Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Events NHRA WinstonDrag Racing Series, Round 12 7.33, Collis bea t Chris Reuter and twotime n ati on al eve n t w inner Antron Brown 's Team 23 Suz uki before upending Hines. " I had a gre at light in th e se m is against Matt , and 1 didn't want to push it and red- light in the final," Collis said . "I never knew that she missed a shift. I had no id ea w ha t was goi ng on in the other lan e. The only time I saw her bike was a t the finis h fine afte r she passed me. "I s till ca n't believe I actu ally be at Matt: ' he conti n ued. "That's the-part I feel best about. He was ru nning so well th is w eek en d , 7.20s o n every p ass . I kn ew my d eal couldn' t go that fas t. I thought, 'Maybe he'll make a mistake: but I really didn' t expect it to happen ." With just 35 points separating Seeling and Hines in th e points stand ings, the likelihood of th e cha m p ionship being decided at the se ason- e nd in g N HRA Finals in Pomona is virtually guaranteed . In an all-Star f inal round, Ange lle Seeling (far lane) scored her fifth win of the year ove r rookie Fred Colli s (near lane), who was making his first-ever NHRA start. After gett ing th e start ing- line ho les hot, Seeling overcame a missed shift to take the wi n, 7,39 to a qui cker 7.37. By Kevin McKenna MEMPHIS, TN, OCT. 7-10 ~ or Team Win ston'sAngelle Seelin g and h er Star Performance crew, it was a no-los e situation if there ever was one. As she pulled to the starting line for her seventh final round of the seaso n, Seeling glance d over at her op po nent. She did n' t see the black Vance & Hines Eagle One Suzuki of her archrival Matt Hines or the br igh t Su noco Suzu ki of crafty veteran Dave Schultz, but rather a fami liar Star Racing Suz uki, piloted by her teammate, Fred Collis. In his firsteve r appearance on the NHRA circuit, Collis, the new ly crowned ProSta r Pro Stock Bike champ, s tu nned t he Pro Stock Bike pits by maki ng it to the final ro u nd , scoring a hu ge u pset wi n over H in es a lo ng t he way. T he s ta r tea m brought Collis to Memphis specifically so he could block for Seeling, and he d id his job perfectl y. In fact, Collis nearly did his job 10 0 well , as he actually outperformed Seeling in the final, 7.37 to 7.39, but Seeling tu rned on th e win lig ht tha nks to her quicker reaction time, and regained the points lead with her fifth victory of the season. Pri or to and a fte r th e fi na l, many ins iders assu me d th e fix was on, an d Collis' su bs ta nda rd .513 reaction tim e only see med to s treng th en th eir case, but in her postra ce press co nfe re nce, Seeling was qu ick to address the issue. "No bo dy took a di ve," she said. "I wa s worried abo u t what people would think, which is wh y I wanted to w hip Fre d's bu tt on both ends of th e track, jus t so nob od y cou ld say a nythi ng . I w anted to lea ve o n him an d ou tru n h im by a lot, bu t I wa s so co nce rned with trying to kee p the light gree n th at I!i M ~ E CD > o z 42 I forgot to pa y attention to the ye llow (shift) light on my bike. I missed third gear. When we got to the other end of the track, I even said to him , 'Fred, tell me you didn't lose on purpose: and he promised me he d idn 't. Th e Vance & Hines team has 10 engines a u there, a nd there has been one Star bike until now. We need to be abl e to have access to the sa me data th at the o the r teams d o. Fred has Geo rge (Bryce) as a coach, _ a n d he's h a d a lo t o f t r a in i n g . He d id n't ac t like this was his first 1 HRA race. " Seeling's team owner, Bryce, also dismissed any talk of a predetermined outcome. "There's no way that Fred should be able to bea t Angelle anyway," Bryce said . "Right now, he's using our fourt hbest engi ne. Angelle has the best one in her bike, and the ot he r tw o are in he r trailer, just in case she need s them ." If Collis should n' t have bea ten Seeling, then he certainly had no busi ness beating Hines. In fact , after h is trackrecord 7.24 performance in qualifying, no one should have beaten the reigning Winston champ, but when he missed a shift and slowed to a 7.34 in the semis, Collis was there to take advantage. Col-Iis got the jump off the starting line an d ma tch ed H in es' 7.34 elapsed ti me to score o ne of th e bigges t u psets of the seaso n. "I went for the third-gear button and noth ing happen ed - th e bik e wo u ld n' t s hift," Hines sa id . "I froze for abo ut a ten th of a second a nd h it the button ag ai n. It fina lly went into gea r, but it cost me the race. It's too bad, becau se I ran a 7.27 in the second round, and I'm ' sure it would have run at least that goo d against Fred. I just hop e my bike wo rks better at the next race in Houston than it did here, beca use I might need to set the record and get the bonus poin ts to pass Angelle agai n." Techni cally, Seelin g took over th e po ints lea d a fter th e se mifi na ls, w here she ran a 7.28 to beat Schultz. The sixtime N H RA champion, who remains drag racing's most successful two-wheel ra cer, qualified h is Su noco Suzuki a so lid th ird w it h a 7.30 and had little trou b le a dvancing over rookie Fred Ca ma rena and recent Brainerd wi nne r Craig Treble, w ho fou led agains t Seeling. Despite th e loss, Schu ltz remain s solid ly in the fourth spo t in the Winston points battl e, and he is well within striking distance of third-seeded Brown . Co llis m a y b e n ew to NHRA Pr o Stoc k Bik e ra ci ng, and he even ma y ha ve been ner vous in Memphis, but if he wa s, it nev er sh owed . With a 7.19 . best und er Pr oSt ar ' s lib eral Pro Stoc k ru le s (l500cc fou r -va lve e ngi nes as opposed to NH RA's 1500cc two-valve maximum), only Hines has run quicker. After qu alifying in the third spot with a For the 10th ti me In her four-year caree r, Seeling and her Team Winston cre w celebrated an NHRA national event victory. Seeling also regained the points lead over her rival Matt Hines with two races remaining in the season. "W hen I lost the points lead a t the last race in Read ing, it reminded -me how qu ickl y things ca n change: ' sa id Seeli ng, w ho o nce led Hines by mor e than 144 points, a nd w ho en tered th e Memphis race trailin g by five. "I wasn't worried about th e poi nt s lead all year until I wasn 't the leader anym ore. Now that I have it agai n, I d on't want to lose it 'again, becau se my team has worked eM too ha'rd for th is." Memph is Motorsports Park Memph is. Tennessee Resu lts: October 7-10, 1999 PRO STO CK RNAL: I. Angelle Seeling ISuz) 7.39, 178.50; 2. Fred Colli. (Soz) 7.37, 177.37.

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