Auto Club Famoso Raceway, March 9, 2014—Call it regime change. The Bartone Brothers rolled their menacing nitro-powered dragster out from Long Island City, New York all the way west to Auto Club Famoso Raceway north of Bakersfield and, by both sheer power and guile, trounced the California-centric Top Fuel competition at the 2014 March Meet.
Their domination began in time trials, when driver Tony Bartone scored the #1 qualifying spot in his Steve Boggs-tuned rail, with a quarter-mile elapsed time of 5.63 seconds, six-hundredths ahead of the #2 qualifier and 2011 March Meet Top Fuel winner, Rick White, in his San Diego-based entry, “Neal & White.”
During eliminations, White weeded through his side of the tournament ladder with a series of strong 5-second runs, handily dispatching Roger Lechtenberg, Dusty Green, and Adam Sorokin. Meanwhile Bartone, after running unopposed in the first round, put the power to the pavement against Pleasanton, CA’s Ron August in the second round, with a sizzling 5.629 clocking. This set up a pivotal semi-final round against local racer Rick McGee. In that heat, “T-Bone” strapped a holeshot on McGee, with Bartone’s quicker reaction time enabling his 5.82 at only 213-mph to get to the finish line first, as McGee left late and unsuccessfully gave chase with a superior elapsed time of 5.70 seconds at a boisterous but futile top-end speed of 257-mph.
In the final round against White, once again Bartone drilled his opposition on the start. But it didn’t end there, as T-Bone hit every mark at the expense of White: Yes, Bartone not only left first, he then posted a peerless 5.623 at an insane 262 mph to White’s second-best, 5.71, 252. With that pass and those numbers, Bartone scored the Top Fuel hat trick: Top Eliminator, Top Speed and Low ET. In other words, utter domination and the first March Meet Top Fuel victory from a racer east of the Mississippi since Indianapolis driver Paul Romine won in 1996.
Photos c/o maxcacklephotos.com
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