Antron Brown had a vision, and thus far Angelle Sampey has been his reality.

When Sampey won the Top Alcohol Dragster crown at the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals, the multi-time NHRA Pro Stock champion turned A/Fuel Dragster driver validated Brown’s mission of fielding a championship-caliber, multi-car operation.

Sampey was the first developmental driver under the AB Motorsports umbrella to score a national-event victory.

It was just one win, but Brown already had visions of more for his longtime friend that he considers family.

“She's showing that she needs to be in the fuel car,” Brown said. “If we get the right partnership. So partners give us a call. Antron Brown. ‘I’m like, ‘Hey, ABracin@antronbrown.com, talk to me. You can put her in the car tomorrow.’ I'm just joking. I'm not joking.”

Brown wasn’t joking the first time he saw his longtime two-wheel teammate struggling since her release from Vance & Hines Racing. It wasn’t that Sampey couldn’t ride a Pro Stock Motorcycle, she had lost her confidence after a turbulent series of seasons where she was on a bike and then off. She was a champion whose previous successes had been discounted by others, leaving her with the sense she had to prove herself over and over in a class where the motorcycle technology was evolving at a rapid rate and she was doing her best to keep up.

The only drag racing life Sampey had prior to the A/Fuel Dragster was on two wheels. It was no surprise when Sampey, desperate to remain involved in the sport that had made her famous, considered fielding a Pro Stock Motorcycle team.

Then Brown intervened.

 

 

 

 

Brown possesses his persuasive power. He can use that AB charm, or he can be relentless until one just gives in. Sampey finally gave in to Brown’s convincing argument that she should drive an A/Fuel car at least once.

Brown arranged for Sampey to drive Rich McPhillips’ A/Fuel Dragster. As Sampey thundered down the drag strip in what appeared to be an effortless, early shut-off 5.39, Brown could only smile as his argument turned into a win for him.

Brown raced to the finish line to meet Sampey, who looked like she had just escaped the worst haunted house ever.

Brown was all smiles as he offered, “That's a good run.”

Sampey, who appeared to have had the bejeezus scared out of her, was not in the mood for praise.

As Brown recalled, “She goes, ‘I could punch you in the...umm…umm… face right now.’”

Brown decided at this point it was in his best interests to give her some time to cool off, so he made tracks for the pits.

Three runs later, they were both smiling.

“She came back to me and said, ‘OK, you were right. I love this. I don't know why I waited so long.’”

What had Sampey so triggered following the first run? Simple: As a trained rider in Pro Stock Motorcycle, Sampey was taught to know where she was at all times on the track.

“I was running 230 miles an hour in the eighth-mile on the first run – faster than I had ever been – and I couldn't see,” Sampey said. “Where I was on the racetrack was a blur, and that kind of stuff, I've always been trained, and if you're not aware of your surroundings, you shut it off. And so, I kept shutting it off and they kept asking me, ‘Why are you shutting it off?’”

Sampey relayed to the crew that she couldn’t see, and it was revealed she had experienced for the first time the effects of tire shake.

“I thought to myself, ‘If this is how it's normally, I can't do this. How does anybody do this?’” Sampey recalled. “And then, I realized, ‘OK, that wasn't normal. That's not supposed to happen.’ And then, they got the car to go all the way down the track without the tire shake, but it was still so fast and my brain wasn't ready yet to process that information.

Six runs in, Sampey found her groove.

“I really started to tell you where I shut it off or I could see the finish line,” Sampey said. “The previous runs were throwing the parachutes because I felt like I had had enough. It wasn't because I was at the finish line. So, it took a little bit, but now I love it so much, and the car is much easier to drive. There's still things you just got to work at. You can't just relax the whole way. But the comparison of today to that first day, I didn't think I was going to make it. I didn't even think I was going to live. And so, when Antron came and asked me, ‘Are you excited? Are you excited? How'd that feel?’

 

 

 

 

“I was like, ‘You need to get out of my face because I'm about to hit you, because this is the stupidest crap I've ever done in my whole life.’ And so, he knew he had to leave me alone to calm down for a minute.”

Sampey had expressed to Brown her fear of the dragster, and the fact it was much quicker and faster than the bikes she had ridden.

According to Sampey, Brown employed logic to placate her fears: “‘Angelle, when's the last time you've seen someone fall off of a dragster?’ And when he said that, I was like, ‘Okay. You got a point there.’”

Sampey said she had gone through all of the worse-case scenarios like cross-winds and locked-up brakes. She even considered the time the rear wheel came off her bike at 185 miles per hour.

“I was very fortunate in my long career of Pro Stock Bikes that I didn't get injured,” Sampey said. “So, I started thinking about that, the safety of the car, and the ease of getting these long wheelbase cars down the track. And there is a lot less to do in this than a Pro Stock Motorcycle. So, the transition was pretty simple, just very different. I had to really think about what to do and what not to do. I think the bike experience helped me because you feel things on the motorcycle. So, when the bike takes off and it starts to move to the right, we can normally feel that before you can see it.

“That ability to feel helps me in the car because I can sense things happening in the car. Sometimes, it happens and I didn't feel it, and that's comes with experience as well. But in the very beginning, the first time I was in the car, I was going down the track and all of a sudden it just felt like I had hit a speed bump or something and it slowed down. So, I shut off and I got back and they asked me what happened. I said, ‘I don't know. It just kind of felt like something gave out.”

