Sam
e Goes
Three
For
Four
t
A
fter briefly
surrendering the
points
lead
Afollowing
a rare fim-round
locs two
weeks ato
in Atlanta, U.S. Army Sr.rzuki's
Angelle Sampey
regained the top spot
in
the NHRA
POWERade Pro Stock
Bike class
with
victory at the Pontiac
Performance
Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.
Sampey deleated
Torco Buell's
lvlaft
Smith in the final
round to claim
her third
wih in four starts
this season
and the 40th
of her storied
careet
"My goal this
year
wes
for the rest of the
Pro
Srock
l'4otorc,,cles
to hate the U,S.
Army suzukis,"
Sampey
said.
"l
leamed a
long time ato that
if everl,one else hates
you,
then
you're doint well. Between
me
and Ant
lteammate
Antron Brown]
we've
won all
four iaces this
year.
so l'm sure
the
harred
is building out there,"
Sampey never made a
solid run in
quali-
fying and as a result, was seeded
iust
ninth
in the l6-bike field,
However, on
race day
her team,
led
by
crew chief Steve
Tartatlia,
was hitlin8 on all
cylinders. Sampey
opened
eliminations
with a win over
Vroom RacinS
Buell's Marco Andreano
and then rtopped
th€
Buell's of Chip Ellis
and Matt Guidera
before
beatin8 Smith
in
the
final round.
Prior
to trie llnal, Sampey's
best run of the
w€ek-
end had been a
7.Og atainst Ellis,
who wasn't
far behind with a 7.09.
ln
the
final, she low-
ered the boom
with a 7.04,
the
quickest pass
of eliminations
to stop
Smith. who trailed
with a
7.12.
"We
ran our b€st
tim€ ih the final round
because
that
was the fil3t
pass
all weekend
that the bike w€nt
straight," Sampey said.
':All
the credit
in the \,vorld
goes
to Steve
Tartaglia, ollr
crew chiel No one works
harder
than him. I worry that
he works too
hard sometimes."
With the win, Sampey re8ained
the
pointr
lead aiter four of 15
rounds. She currently
holds a 490-419
lead over reitning t\,vo-time
NHRA Pro Stock
Bike Champion Screamin'
Eagle Harley-Davidson's
Andrew Hines.
Atlanta
winner
Antron Brown
