CN
III ARCHIVES
BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU
A
fter losing the 1999 NHRA
Winston Pro Stock Bike
Championship in the series finale
at Pomona, California, Angelle
Seeling (she wasn't Angelle
Savoie yet) broke down and cried
like a girl. The sobbing marked
the culmination of a pressure-
packed season full of mood
swings, temper tantrums and
emotional outbursts that punctu-
ated her defeats—and sometimes
even her wins—in a year where
Seeling was expected to take the
title from two-time and defending
class champion Matt Hines. With
top tuner George Bryce giving
her one of the two fastest scoot-
ers the class had ever seen (the
Vance & Hines-backed Hines
had the other one), and with
Winston writing big, big checks
(big enough that Seeling's team
actually pitted with the Winston's
fuel dragster in the car paddock
and not with the bikes, thus alien-
ating Seeling from the rest of the
Pro Stock Bike contingent), she
had failed by falling asleep at
the Christmas Tree in round two
of the '99 World Finals, all but
handing Hines his third straight
title. Seeling was devastated and
considered quitting the sport
altogether.
Good riddance, so said many
of her competitors, and not only
because they were most cer-
tainly tired of getting their asses
P130
HOT ROD ANGEL (LE)
kicked by the hot chick on the hot
bike, but simply because, despite
the considerable positive atten-
tion that Seeling had brought to
the class since joining it in 1996,
the ego and aforementioned
emotional baggage that came
along with her rising stardom was
bringing the class down from the
After a devastating
defeat in 1999,
Angelle Seeling
came back to win the
NHRA Pro Stock Bike
Championship by a
landslide in 2000.
