Ennis, Texas – 31-time NHRA National Event champion Tony Bartone and the Rick Jackson Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team is flying high tonight after the Centre Pointe Collision Center TAFC took home the title at the first Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event of 2010 at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas.
The weekend did not start off great for the Santa Clarita, Calif. based team as the first two qualifying efforts produced less than fantastic results, however the experienced bunch lead by crew chief Steve Boggs reached down and produced a 5.608 second 256.70 mile per hour blast in the final qualifying session yesterday to capture the pole position. The number one spot lead Tony Bartone to a round one pairing against Channelview, Texas driver Lee Callaway; a rematch of the first round in Houston earlier this year.
The results were the same as they were at the O’Reilly Nationals in March as Bartone grabbed a starting line advantage, never looked back and sped to an event best 5.602 second elapsed time in the round one win. Due to a field of only 6 TAFC’s entered at this event, the round one victory gave the number one qualifier Bartone a bye-run in the semi-finals. Bartone showed his skills on the single, the car was moving back and forth between the left and right edge of the groove, but he "kept it in the black" and ran 5.606 second ET. The quick and consistent win for Bartone set up a final round pairing of two veteran Ford Mustang TAFC drivers with FireIce.com on their side windows.
Hot off a National event victory in Las Vegas, Nev. last week, Jay Payne and his FireIce.com TAFC entered the money round against Bartone after dispatching Chris Foster in a very close race in the semi-final round. As the two left the starting line, Bartone captured a slight starting line advantage, but both cars had problems negotiating the quick all-concrete quarter mile. Bartone’s Centre Pointe Collision Center car was the more fortunate of the two and after producing yet another low 5.6 second elapsed time (a 5.625 for the record) the Jackson Racing team captured their first win of the 2010 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing series.
“This was a complete team effort today,” noted team owner Rick Jackson. “Steve, Chris, Scott, Javier and Lew are the best crew in the business and our driver is pretty darn good as well. We have been trying some different things recently and it was great to put together a string of consistent ET’s today to take home our first NHRA Wally of 2010. I hope this is the beginning of better things for this team. I’m very proud of our efforts this weekend.”
To learn more about the Rick Jackson Racing team, please visit their website at http://www.rickjacksonracing.com and http://www.crxmedia.com.
