Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

NHRA PowerAde Drag Racing Series Round 4: Old Bridge Township Raceway Park STORY AND PHOTOS BY KEVIN McKENNA ENGLISHTOWN, NJ, MAY 16-19 t took seven frustrating years, but Team 23 rider Antron Brown finally won a race at his home track, Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Brown has been one of the most consistent riders on the NHRA PowerAde Pro Stock Bike tour for the better part of the last decade, but success at the Mateo Tools Supernationa Is, one of the biggest and most prestigious events on the tour, continually eluded him. Brown has usually qualified well, and his bikes have been capable of winning, but fate normally intervenes and leaves him empty-handed. Over the past three years, red-light starts have been the culprit, including the heartbreaking 2001 event, where he tossed away a national-record performance with a foul start in the first round of eliminations. This year things were different, as Brown topped the quickest field of Pro I 52 JUNE 5, 2002' cue I e Stock Bikes ever assembled to score his 10th career victory. "There's no better place to win a race, because this is my home track, but this has always been a very difficult race for me," Brown said. "It's a very fast track, and the starting line has a lot of traction, which makes it very easy to red-light. I've had that problem the last three years, but this time, I was determined to stay focused. I struggled at the first three races of the year because I was distracted and not concentrating hard enough, but this time, I just went back to my normal routine. We really needed this win." For many riders, qualifying proved to be one of the weekend's most difficult tasks; the event featured the quickest field in NHRA history. The slowest rider in the 16-bike field was Fred Camarena, who rode his Race Girl Suzuki to a 7.27, and several riders made the best runs of their careers yet did not make the show. One of those riders was Dave Feazell, who rode his S&S Engineering Harleyn e _ !IS Davidson to a 7.43, the quickest Vtwin run to date. Feazell, who is taking advantage of the 2002 rule change that allows fuel injection on V-twins, has shaved nearly a 10th of a second off his career best this season. His 7.43 run might have been even quicker had the bike not shifted directly from third to fifth gear on the run. Qualifying was not a problem for the reigning NHRA Pro Stock Bike Champion, as CVEC Power Systems rider Angelle Savoie ran the sport's quickest elapsed-time, and set the NHRA elapsed-time record with a 7.04. Savoie's run not only bettered the existing record by a full five-hundredths of a second, but by setting the record, she also earned 20 additional bonus points in the championship battle. "We actually had a vacuum pump break on the starting line earlier when we ran 7.11, so I knew we were going to improve on the last qualifying run," Savoie said. "I knew it was a good run, but when they told me it was a 7.04, I started screaming in my hel- Antran Brown (near lane) scored the 10th win of his Pro Stock Bike career when he rode his Team 23 Suzuki to a 7.11 to 7.15 win over Mateo Tools rider Craig Treble (far lane) in the Englishtown final. met. Mickey Thompson Tires has posted $10,000 for the first Pro Stock Bike to run in the sixes, and we certainly want it to be the CVEC Racing Suzuki." Brown qualified his Team 23 bike fourth, with a 7.12, and remained consistent throughout eliminations, with runs of 7.11,7.12 and 7.13 in his first three round wins over Joe DeSantis, Shawn Gann, and Savoie, respectively. Against Savoie, Brown used a nearly perfect launch to take a holeshot win as Savoie lost despite a quicker 7.11. "I didn't know that Angelle was late, but I just kept my head down and concentrated on the finish line," Brown said. "Angelle was faster than us, but I think we could have run with her. When she ran her 7.04, we had a

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