Angelle Sampey, the three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion, will return to Suzuki in 2021 with a new four-valve motor for Vance & Hines, backed by Mission Foods.

Angelle Sampey Will Ride Vance & Hines’ New Four-Valve Suzuki-Powered Motorcycle

The team at Vance & Hines has announced that Angelle Sampey will get to ride their new four-valve Suzuki-powered Pro Stock Motorcycle for the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series of 2021. The team has joined forces with the global food producer Mission Foods in its quest for the championship in 2021 and has now added the NHRA’s female racer with the most wins in that partnership.

Angelle Sampey has 43 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle wins, and that makes her the top female racer for this racing class. She has fourth place when it comes to wins in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, following behind her teammates Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines, as well as the late Dave Schultz. Sampey was a member of Vance & Hines’ Harley-Davidson-powered team during 2019 and 2020. This season, she will be among the first to get on the new Vance & Hines four-valve Suzuki.

Angelle Sampey Said She Felt Really Good About Working With Vance & Hines

Sampey started her career on a Suzuki and managed to win three straight championships from 2000 to 2002. The new four-valve engine she will take on the track is 1850cc and delivers nearly 400 hp. It will be paired with a custom chassis that was developed with data from thousands of NHRA competition runs. Sampey recently stated she was excited to be on the Vance & Hines team again and called them a first-class company that gives her the best bikes she’s ever ridden. Hines and Krawiec will be the team crew chiefs, with Ray Veirs as the transport driver and bike mechanic and the longtime crewmember Scott Sceurman working as the bike chief.

Vance & Hines President & CEO Mike Kennedy also said that the team is happy to be working with an accomplished driver like Angelle Sampey. With the multi-billion-dollar company Mission Foods joining the effort as a sponsor of the team, it looks like 2021 will be a season of opportunity for everyone involved.

The Indianapolis 500 is one of the biggest events on the global racing calendar. Drivers from all around the world want victory at the Indy 500 on their resumes, but only a handful of racers have earned the title. The 2020 Indy 500 was an eventful one, with Honda being the undisputed winner of the entire race.

Smiles For Miles

Takuma Sato was victorious at the 2020 Indianapolis 500 thanks to his Honda-powered car. The Japanese racer wasn’t the only Honda-powered driver to do well, with eight of the top 10 drivers sitting on a Honda engine. In fact, it’s fair to say that Honda was the one true winner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August.

Japanese Dominance

There were 200 laps at the Indy 500, and a Honda-powered car led for 180 of them. That’s a huge portion of the race where Honda proved to be the superior drive this year. The manufacturer had three drivers on the podium, with Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal completing the set.

Dixon led the race for a total of 111 laps, with Sato the next best on 27 laps at the front. Of course, Sato led the race when it mattered the most, at the finish line, to take his second Indy 500 title.

Putting Chevrolet In Its Place

This sweep of the podium by Honda leaves its biggest competitor with a lot of work to do. Chevrolet was soundly beaten at the 2020 Indy 500, but the manufacturer will look back to 2015 to know that it’s not all doom and gloom. Just five years ago, it was Chevrolet who had dominated the Indy 500 by sweeping the podium.

Sato’s victory in 2020 was the first time Honda had won the event since the Japanese driver claimed victory in 2017. It seems Sato and Honda are a match made in heaven at this iconic race.