ADJUSTING AND SUCCEEDING HAVE BEEN ANGELLE SAMPEY'S TRADEMARKS THROUGHOUT HER CAREER

by Bobby Bennett    Fri, 2021-05-21 10:15

Angelle Sampey is used to learning curves. Fortunately, she's also used to mastering them.

Sampey became proficient at riding Buells after a decade of riding nothing but a Suzuki. Then she straddled a Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson and got used to that, too.

None of it was easy. 

Now she's come full circle aboard one of the new four-valve Suzuki bikes fielded by Vance & Hines.

"The biggest thing for me was the sound of it," Sampey explained. "I was so used to the lower RPMs of the Harley, and then going back to the higher RPMs, I felt like the motorcycle was going to blow up on me going down the racetrack. So I was short-shifting because the sound of the RPMs getting up into those 13,000 scared me, and so I'm pushing the button to save the engine when I needed to wait.

"I had to break that habit, which I think I did pretty good at. I'm holding out the gears better. And then the next biggest thing, which is actually more important, is that I'm over-correcting it."

Blame it on the torque of the Harley-Davidson, but as Sampey puts it, the new Suzuki has its own kind of torque.

"You felt it more on the Harley in the bottom end of the gear," Sampey explained. “When I'd shift, it was yanking me, and it would yank the entire gear. Where these Suzukis, you feel it a little bit more at the top of the gear. It's like it winds out, and it's pulling at the top. I don't know if it's the four-valve or it's just that I haven't been on a Suzuki this powerful since 2007, or I haven't been on a Suzuki since 2007, and this one's even more powerful. It's pulling through all the gears.

"The pull is smoother if that makes any sense. Where the Harley was, like, you hit it in gear and it yanked, and this one slowly pulls hard. So it's more comfortable, it's a smoother ride. The engine sounds smoother, feels smoother than the Harley did. But the Buell that I used to ride, I called it a paint shaker. It felt like you were strapped onto a paint shaker. The Harley was way much smoother than that, but this one's even better. I love it."

In her days of riding the Harley-Davidson there was a lot of man-handling -- a term she said she hates to use -- during a pass.

"If it was going to the right, I've got to yank and yank and yank to get it to come back, and this is more of a finesse thing. If it starts to go into the right, you have to correct it, but just one time and then get back on it."

One of Sampey's tendencies has been to overcorrect, based on experience from the last few seasons. She getting better with each trip down the quarter-mile.

"It took me two full years to get 100% comfortable in that Harley," Sampey said. "I'm about 80% there already on this Suzuki. So a few more runs on the track hopefully will get it. Battled some crosswinds the first couple of times out. So hopefully if we get a good straight headwind or tailwind or no wind, I can get some good practice runs. And once I can ride it the way it needs to be ridden, you're going to really see a fast, quick motorcycle."

Sampey has already been quick and fast this season, qualifying No. 1 at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals with a 6.742 elapsed time at 200.00 mph.

She knows what she needs to do to improve.

"I have to kind of just settle down," Sampey said. "I need to react very quickly, but smoother, not so feisty, and trying to be a beast on it."

 

 

 
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