Sampey understood tireshake, and then added dropping a cylinder to her expertise.

“I literally learned how to drive a dragster off a piece of paper,” Sampey admitted. “They wrote the steps down for me and told me, ‘This is what you're going to have to do.’

Racing with the Michalek Brothers, Corey and Kyle, Sampey said she regained a valuable asset she’s maintained for much of her career – confidence.

“This is such a laid-back environment, but very serious,” Sampey said. “You can look on the wall of our trailer. We have a list of goals that we want to complete in a weekend. This is how we're doing it. So, these are our goals, and we don't worry about anybody or anything else but these goals.

“If we accomplish those goals, then the wins come. And that's something that I needed for a long time. I needed that kind of mentality. I needed somebody telling me, ‘Mistakes are okay, we're going to learn from them, and fix them and move on.’”

 

 

In the last few seasons, mistakes or missteps, were dealt with harshly.

The ramifications of those miscues can take a toll on even a seasoned drag racer, and they did on Sampey. She was second-guessing herself on the most simple procedures became a way of life for the rider who met success early in her career.

“In the beginning of my career with Star Racing, I had a great environment,” Sampey said. “The guys that were around me, George [Bryce] was a great teacher. I was new. I didn't have the fear of losing. I was 100% hungry and didn't know what it felt like to be ... In my head, losing was not an option. It didn't matter. I was brand new. No one even thought I could do it anyway. So, I had nothing to prove other than just get out there and do it.

“But then, after so many years in the career, people started saying, ‘Oh, she's washed up. She's too old. She can't do it. She's a has-been. She's Done.’ And you hear that stuff and you try to ignore it, and you think to yourself, ‘Well, they're just haters,’ but it gets to you. Towards the end of my [PSM] career, I started to believe it. I was telling myself, and my husband, and my family, ‘I just don't think I can do it anymore.’”

Sampey said her family reminded her of the same motivational speeches she had delivered and so did Brown. She’s definitely not in her head with the new chapter in her racing career.

“I'm 100% healed from whatever I was going through the last couple of years,” Sampey said. “I was so miserable and so defeated, beat up, done and unhappy and stressed out. That's every word that I could come up with. It was me. I couldn't do anything right in my own head. And I was trying so hard because the opportunity I had with Vance and Hines was an amazing one, top-notch team, best equipment out there. And I was screwing it up. That double whammy – you got the best stuff and you're doing the worst job – was killing me.”

Sampey took a step back when she was released and re-evaluated her life and career. Being a brand ambassador for Mission Foods kept her in the sport and allowed her to reinvent herself.

“I got to watch drag racing; became a race fan for the first time in my life,” Sampey declared. “I've never been a race fan. I'm a racer. I started enjoying myself in the track so much, and then Antron started trying to talk me into this car thing. And then, I started like a baby. I'm so new. I don't know anything about it. I have nothing to prove. If we do well, great. If we don't, no one's expected it anyway. So, I got into the car, 100% clean slate. I know there was people saying, ‘Oh, she's not going to be able to do it. She's not going to be able to drive it. She's not going to cut a light. She's going to suck.’

“I didn't care anymore. I was like, ‘I don't care. I'm here to have fun. And I'm with my best friend and a great team and great sponsors,’ and it just started happening. Every time I get in that car, I just feel like it's fun, and whether I win or lose, I get out of it with a smile. And that is the difference.”

Sampey could full grasp the phrase which suggested, “Those who matter don’t mind. Those who mind don’t matter.”

Now, as she looks at Brown, the drag racing phenom who went from Pro Stock Bike to Top Fuel, Sampey doesn’t see him see as a team owner.

 

 

“I still don't see him that way because he is so awesome with the way he works with the people that work for him,” Sampey said. “He doesn't treat anybody like a boss. He treats everybody like a best friend. And everybody on that team feels like it's their team. Brian [Corradi] loves it like it's his. Mark [Oswald] loves it like it's his. Brian's wife, Jackie, loves it like it's hers. Every person on the team works as if it's their team. They own it. And that's how Antron treats him. That's how he treats me. We're doing this venture together as partners. He never makes me feel like he's the boss. So, he's just my best friend. He's absolutely the best motivator, the happiest person.

“This guy wakes up and just leaks happiness. I mean, he's so amazing. We pray together before every round. He's just ... He's everything I need as a coach, a mentor, a friend, a teammate. So, it's perfect.”

Brown has plans to expand the scope of his operation, and with Sampey on the road to nitro, the next in line will be his son Anson, who is gaining valuable experience in Super Comp.

Sampey said as long as Antron Brown is by her side, she’ll take a stab at Top Fuel if the opportunity arises. After all, it’s where Brown believes she belongs.

“I hope so,” Sampey said. “I hope that's true. I know my time is running out as far as I'm starting this so late in my career, but I feel perfectly healthy. I see these guys doing it for many, many years. I know I don't feel old. I feel young. I'm still physically capable of anything and everything. So, I just hope the opportunity with the funding comes along. We can find the sponsors to team up with us and get that two-car team with Antron.

“He's surrounded by the right people, the right sponsors, and the right tuners to give me a competitive car as well. And he's looking forward to whipping my ass on the starting line, is what he says. But I keep reminding him, ‘You're training me. You're training your own assassin.’”

 

 

 

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