Sampey Announces Retirement

NHRA drag racer Angelle Sampey is hanging up her leathers and helmet and retiring from the sport - and she'll do so as the winningest female in professional motorsports history.

The 39-year-old issued a press release today announcing her intention to get married to her fiancé, Seth Drago, in June and start a family. She leaves behind a remarkable career that includes 41 victories in her 13-year NHRA Pro Stock career.

"I'm ready for a new challenge, including opening Coral Fever, a store specializing in fish, coral and aquariums," Sampey said. "I made the ultimate sacrifice to postpone starting a family when I began racing. Now, I'm going to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop racing to get married [in June] and then try and start a family."

The Louisiana native made her NHRA debut in 1996 at Bandimere Speedway outside of Denver and immediately raised eyebrows by advancing to the semifinals. She recorded her first win in her first final round later that season at Reading, Pennsylvania, in just the fourth event of her career.

"I will take away so many great memories from racing," she said. "I'm certainly going to miss being around my fellow racers and, of course, the fans. I really enjoyed meeting the fans at every race. They were always there for me through the good times and the bad times."

The bad times were few and far between since her professional career began in 1996. The highlight, however, were the 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons when she won three World Championships and 18 events.

"Obviously, that was an extraordinarily exciting time period," she said. "I never imagined I could have that kind of success. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of talented people including George Bryce [her crew chief during each championship season]."

In 2001, Sampey became the winningest female in NHRA history when she moved past car racer Shirley Muldowney on the list. She went on to earn seven wins that season - the most ever recorded in a single season by a female racer in NHRA history.

"To be honest, it was tough to comprehend what I had done after I surpassed Shirley's win total [18]," she said. "After all, Shirley is one of the sport's legends. I look up to her."

Among Sampey's final stats will be a staggering 364 round wins out of 506 total rounds of competition, or a win roughly 72 percent of the time she blasted down the quarter-mile.

"Again, I want to emphasize that I had a bunch of people help me along the way," she said. "I could spend a day or more thanking each and every one. I'll never forget any of them."

Perhaps, the one mark Sampey wishes she could have broken before exiting the sport was the most wins in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class - 45 - as established by the late Dave Schultz.

"That's probably true," she said. "I clearly could've hung around just to try and break that record. But, as I stated, it's time for a change."