NHRA
Sonoma: Angelle Sampey final report
Rush Racing Wins Full Throttle Award Three time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Angelle Sampey and her Rush Racing team put on a sterling qualifying performance at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Sampey's Rush Racing S&S powered V-Twin ...
Published: Jul 30, 2008, 6:39 PM
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Rush Racing Wins Full Throttle Award
Three time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Angelle Sampey and her Rush Racing team put on a sterling qualifying performance at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Sampey's Rush Racing S&S powered V-Twin started the weekend off quick and stayed remarkably consistent. "The team did a great job in qualifying," said Angelle. "The bike was very fast and it was very consistent. I did my part in qualifying and the guys did their part and it was all good. We won the Full Throttle award and we were all really excited about that. It was so cool for Curtis Jackson and Michael Ray to be able to come up on stage and be presented with the award. I was real proud of them. I think we showed that the Rush Racing team has what it takes to get the job done."
"Michael and Curtis did a fantastic job getting us ready and fast," agreed George Bryce, the six time national champion tuner on Sampey's bike. The Full Throttle award recognizes the team that is able put together the best four lap average through the race weekend's changing conditions.
"We ran very well," continued Bryce. "Our best all year. We were second after the first run with a 7.00, then we were a little early with the 2 to 3 shift and ran a 7.03. We changed engines and ran 7.000--the first run with the new engine. Then it got hot and the wind turned around to an 18 mile per hour headwind and we ran 7.04--the quickest of the final round by a lot."
Low 7.0 consistency was out the window in a good way in Sunday's first round of eliminations. Angelle's 6.90 was, at the time, low ET of the meet, a new track record, and the team's best ET ever.
"But then I had a glitch in the second round with a redlight," said Angelle. "I'm not sure what happened and I have no excuse for it. I just turned the throttle and went almost before the tree even came on. It's very unusual for me to do something like that, but I did it and I don't have any excuse. I wasn't excited, I wasn't nervous. I felt very confident and really thought we were gonna win the race."
"We got back to the trailer and looked at the computer," continued Angelle. "The run looked good as far as my driving, with the shifting and everything. The ET wasn't as great as we expected, so maybe there was something hurt in the engine. I'm not real sure. So we wouldn't have won if my light had been green, but it doesn't matter. You've gotta have a green light to win, so I threw it away before we even had a chance to win it."
"We have the Rush Racing V-Twin going fast and straight now," said Bryce. "We will run fast from now on and it is time to win rounds. We stayed seventh in points with two more races to go before the Countdown to the Championship starts. Thank you Karl and Kim Klement and Rush Racing for giving us the chance to pull this off."
"The weekend went really well, the bike was real fast, the team won the Full Throttle award, Mike and Curtis accepted the award, we were marching through the field, and then we redlit and it was over," summarized bike owner Karl Klement, who celebrated his birthday in Sonoma. "The whole team wants to win so bad and they are capable of doing it. They are just now coming together and great things are fixing to happen."
It can't happen soon enough for Sampey, who was beating herself up pretty good late Monday night after a long day of traveling back to Louisiana. "It was pretty disappointing," said Angelle. "I'm very upset and frustrated with myself. I'm gonna go home and get my head straight and work on my reaction times again. I think I've been doing a really good job with them all year long up until this weekend. I don't know what went wrong, but I'm gonna figure it out and I'm gonna fix it because my team and team owners and sponsors and all the people that support us have given me everything I need. There's no excuse for me not to give them everything it takes to win a race. So I'm gonna work hard and I'm gonna fix it."
Angelle and the Rush Racing team race next August 7-10 at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota.
-credit: rr
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