It’s been two weeks of elation and pain wrapped into one ball of emotions for Antron Brown Motorsports, which heads into the NHRA season finale at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip with plenty to celebrate and a heartbreaking loss that has put racing into perspective.
Just days after announcing a contract extension with longtime sponsor Matco Tools, the team celebrated another milestone when Angelle Sampey, its first development driver to race with nitro, earned her Top Fuel license following the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals. The achievement came roughly a month after Brown became the first driver outside the Kalitta Motorsports camp to win two Top Fuel events this season.
But the celebration didn’t last long.
No sooner had Sampey completed her licensing run than word arrived that her mother, Abigail Sampey, had been struck by a motorist while taking her afternoon walk. She was airlifted to a hospital but later died from her injuries.
Sampey, a three-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion, had just taken one of the biggest steps in her transition from two wheels to four. What should have been a day of celebration became one her family will remember for entirely different reasons.
The AB Motorsports team will race at Pomona this weekend, but nobody is pretending this is business as usual. Brown and Sampey have their respective racing assignments, although their thoughts won’t be confined to elapsed times, reaction times and win lights.
“That being said, while we’re ready to race at the finals in Pomona, we’ll be racing with heavy hearts this weekend after the passing of Angelle’s (Sampey) mother,” Brown said.
For Sampey, returning to the racetrack means going back to a place that has occupied much of her adult life. Racing has provided championships, friendships and a career few motorcycle competitors could match, and now it offers somewhere familiar during an incredibly difficult time.
“I’ll be racing with an extra heavy heart this weekend, but the goal remains the same: take home a Diamond Wally,” Sampey said.
“The last week has been incredibly tough, but if there’s one place that feels like home, it’s the racetrack,” Sampey said. “I can’t wait to get back out there and do what I love.”
Sampey will compete in Top Alcohol Dragster behind the wheel of the Hangsterfer’s FVP Mission Foods A/Fuel Dragster, continuing her development toward an eventual Top Fuel opportunity. Pomona is familiar territory, having won Pro Stock Motorcycle titles at the season-ending event in 2001 and 2004.
Her most recent trip to Las Vegas produced two entirely different racing experiences. She qualified 16th in Top Alcohol Dragster and lost to Melanie Johnson in the opening round before remaining at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to complete her Top Fuel licensing requirements.
Her final licensing pass was a 3.68-second run at 337 mph, numbers that would be competitive in this weekend’s Top Fuel race. For someone still learning the differences between a motorcycle and an 11,000-horsepower dragster, it was quite a statement.
Brown knows that transition better than most, having made the same move from Pro Stock Motorcycle to Top Fuel. Now he’s helping Sampey follow a path that before Brown pulled it off seemed almost unimaginable for a motorcycle racer.
Meanwhile, Brown arrives at Pomona with his own racing business to finish, including a new look for his Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster. The car will carry a custom wrap promoting Matco’s new REX 2.0 Impact Wrench, coinciding with the company’s recently extended sponsorship agreement.
Matco plans to bring hundreds of distributors and customers to the season finale, along with the company’s president, for the REX 2.0 introduction. The gathering will put the company’s latest product in front of customers while giving them an up-close look at Brown’s racing operation.
“I’m ready to go into the NHRA Finals with the Matco REX 2.0 Top Fuel car,” Brown said. “It’s really cool that Matco is utilizing our partnership to help promote this new product, especially on the heels of our recent extension announcement. It’s one thing for people to see the new product, but it’s a whole other thing to see the product at work, and we can provide that with our unique drag racing experience.”
The Matco Tools extension gives Brown one less thing to worry about as he looks toward next season.
“As I finish my seventh season as an NHRA team owner and driver, I’m grateful for the support Matco has given me and our team,” Brown said. “For more than two decades, the Matco family has been part of my journey, and I’m excited about what we’ll continue to accomplish together.”
Brown has unfinished business following his semifinal appearance at the Las Vegas Nationals. He qualified 10th, defeated rookie Maddi Gordon in the opening round and eliminated Tony Stewart in the quarterfinals before losing to Leah Pruett in the semifinals.
Brown’s two victories this season have helped interrupt Kalitta Motorsports’ domination of the Top Fuel winner’s circle. Pomona offers one final opportunity to add another trophy, although the team’s mood is understandably different from what it was before Sampey’s family tragedy.
Pomona owes the racers a full weekend after what happened at last year’s NHRA Finals. Rain brought eliminations to a halt after the opening round, and with no chance to finish the race, NHRA crowned its champions based on the points standings.
For Sampey, returning to Pomona means more than revisiting the scene of two motorcycle victories or getting another weekend of A/Fuel experience. She has her Top Fuel license, an opportunity to continue developing her driving skills and a family loss that remains painfully fresh.
The Matco Tools extension, Sampey’s licensing achievement and Brown’s recent success would ordinarily give AB Motorsports plenty of reasons to arrive in California smiling. Instead, the team will spend its final racing weekend supporting a teammate who has endured something far more difficult than anything a dragstrip could throw her way.
Sampey has spent decades chasing victories across America, and she isn’t abandoning that pursuit now. Her reasons for wanting to win this weekend, however, have taken on a much more personal meaning.
“I’ll be racing with an extra heavy heart this weekend, but the goal remains the same: take home a Diamond Wally,” Sampey said.
