About five inches was all that separated Angie McBride’s Nitro Fish/Carolina Speed Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle from Karen Stoffer’s Suzuki in Sunday’s opening round of the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals, but it was just enough to give Stoffer the victory and McBride a disappointing loss at Atlanta Dragway.
“It was really, really close,” said McBride. “We made a really good run.”
She left the line first (.080 to .090-second) and held the advantage until just before the finish line, when Stoffer’s 6.944-second effort at 191.89 mph nudged her 6.955 at 188.70 mph. The official winning margin was .0015-second.
“I shifted into fifth gear early when the bike hit a bump and that may have hurt us,” McBride said. “We’ll be OK. We’ll regroup.”
Matt Smith, her fiancé and team owner led the Full Throttle series going into this event but his Nitro Fish Suzuki from Don Schumacher Racing broke at the starting line in the semifinals.
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