An improbable bet with his six DNQs (including at three of the previous four races) and his 2-7 round-win record that put him in 17th place in the standings, the veteran of 118 fruitless Funny Car races was an unlikely $40,000 winner Sunday. Then again, drag-racing legend John Force, who has won seven times at Pacific Raceways en route to 14 series championships, missed the cut -- the only one of 17 Funny Car drivers not to make the 16-car field.
So Bartone defied the odds and drove the Canidae Pet Food Chevy Monte Carlo to victory for gritty, old-school, low-budgeted team owner Jim Dunn. In the process, he eliminated No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight and multiple-time NHRA champions Gary Scelzi and Tony Pedregon to advance to the final round. There he beat Ron Capps in the NAPA Dodge Charger after they both lost traction near halftrack. