Volume IX, Issue 6, Page 48

"We went for broke.”— Craig Treble after edging Matt Hines in the final to get his 10th career win

"To be honest, I didn't think that run was going to be as good as it turned out.”— Angelle Sampey on the 6.871-seconds pass that gave her the number-one starting position and set a new national E.T. record for the class

"The bike's been very, very consistent. We made four runs within about a hundredth, so we're just gonna’ go out there and try and make four runs within a hundredth on Sunday.”
— Chip Ellis on his qualifying runs after placing 3rd for raceday

"A lot of people have asked me about the weight adjustment. The NHRA did a very good job last year achieving remarkable parity in a class with such diverse platforms. They recently made a change, and now six races (including Englishtown) remain before the Countdown to the Championship in Indianapolis. I'm sure they'll get it right with enough time before then to give everybody the same chance … You take out the top-running Suzuki and the top-running Vance &Hines bike and the rest of the field is separated by just over eight hundredths of a second. That's real good racing. On the other side of the coin, you have Tom Bradford and his Buell. Tom didn't make the cut this week for the first time since 2005. Any delay in correcting the rules could have a negative impact on racers trying to make the field, and the cut-off for the Countdown. But I have all the confidence in the world that the NHRA will make the right decision—hopefully sooner rather than later.”— George Smith, G2 Motorsports president and crew chief for Ellis, on the 10-pound weight penalty imposed by NHRA on all Buells beginning with the previous race at Chicago

“I'm the new guy on the team and Norwalk is going to be the new track on the tour. Maybe that's the lucky combination I've been waiting for all season." — Eddie Krawiec, former Englishtown track manager and new rider for the Vance & Hines team, looking ahead to the next race after losing in round one to Karen Stoffer

“We got in the show with a 7.024-second elapsed time, but in all candor, we need to be running three or fourth hundredths of a second quicker than that if we're really going to be contenders." — Steve Johnson after qualifying 14th

"I don't know if it's possible to be too loose and confident, but I had total brain fade. I went to ram the clutch and my hand didn't release, then I made it go toward the centerline.” — Peggy Llewellyn on her first-round loss to Antron Brown

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"The guys gave me a badass bike and I just didn't do my job. The bike would have run faster than 6.96, but I looked over in third gear to see where (opponent Steve Johnson) was and over revved a couple of gears.” — Chip Ellis taking the blame for a round-one exit

"This weekend has been just awful. I can't tell you the last time I had this many problems at the track.” — Matt Smith on making only one clean pass in qualifying to start 6th, then having his raceday end in the second round when his engine shut off and started smoking while leading Steve Johnson

"You always want to get the win light but when it's that close it's fun either way. If I can't get the win I want to have close, tight races like that every time." — Stoffer on Brown’s razor-thin win over her in the second round

"I really felt it was my race to lose today and I went out and did just that.” — Sampey on going red against Treble in round two

"I certainly feel a lot better about things than I did a couple of weeks ago.” — Brown after going to the semis against Treble and moving from 11th to 9th in points, leaving him just four points out of eighth overall, which is the cutoff for NHRA's Countdown to the Championship

“With three Suzukis and a V-Rod in the semis, it makes you wonder about the weight penalty on the S&S Buells.” — Ellis weighing in on the 10-pound curse on the Buells

"It used to be that we were all about finding horsepower, but now we've found other ways of making the bike quicker through clutch management. We're happy where we are at especially considering where we were at the start of the season.” — Hines on making it to his second-straight final after winning at Chicago

"We won a race without a name on the tail section. I think we're the only team in the top 10 without a major sponsor." — Treble proudly pointing out the unlikely in today’s high-dollar motorsports atmosphere