Final round finish powers bartone to season finale’

FINAL ROUND FINISH POWERS BARTONE TO SEASON FINALE’

Las Vegas, Nev. – A runner-up finish at the final NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event of 2010 contested at “The Strip” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend will propel the Rick Jackson Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team with some momentum as they head back home to California for the final event this season.

After a disappointing second round exit at the recently completed NHRA Las Vegas Nationals held the week prior the divisional event, team owner Rick Jackson, who owns and operates Centre Pointe Collision Center in Santa Clarita, Calif., decided to keep car in Las Vegas and test the set-up on his potent Ford Mustang TAFC. With team driver Tony Bartone behind the wheel and talented crew chief Steve Boggs turning the wrenches, the Centre Pointe team found a few extra hundredths of a second during the test session and was prepared to race against some of the best Top Alcohol racers in the world at “The Strip”.

Bartone and the Centre Pointe team entered eliminations qualified in the number 3 position after recording a solid 5.657 elapsed time in the final session on Saturday evening. This set up a round one race with Sean O’Bannon, a re-match of the second round just one week ago when O’Bannon captured the round win. This time, the Centre Pointe team exacted some revenge. O’Bannon left the starting line a mere -0.007 seconds prior to the flash of the green light, disqualifying him from the race. However, Bartone powered by the Boggs tune-up negotiated the Vegas quarter-mile in 5.613 seconds at over 257 miles per hour. This performance held up for low elapsed time of the round, and advanced Bartone to the semi-final round.

In the semi’s, the Centre Pointe/FireIce.com team paired up against John Lombardo Jr. and his NAPA Auto Parts sponsored, Bob Devore tuned flopper. At the flash of the green, Bartone gained a solid reaction-time advantage, but it was not needed as the Centre Pointe Ford dipped into the 50’s, recording a 5.596 ET, while Lombardo Jr. had mechanical problems and slowed to a mid-9 second ET for the loss. On the other side of the ladder, Mickey Ferro who won the national event last week, and his talented team from Division 1 beat Division 6 racer Clint Thompson to advance to the money round.

The finals paired Bartone, the Long Island City, NY native versus Ferro, who calls Stamford, CT. home. Bartone was hyped up for the final and recorded an amazing 0.005 second reaction time, however the power of the Centre Pointe Ford was too much for the cooling LVMS track and the car went up in smoke, while Ferro throttled down for a great 5.59 ET to capture the Vegas Double-Double.

The Rick Jackson Racing team will now head back their home track, Pomona Raceway and complete the 2010 NHRA Drag Racing Season this upcoming weekend at the NHRA Auto Club World Finals. To learn more about Rick Jackson Racing, please visit their website at http://www.rickjacksonracing.com