In the sport of NHRA Drag Racing, a victory or loss can often come down to who has the most
consistent race-car during eliminations. The performance of every part on a very expensive machine
can also impact success. This past weekend at the Summit Equipment Nationals held at Summit Raceway
Park in Norwalk, Ohio, the Rick Jackson Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team experienced both sides of
this equation.
The Santa Clarita, Calif. based group entered final eliminations with an incredibly consistent race
car. After qualifying in the third position with 5.663-second elapsed time, the Steve Boggs lead
crew and their driver, Tony Bartone, would pair-up against the 14th qualifier, John Bojec from
Chardon, Ohio. Bartone grabbed a slight starting-line advantage and headed straight down the track,
recording another 5.66-second elapsed time (a third in a row) and capturing a round one victory.
In the second round Bartone's foe would be Kebin Kinsley from Kennedale, Texas. Bartone once again
captured a slight reaction time advantage and the Boggs tuned 'flopper' picked-up the performance;
recording a stout 5.644-second elapsed time at a speed of 252.66 miles per hour, taking the round
two win over Kinsley. The car was becoming a deadly consistent machine.
"We had a car which could compete with anyone out there this weekend," stated car owner Rick
Jackson. "These cars are very fickle and you need to ensure every cog in the machine is working
perfect to create this type of consistency."
The machine which is the Jackson Racing Mustang Alcohol Funny Car would experience a parts failure
during the burnout in the semi-final pairing with Chris Foster. "The electronic tachometer broke
during the burnout which completely threw off the rhythm of our car," noted Jackson. "Tony did the
best he could do under these circumstances and really drove the car considering."
Bartone did his best to give Foster a good race, but the driver from Davenport, Iowa was on his
game. Foster took the round win recording a 5.673-second ET and ended the weekend's activities for
the Jackson Racing team.
"Steve (Boggs) had our car right all weekend and we were making changes that were showing promise,"
concluded Jackson. "My team did a fantastic job with the car all weekend and all were very
disappointed. Chris Foster, Will Hanna and his team did a good job and had a good race car all
weekend. We congratulate Chris (Foster) and look forward to our next event."
The Jackson Racing team of Boggs, Chris Perl, Mike Pavia, Pat Feely, Lew Larson and Javier Gonzales
will head back to the Centre Pointe Collision Center head quarters in Santa Clarita, Calif. and
prepare for their next race weekend at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event for Division 3, held
July 24th through July 26th in Columbus, Ohio.
For more information about the Rick Jackson Racing Top Alcohol Funny Car team, please visit their
website @ http://www.rickjacksonracing.com
