACK-TO-BACK RACES AT LAGUNA SECA. DOES THAT TRACK JUST SUIT YOUR DRIVING STYLE?

"I think it does. It has high-speed corners, a lot of elevation change, fast sweepers and stuff like that, which I really enjoy, and it's a track that I've always enjoyed racing on."