DEBORAH CORRAO / L’Observateur / June 26, 1999

Angelle Seeling makes history almost every time she gets behind the handlebars of her Suzuki.

Currently in first place in the 1999 NHRA Winston Pro Stock Motorcycle standings, she may once again make the history books as the first woman to hold the title.

Seeling, 29, of Luling, finished a career best second in the field in 1998 after a fifth-place finish in her first full season the year before.

Seeling says her love for the sport came at an early age when she rode dirt bikes alongside her father and brothers.

A 1995 graduate of the Charity School of Nursing, she worked as an intensive care nurse for more than a year before the lure of the fast track drew her to a drag-racing school and led to an introduction to George Bryce, owner and crew chief of Team Winston.

A couple of months later she completed the runs needed to get her NHRA competition license, setting the school’s elapsed time and speed records with a run of 7.80 seconds at 170 miles per hour. She has never lookedback.

Not long after that Bryce hired her to join Star Performance Parts team as a teammate to the late three-time NHRA Winston Pro Stock Motorcycle champion John Myers.

In July 1996 she made her pro stock motorcycle national event debut at the Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals in Denver, Colo. She qualified fourthand reached the semifinals before losing to 1996 Winston champion Dave Schultz.

Bryce has had one of his teams finish either first or second in NHRA Winston Pro Stock Motorcycle competition in each of his last 10 seasons.

Seeling has qualified either first or second in all six Pro Stock Motorcycle events this season. She advanced to the finals in each of the season’s firstfour races, winning three times.

Seeling was the number two qualifier at the Pontiac Excitement Nationals in Ohio losing to Antron Brown in the semifinals by two-thousandths of a point.

Seeling enters the Sears Craftsman Nationals atop the NHRA Winston Pro Stock standings, leading second-place Brown by 114 points despite another loss to him at the last race.

“Our race with Antron was a good one,” she says. “Antron and I alwaysseem to have good races. Unfortunately for Team Winston, it went to him this time.”This weekend she competes in the 3rd Annual Sears Craftsman Nationals in St. Louis, Mo.”The night racing at St. Louis will be different for me because I find atarget at the end of the track and drive to it,” Seeling says. “At night youcan’t do it that easily so that will make it tougher for me. I guess I’ll have to imagine my target at the end of the track and drive to it.”

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