Another final round appearance for bartone in topeka

ANOTHER FINAL ROUND APPEARANCE FOR BARTONE IN TOPEKA

Topeka, Kan. – A fourth-consecutive National Hot Rod Association final round appearance for the Rick Jackson Racing team at the NHRA Supernationals contested at Heartland Park Topeka, provides more important Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series points for the Centre Pointe Collision Center sponsored team’s quest to capture the NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car World Championship.

Entering final eliminations, driver Tony Bartone and the Rick Jackson Racing / Centre Pointe Collision Center Ford Mustang Funny Car found themselves qualified in the number three position, after recording a solid 5.625 in a shortened due to severe weather qualifying session.

“The weather delays on Friday gave us only one chance at the track on Friday, so we wanted to be sure to lay down a good base-line to improve on,” stated team owner Rick Jackson, the owner of Centre Pointe Collision Center in Santa Clarita, Calif. “Qualifying has been highly diverse for our team this year; from sitting on the pole, to being the last qualifier. Fortunately, we have stepped it up on race day and have won our first 3 National Events this season. There are a ton of great racers here this weekend, so the challenge will be tough, but we are confident we’ll do well once again.”

Bartone opened his quest to the final round with an opening round victory over Bruce Carlson from Prior Lake, Minn. He then defeated perennial NHRA Division 5 favorite Vern Moats in the second round. The semi-final was contested against Jay Payne driving his FireIce.com Ford Mustang. The Rick Jackson Racing team laid down a smooth 5.653 to beat Payne’s game 5.690. This set up a titanic final round pairing against Frank Manzo, who recorded an impressive 5.575 ET in his semi-final victory over Chris Foster.



Entering the final round, both drivers each won 10 times against the other in prior events and Bartone held a 5 – 2 winning advantage against Manzo in prior final rounds.

The driver from Long Island City, NY recorded a stellar 0.012 reaction time; however, the Al Anabi Racing Monte Carlo of Manzo had the better elapsed time, recording low ET of the event 5.572, giving him his second National Event victory of the 2011 season.

“Simply put, we got beat by a better car this weekend,” said Jackson. “Tony did his job on the starting line in the final round, but we just didn’t have our best effort in the performance department today. Our goal is to win the World Championship which is a marathon; not a sprint. We have started the season with 4-straight National Event final round appearances. And I’m very proud of the effort the team has shown so far this season. This loss will just motivate our guys to work that much harder and we’ll be ready the next time we meet.”

To learn more about Rick Jackson Racing, please visit their website at http://www.rickjacksonracing.com Follow the team with updated photos and instant results on Facebook @rickjacksonracing.