“no problem” - bartone and jackson racing take d-4 win

“NO PROBLEM” - BARTONE AND JACKSON RACING TAKE D-4 WIN

Belle Rose, LA – Tony Bartone added yet another Top Alcohol Funny Car ‘Wally’ to his impressive career this past weekend during the NHRA Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at No Problem Raceway in Belle Rose, LA. The wire-to-wire victory padded his D-4 point lead and moved him up to fifth place in the National point standings.

<img src="http://www.insidetopalcohol.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=219&thumb=1&d=1271038484" align="right" borders="0"/>Bartone, who spends time between his Long Island City, NY and Boca Raton, FLA homes, drove the Rick Jackson Racing Centre Pointe Collision Center / FireIce.com Ford Mustang to the number one qualified spot after uncorking a solid 5.57 elapsed time off the trailer. The team held the number one spot through (3) qualifying sessions and entered eliminations as the odds on favorites to capture the event title. However, there is a reason they say races are won on the race track and not on paper.

Due to an odd number of cars entered in the field, the Centre Pointe / FireIce.com team drew a bye-run to open up eliminations. Crew Chief Steve Boggs, who has tuned Tony Bartone to over 90 percent of his total career NHRA victories, tuned the Ford Mustang to a solid and clean 5.602 ET at 253.99 miles per hour. Also advancing after round one were Divison 7 hitter Steve Gasparrelli and Division 4 competitor Steve Burck, who earned a solo into the final round in the semi-finals.

In the semi-final round, Bartone was a bit tardy off the starting line, but was clean and straight down the No Problem Raceway quarter-mile, recording a 5.612 ET at 254.90 mph and captured the round win, while the California invader had problems and slowed to a mid-15 second elapsed time. On the other side of the ladder, Burck stepped up his best performance of the weekend by recording a very respectful 5.738 ET to set up the final round pairing of Bartone and Burck.

In the money round, the Centre Pointe / FireIce.com team of Chris, Lew, Javier, Scott and Rick put together a team effort and their hard work paid off. Burck gained a slight hole-shot advantage over the 31-time NHRA National Event champion, but the performance and consistency of the Jackson Racing Ford Mustang was enough to capture the lead by the 330 foot cones and power Bartone to yet another Division 4 event title. For the record, Bartone’s 5.694 ET beat Burck’s 6.266 efforts in the final round.

“The car is running mean right now,” noted team owner Rick Jackson. “We took a few months off to get our car prepared for the last half of the season and we are very pleased with this weekend’s performance. The tune-up is coming to us right now and we are confident our car can compete with anybody out there right now. Once again, our crew did a masterful job. It’s refreshing knowing the chemistry of this team can be the difference between a win and a loss.”

The Rick Jackson team will head to the O’Reilly NHRA Super Nationals in Baytown, Texas in attempt to add another ‘Big Wally’ to the team’s impressive resume. To learn more about Rick Jackson Racing and their driver Tony Bartone, please visit http://www.rickjacksonracing.com