NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Winner Steve Johnson Rankles Female Racers

Steve Johnson, the Pro Stock Motorcycle winner at zMAX Dragway in Sunday’s Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at Concord, N.C., said earlier in the week that in his class, “our rivalries are real.”

They became deeper in the past few days. He proudly said that since his victory a week ago at Houston, “I’ve been stirring up some crap” in online interviews. And he continued during pre-race ceremonies Sunday, getting himself in some more trouble with his female competitors even before racing began.

First, he annoyed Angie Smith, whose husband Johnson takes every opportunity to aggravate. Johnson still is rankled by five-time champion Matt Smith’s categorization last year of some racers as “professionals” and some as “hobbyists.” Johnson said in a mid-week interview that Matt Smith “doesn’t do anything” to win, that his success comes from his crew. Furthermore, Johnson said he’s glad Matt Smith voices his opinions, even though “they may be always wrong—and Angie sleeps with him at night. But I got the Houston trophy!”

Angie Smith told him, “You shouldn’t talk smack about the girls, because it’s always about equal opportunity. So you know what? We’re going to load you up.”

Then, within seconds, Johnson was insulting three-time champion Angelle Sampey and her bling-studded riding leathers: “We work really, really hard. Angelle even works really, really hard. She puts that glitter all over her leathers all day long.” That came after he carried on a mock conversation between Sampey and her Vance & Hines crew on that same Internet program: “‘You want to do the cam timing?’ ‘No, I don’t think so.’ ‘How about putting the rings on the pistons?’ ‘No, I don’t think I can do that. Oh! Oh! I know! I can put more glitter on my leathers. I know I can do that.’”

Sampey said Sunday, “I do have to say to big crybaby Steve Johnson he needs to get his stuff straight. I do not have glitter on my leathers. I have Swarovski crystals, and they are very expensive. And it takes a lot of time to do that. So I work really hard. He wants to be a girl like me, so I’m going to bring him some crystals to the next race. We’ll see if it’ll help him.”

Johnson did say, “In all sincerity, that’s why our sport is so cool: the girls, the guys, any ethnicity, anybody can win out here. And that’s what America’s about, right? – opportunity.”

John Force, the eventual Funny Car winner Sunday, said (in an non-derogatory way) in his first-round quad, “I’ve got to race that girl—(Alexis) De Joria. Going to be fun. Girls are taking over this sport! What are we going to do?”

Enjoy it, maybe?