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FINAL ROUND FINISH FOR JACKSON RACING AT BAYTOWN DIVISIONAL

Courtesy of Jackson Racing

Baytown, TX – In today’s competitive NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car division, it’s important to take advantage of every racing opportunity; especially when expectations are not achieved.

An event runner-up finish at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in Baytown, Texas for Rick Jackson’s team this past weekend provided the Centre Pointe Collision Center Ford Mustang and driver Tony Bartone with valuable tuning information as well as 64 valuable NHRA National Points.

One week after an event winning and world record setting race weekend at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., the Jackson Racing TAFC headed to Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown to kick off their 2011 NHRA Div. 4 LODRS season and defend their 2010 Divisional Championship.

As qualifying began for the Santa Clarita, Calif. headquartered team, after an on-and-off the throttle and early shut-off 6.563second elapsed time instantly put the team behind the tuning curve.

Their efforts improved slightly in Q-2 as the team recorded a super-charger popping 5.900 ET. Due to rain on Saturday, two qualifying sessions is all the Alcohol cars would receive. And in the short field of five-cars, Bartone drew the number four spot, and a round one race against Lee Calloway.

Calloway, the Channelview, Texas driver entered eliminations in the number three position and held the choice of lanes.As the light turned green, Calloway’s Mustang held a slight starting line advantage, but Bartone and the Steve Boggs and Darren Mayer tuned Centre Pointe Pony captured the lead by the time both cars reached the 60 foot clocks.

Bartone never looked back and sped to a 46 foot margin of victory, an improved 5.699 elapsed time at 257.33 miles per hour and a semi-final dance with the event pole sitter Bryan Brown.

As both cars approached the starting line, anticipation was high for a good old fashioned drag race, however, the drama was over quickly, as Brown anticipated the green light by -0.035 seconds triggered the red-light.

Meanwhile, the Centre Pointe Collision Center Mustang rattled the tires violently and coasted to a stop before crossing the finish line. The red-light disqualification of Brown sent Jackson’s team to their second straight final round.

On the other side of the ladder, Chris Foster, from Davenport, Iowa, recorded an impressive 5.619 ET in a semi-final bye-run to provide the 2010 Division 4 TAFC runner-up with lane choice over Bartone in the money round.

With the event title on the line, Foster and tuner Will Hanna saved their best effort for last, recording a career-best 5.608, while Bartone slowed to a mid-11 second effort. The win for the Forbes Construction Mustang was his first of the 2011 NHRA Season. Meanwhile, team owner Rick Jackson remained optimistic about the weekend’s effort.

“We certainly did not lay down our best effort this weekend,” noted Jackson, the owner of Centre Pointe Collision Center. “We got behind the curve in qualifying and had several issues through the weekend which didn’t show the true potential of this Centre Pointe Mustang. Our hats go off to Chris Foster and Will Hanna for definitely being the class of the field this weekend. They raced on the same track we did, and they were there at their best when it counted. We’ll head back home and prep for the Las Vegas National Event. It should be a barn burner.”

To learn more about Rick Jackson Racing, please visit their website at http://www.rickjacksonracing.com. You can also follow the team on Facebook @RickJacksonRacing.

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