BARTONE WINS 4th NATIONAL EVENT OF 2011 IN JOLIET

BARTONE WINS 4th NATIONAL EVENT OF 2011 IN JOLIET

Joliet, Ill. – On the same weekend where New York Yankee Derek Jeter made history collecting his 3,000th career hit, Long Island City, NY native and life-long Yankee fan Tony Bartone, driver of the Rick Jackson Racing Mustang Top Alcohol Funny Car captured his 4th National Event victory of the 2011 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Route 66 Nationals contested at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill. The victory also extended his point lead in the team’s quest for the Lucas Oil TAFC World Championship.

Bartone entered the National Event at Route 66 Raceway qualified in the number 3 position, after recording a 5.648 during the final qualify session which also served as the first round of the Jeg’s Sportsman All-Star competition. The Rick Jackson Racing team was the NHRA Division 4 representative for this unique specialty event. However, their quest for the Jeg’s title ended in a 0.0142 second margin of victory semi-final loss to Division 1 hitter Todd Veney.

“That was a straight-up good old drag race with Veney in the Jeg’s All-Star Race and we take our hats off to the Jay Blake ‘Follow a Dream’ team for a great race,” noted Bartone. “Our primary concern is the National Event on Sunday. We have had a great start to the season, and we finished the first half of our season leading the points. But we need to finish stronger than we started. Hopefully we can put together four straight round wins tomorrow for final eliminations.”

Bartone began his march to victory by defeating Kevin Newburgh, the 155th different driver he has faced in his career, who entered the event as an alternate after Mickey Ferro was unable to make the call to eliminations after an accident against Bartone in the first round of the Jeg’s shootout. The Centre Pointe team then beat Division 6 champ Brian Hough in the second round prior to dispatching number two qualifier Ray Drew from Hales Corner, Wis. in the semi-finals.

The money round paired the Steve Boggs and Darren Mayer tuned Centre Pointe Collision Mustang against the Bob Devore tuned Napa Auto Parts Monte Carlo of Division 7 champion John Lombardo Jr. As the cars left the starting line, Lombardo captured a slight starting line advantage, however the power provided by DMPE and fine-tuned by Boggs propelled Bartone to a fine 5.63 elapsed time and a crucial 4th win in 5 final rounds this season, extending their points lead and heading into the second half of the season in the right direction.

“I’m not gonna lie, this win is huge for our team,” noted Bartone. “When you head to Chicago and compete against the best in your category, and walk away with a Wally, that’s a great accomplishment. This weekend’s racing conditions were brutal but Steve, Darren, Rick and the rest of the boys did an exceptional job fine-tuning this Centre Pointe Mustang. Plus, today is (tuning consultant) Darren Mayer’s birthday, so to give him a Wally for his hard work is especially cool. We brought home the bacon this weekend.”

To learn more about the Rick Jackson Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team, please visit their website at http://www.rickjacksonracing.com. You can also follow the team on Facebook @rickjacksonracing.