Cycle News

who were second and third with 6.88-second runs, respectively. "We have been fair at best for most of the year with my bike in qualifying," Hines said. "Lately, we've been picking away at the tune-up and we're starting to see some stuff that we had been overlooking in the past that was costing me quite a bit of perfor- mance. We're getting the horse- VOL. 51 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 4, 2014 P75 Briefly... Angelle Sampey's record qualify- ing streak was snapped at 186 races, but the history books should include an asterisk since her absence on Sunday was not the result of a poor performance, but rather poor luck. Sampey was forced to withdraw from the event after she was injured when an errant starter cart severe- ly cut her ankle and damaged her Achilles tendon. Sampey attempted to ride her Star Buell in Friday's two qualifying sessions, but wasn't able to make a full run and was in obvious discomfort. At that point, the NHRA medical staff intervened and parked her for the weekend. "I hate to see it end that way, but I know that NHRA was doing the right thing by trying to keep us all safe," Sampey said. "I know that if they didn't park me, I would have tried to ride again on Sat- urday. It was just too painful to do." Sampey will see a specialist when she returns to her home in Louisiana and hopes to avoid surgery and re- turn for the season-ending Pomona race in two weeks. The Star team had briefly consid- ered withdrawing Sampey's entry from the event and trying to re-quali- fy with a substitute rider; a move that would have expunged the DNQ from Sampey's record, but couldn't find a suitable replacement in time. Karen Stoffer and Chris Rivas were two rid- ers mentioned as possible replace- ments, but both of them had let their licenses expire. The Arana family made it official that their Lucas Oil Buell team will have just two riders next year since younger brother Adam, has enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. Adam was a finalist for the 2013 Rookie of the Year and has appeared in one final round during his two years on tour. He plans to serve a full four-year stint in the Coast Guard so his racing days appear to be on hold for a while. Rookie NHRA rider Elvira Karlsson, who works as both a bikini model and a truck driver in her native Swe- den, just barely missed qualifying for the Las Vegas field. In Saturday's fi- nal qualifying session, Karlsson rode her Vance & Hines-powered Suzuki to a 7.037 to bump John Hall from the field, but Hall was able to reclaim the spot by a thousandth of a sec- ond with a 7.036. There were 23 bikes attempting to qualify for 16 spots in Las Vegas. In addition to Karlsson, the non- qualifiers were Mike Berry, Rhett Lougheed, Fred Camarena, Lance Bonham, Redell Harris, and Sampey. It's been a tough decade for Lucas Oil Buell's Hector Arana Sr., who remains winless in NHRA competi- tion since his championship season in 2009, but if anyone is optimis- tic, it's Arana. "Coming here, I felt relaxed, I felt good," Arana Sr. said following his quarterfinal finish. "I haven't felt like that in a while, it's a good feeling again. I know we've been saying this but we are going in the right direction. All weekend we were consistent and we kept improv- ing. We didn't slow down and we stayed consistent." Katie Sullivan, who races as a pri- vateer with her father, Charlie, dupli- cated her best finish in NHRA com- petition when she reached the semi final round. After putting together her best qualifying run with a sixth-best of 6.93 seconds, Sullivan defeated Adam Arana and Michael Ray before her bike stalled on the starting line against eventual runner-up Smith. continued on next page Andrew Hines moves closer to his fourth NHRA title after a convincing performance in Las Vegas.

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