Semi-final finish begins 2010 season for Bartone

Pomona, Calif. – Tony Bartone, the 31-time NHRA National Event champion, drove the Rick Jackson

Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car to a semi-final finish this past weekend at the 50th Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals contested in Pomona, Calif.

The Centre Pointe Collision Center / FireIce.com flopper captured the number one qualified position after their off-the-trailer 5.570 second elapsed time. The pole position matched them against number 16 qualifier, Brian Smith from Fullerton, Calif. in the opening stanza. Smith captured a slight starting line advantage over the Long Island City, N.Y. based driver, but the Steve Boggs tuned Mustang caught Smith by the 330 foot cones and sped along for the round one victory. The 5.556 second ET was low for the round of 16 cars.

In the second round, Bartone raced against Pleasant Grove, Calif.’s Brian Thiel, who was being tuned by Randy Anderson this weekend. His first round ET of 5.70 seconds gave up lane choice to Bartone and the Jackson Racing team. At the flash of the green, Thiel gathered a 0.012 starting line advantage, but once again, the Centre Pointe / FireIce.com car charged ahead of his competitor, crossed the finish line 5.600 seconds after the start and handing the round win to Bartone.

The semi-final pairing brought Division 7 hard-charger Doug Gordon up against the Jackson Racing team, with the winner set to match up against Sean O’Bannon in the money round. Bartone was on his game as he cut a 0.022 second reaction time and held the lead for the first 330 feet of the race. Unfortunately for the Santa Clarita bunch the race track is 1320 feet long and Gordon’s 5.576 second ET was good enough to hold off the Centre Pointe / FireIce.com Mustang’s 5.61 second run.

The weekend ended earlier than the team had planned, however the Jackson Racing group gathered some important run data in which they plan to take to their next scheduled event, The NHRA Division 7 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event to be held in Phoenix, Arizona in two weeks.