SAMPEY ADJUSTS TO THE NEW NORMAL ABOARD A HARLEY-DAVIDSON

by Bobby Bennett    Fri, 2019-02-01 19:32

To hear Angelle Sampey describe her initial rides aboard the Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson Street Rod Pro Stock bike, you'd think she accidentally jumped on Doug Vancil's Top Fuel Harley-Davidson.

Sampey was named a part-time third rider for the Screamin-Eagle Vance & Hines team on January 4, 2019, and will make her competition debut next month at the NHRA Gatornationals. For the past two days, she's been at Wild Horse Motorsports Park outside of Phoenix, Az., making test runs to become acclimated with what she describes as the most powerful bike she's straddled in her career, which includes three NHRA championships.

"It is the difference from getting off of my Buell to getting on Doug Vancil’s Top Fuel Harley Davidson," Sampey said with a smile. "That is exactly what it feels like. I do not feel like I got off of one Pro Stock Motorcycle onto another Pro Stock Motorcycle. I got off of a Pro Stock Motorcycle onto a Top Fuel Motorcycle. It's definitely that feeling. And I know and I’m hoping that it’s going to get easier and easier, but right now it is extremely intimidating.."

Sampey has made a score of runs over the first two days of testing at the PRO Winter Warm-up, and on Friday made her first full run to the finish line with a 6.98 elapsed time at 191 miles per hour. 

Sampey believes this experience has only confirmed what she has always believed to be true about this championship team.

"I’ve always known they were hard to beat," Sampey explained. "I’ve said it in several interviews; they’re the ones I want to beat because they are the best. Now it’s like I’m kind of glad I didn’t know all this while I was racing them because I would have never believed that I could beat them. At the time I thought, ‘I’m going to kick your ass, I’m going to beat you, I’m going to beat you, I’m going to beat you.’ Now I’m like, ‘Holy s***, how did I ever beat them?’ Thank God I didn’t know this before."

Sampey understands there will be an adjustment period, and she's more than willing to put in the time to refine her craft, which has yielded 42 national event victories and 413 round wins.

"I was just texting my dad," Sampey said. "He’s wanting to know how it’s going, and I told him it’s going to take several passes until I’m used to the power. It is unbelievable. I mean, the competition, the other racers, which used to be me, have no idea what this bike feels like. I knew it was going to be powerful, I knew it was going to pull harder, it is way more than I expected.

"It is intimidating as hell; it is pulling me. It feels like I’m shifting first gear four times. I’m used to first gear pulling, second gear pulling, and then third gear kind of levels off, fourth gear levels off, and fifth gear levels off. Towards the end of the track, you’re just kind of cruising. Un uh, not on this thing. This thing is pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling like it’s in first gear every run. It is unbelievable. I had no clue."

Sampey, whose husband Seth Drago is an MMA fighter, described the experience in fighting terms.

"I tried to tell Seth, and he doesn’t know about motorcycles, so I don’t know how to tell him what the difference is," Sampey explained. "So I said the only thing I can think to tell you is you’ve trained so hard for this fight, and you’re going in against the world champion fighter. He’s the best in the world. And you’re going to step in this octagon, and you think I’m ready enough to at least give him a little bit of a fight and you get in there and he overpowers you so much that you’re thinking, ‘Holy hell, I mean how much harder do I have to train?"

"That’s how I felt. I thought I was good enough. And I know I am, but I got some training to do, I’ve got some processing to get in my head quicker, I’ve got some things to remember. There are some things different about this motorcycle like the shifter goes a different way than the other one. It’s going to take a little bit of time but each run, I’ve only done three so far, I’ve gotten about 5 percent better in my mind as far as processing it and getting used to the power. But I’m expecting 10 passes before I’m like, ‘All right, let’s start pushing on it."

 

 

 

 
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