Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Defending Pro Stock Bike champ on new team

Thursday, March 13, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Angelle Savoie has won three NHRA Pro Stock Bike championships and 28 national-event titles in 6 1/2 seasons in the sport but she admitted she will be nervous when the category opens its season this weekend at the Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

After winning the past three NHRA championships with George Bryce's Star Racing, Savoie finds herself with a new team this season after Bryce folded his operation earlier this year. Less than a week after learning Star Racing was going out of business, Savoie landed a ride with Antron Brown's Team 23 Racing.

"I am going to be with a new team with a new motorcycle underneath me," Savoie said. "There are going to be a lot of changes all at once. There are going to be a lot of new faces on the starting line and because everything is going to be new, I am sure I will be full of butterflies before the first race.

"We just need to learn how to jell and how to communicate with each other, especially on the starting line. That is my biggest fear right now; we just need to get comfortable with each other and get into the groove of having a new team out there. I am anxious for that to happen."

Savoie said that although she feels like a rookie again in some respects, she isn't going to let her performance on the track influence her disposition away from the track.

"This is exactly how I felt during my first season, except this time I know I don't have to prove anything," she said. "If we don't win a race this season, so be it. But I really think both Antron and I will be very competitive.

"I have already decided my success on the track is not going to effect how much fun I have this year. I could let the track performance beat me up pretty bad but I am not going to let that happen. I am smart enough to know that it will take a little bit of time to make it all happen."

Time trials will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, with heads-up qualifying session at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. On Sunday, ET time trials will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and final eliminations will begin at 12:30 p.m.

If Scelzi can reach the winner's circle in the Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Stratus, he would become the 13th driver to win in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, joining Kenny Bernstein, Don Prudhomme, Jim Head, Mark Oswald, Frank Hawley, Ed McCulloch, Gene Snow, Ron Capps, Tommy Johnson Jr., Mike Dunn, Tom McEwen and Scott Kalitta.

He is a school senior and a two-time Division 1 Junior Dragster champion (1996 and 1998) and his team co-owner and crew chief is Richard Hartman, the brother of Top Fuel driver Rhonda Hartman-Smith.

Competitors entered in Stock, Super Stock, Super Comp and Super Gas will compete in Orlando on Friday and Saturday. The 16 cars that advance to the final elimination bracket in each of the four categories will return to Gainesville Raceway for Sunday's final eliminations.