Savoie won't defend her title

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Highboy90

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Friday, January 31

Savoie won't defend her title
By Bill Stephens
ESPN.com

aSavoie.jpg

Savoie

Despite three consecutive Pro Stock Motorcycle championships, a performance record that made her the most successful female racer in NHRA history and an immense popularity that drew a new generation of fans, Angelle Savoie and team owner George Bryce announced Friday that 2002 was their final season together.

It has been a story possibly more compelling than her impressive run for title No. 3. First, Savoie suffered through nagging sponsorship travails which saw the 2002 season begin without a primary deal. Then, she and her team signed a short-lived agreement with CVEC, a manufacturer of hobby exhaust systems. Eventually, that company left her sponsorless before an associate deal with Mohegan Sun Casino was inked in late in the year.

Meanwhile, with her Louisiana-based Suzuki dealership in need of her presence during tough financial times, Savoie raced brilliantly last year to the championship. But without sufficient funding, and the prospects of another emotionally draining season ahead, both Bryce and Savoie agreed it was time to call it quits.

"We fully expected to be racing in 2003, defending our title and helping Angelle win her fourth consecutive championship," Bryce said. "But this is an expensive business, and in order to compete at a championship level, we needed to find a primary marketing partner who would work with us and our associate sponsors such as Mohegan Sun, Snap On Tools, and others.

"That has been our number one priority since last September and we spent a lot of time and money trying to secure the proper funding. We've exhausted every possible option, but unfortunately could not come up with a workable solution."

Savoie, too, hoped to compete in 2003.

"More than anything, I want everyone to know that we are not stopping because we wanted to, or that we broke up because of problems with the team," she said. "We are being forced to move on, so we will. Honestly, this is one day I was hoping would not come for quite some time. It's very hard to break up something that has been working so well. The way we see it, we were pretty much unbeatable."

Both Bryce and Savoie expressed their desires to remain active in the sport, but at this point, their future plans remain in the formative stages.

"My first priority is to liquidate some of my equipment to pay off the bills we have accumulated," Bryce said. "I will be selling that incredible bike we won the championship and set the national record with, as well as some of the engines. I will then go to the races to offer whatever support or advice I can give to the people who buy these things to help them be successful with them. Besides that, I'll be running quite a few drag racing schools."

Savoie is keeping her options open, too.

"Although in the short term I am going to be focusing on my Suzuki dealership, I will be keeping my door open for anything I can do in the NHRA," she said. "I won't be competing with the Star Racing team, but I would definitely like to remain involved in racing.

"I guess you could say I'm evaluating my options. The bottom line is that we are all going to move forward and make the best of what the good Lord gives us."

Bill Stephens is an NHRA reporter for ESPN and covers the NHRA for ESPN.com.
 
It is sad that a defending champ cannot find a sponsor:(
 
Angelle won a lot of races with power as several times, she did screw up or make errors. The bike always pulled her out at the end.

Antron Brown did not have sponsorship at the end of last year if I remember correctly and he's a very good driver. Finished 3rd.
 
That's true Highboy, but there have been plenty of other past champions getting their wins the same way. It's a total team effort.

You would think both Savoie and Brown wouldn't have trouble getting sponsorship. Sign of the times?...I dpon't know, there are plenty of lesser teams with sponsors?

What's your take?
 
UPDATE!


Monday, February 3
Updated: February 4, 12:35 PM ET
Savoie not without ride for long
By Bill Stephens
ESPN.com


Just when you thought the off-season couldn't get any more unpredictable, something else ambushed the NHRA ecosystem just days before the new season fires up in Pomona, Calif.

Angelle Savoie's plans have changed yet again.

Within 48 hours of announcing her split with George Bryce and Star Racing, which would leave her without a deal for the upcoming campaign, the three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion announced on Sunday's RPM2Night that she had agreed to team up with her cousin-in-law, Antron Brown, and will race a second Suzuki for Team 23.

The announcement was just the latest in a series of twists and turns that have punctuated Savoie's career from the moment she jumped aboard a Pro Stock Motorcycle in 1996. Through the years, she has weathered the sexist disapproval from a number of her competitors. She also raced alongside the late three-time champ John Myers. And last year, she overcame the stresses of competing for her third title last year without a sponsor, and did so while her motorcycle dealership back home in Louisiana was struggling through management and financial issues.

Yet, shortly after winning her third straight championship, Savoie said she had no intentions of racing with any other outfit than Star Racing. Bryce, Star's owner, discovered Savoie while teaching a class at the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School at Gainesville Raceway in Florida in 1995 and has guided each step of her meteoric rise to the most successful woman racer in NHRA history.

There is one possible hitch for Team 23. Brown and his crew chief, Mark Peiser, have been in a concentrated search for sponsorship for 2003 and hope to have enough funding in place soon to be able to run both machines for the entire 14-national event season. According to Brown, who finished the 2002 season fourth in the standings, the team can race until midseason with the current level of funding.

"Right now, we have an outside investor who has seen the potential of this team and has loaned us some money," Brown said. "Now it's up to us to find a sponsor. We've had some interest over the last few weeks but now that we've added a three-time champion to our team, I expect that should open some doors for us. I believe we have a lot to offer a sponsor."

Savoie's announcement lends new life to the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, which had been looking at the loss of two three-time champs after Matt Hines announced last week his plans to sit out the season and devote his energies to the team's new Harley-Davidson program. Savoie and Hines have accounted for every title since 1997 and their fierce rivalry has helped popularize the category.

The first national event in which the bikes will compete in 2003 will be the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., on March 13-16.

Bill Stephens is an NHRA reporter for ESPN and covers the NHRA for ESPN.com.
 
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