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NHRA,/\Ninston Drag Racing Series Round 2: Las Vegas Motor Speedway Team 23's Tony Mullen reached the IInal round for the second-straight race, but a missed shift ended his chances for victory against Angelle Seeling, who ran a 7.40 for the win. STORY AND PHOTOS BY KEVIN McKENNA LAS VEGAS, NY, APRIL 6-9 A fter winning the Pro Stock Bike Atitle at the inaugural NHRA/ Summitracing.com Nationals at the all-new las Vegas Motor Speedway, Team Winston's Angelle Seeling is getting the feeling that things might not be so bad after all. Seeling was a contender for the points championship until the last day of the 1999 season, but this year she openly wondered if her team would be able to hold off three-time champ Matt Hines and his Freedom Motorsports team, which supplies engines to nearly half the field. To make matters worse for the Star team, most of the Freedom Motorsports-powered entries are equipped with six-speed transmissions, while the Seeling must make due with five gears because Freedom Motorsports owner Byron Hines has elected to sell the units only to his engine customers. "This is a lot better than dollar slots," Seeling said, shortly after defeating Team 23's Tony Mullen in the las Vegas final. "Everyone wants to win an inaugural race at a new facility. This also feels good because this year I really thought we were going to struggle. I wondered if we could compete with the [Freedom Motorsports] bikes because the odds were against us. Matt is so fast, but today we proved that with a little luck, we can win races." Ironically, it was a six-speed transmission that helped Seeling win the race as Mullen appeared headed to his second career win in the final when the gearbox in his Team 23 28 APRIL 26, 2000' cue I e Suzuki gave up, allowing Seeling to cruise to the win with her third-consecutive 7040 pass. "For now, we're hanging with the five-speed but that might not be the worst thing because they can lose rounds too when they miss shifts or blow up," Seeling said. "I guess Tony's bike didn't shift in the final, but I didn't know it right away. When I got to the finish line and he wasn't there, I screamed. I've learned how to handle the tears, but not this time. It was a pretty emotional win." With the exception of the Denver event, Pro Stock Bikes seldom race at altitude, and with the virgin surface in las Vegas, most crew chiefs were forced to go with their "best guess" combination for qualifying. Hines hit the nail on the head with a 7.33 that was good for the number one spot, .04 of a second ahead of recent Gainesville winner Dave Schultz, who was second with a 7.37. After four qualifying runs, Seeling was seeded third with a 7.39. "We made an awesome run," Hines said. "The difference between Gainesville and here is that we are finally getting the jetting closer to where it should be. I took a guess on the gearing and the rest of the package and was able to get it fairly close. The new track is awesome. I banged third gear on my final qualifying pass and the front tire came off the ground." After a stunning 7.31 run in the opening round against Chris Reuter and a 7.32 in the second against the field's lone Kawasaki, Blaine Hale's all-new ZX-ll, there was no reason to think that Hines wasn't going to win the event easily. But the Eagle One rider made a critical error in the n D VV S semis when he rolled backward out of the staging beams in the semifinals, turning on the red-light and sending Mullen into his second straight final with a 7043. "I can't believe I red-lighted, but I did: Hines said. "The starting line at this track runs slightly uphill and I must have had the front wheel in really shallow. It just rolled backward and out of the beams." Seeling also had trouble in eliminations as she destroyed an engine in her first-round win over Brian Delong, but her crew quickly installed a replacement and she returned to down Geno Scali in the second round with a 7.40. Seeling repeated that number in the semis, with a 7.40 to 7046 win over Craig Treble, who upset Gainesville winner Schultz, a round earlier. Mullen, who qualified with a fourth-best 7041, was consistent in eliminations, with a 7042 win in round one against larry Cook, a 7043 in the second against his Team 23 teammate Antron Brown, and a 7.43 against Hines in the semis. In the final, Mullen got a slight lead on Seeling, but any chance he had for victory went away when his transmission wouldn't shift into third gear. After two of 14 events, Mullen is the points leader for the first time in his career. He currently is just two points ahead of Seeling, who claimed her 11 th career NHRA national event title in las Vegas. "This year, the championship is ultimately not our goal," Seeling said. "I mean of course we want to win it, but last year I lost the championship in such a bad way that I don't want to put myself through that again. They say you have to lose a championship before you can win one, and I learned a lot from the experience last year. This time, we just want to win a lot of rounds and a lot of races. If I can do that, I know the championship will follow." w Vegas MalDr Speedway Vegas, Nevada Results: April 6-9, 2000 lllound 2 of 141 w PRO STOCK FINAL: 1. Angelle Seeling (SUl) 7.40.177.28; 2. Tony Mullen (SUl) broke. Upcoming Rounds Round 3 - Atlanta, Georgia, May 4-7 Round 4 - Englishtown. New Jersey, May 18-21 After winning the Inaugural NHRA event in Las Vegas, Seeling has now claimed 11 national event titles in her four-year career.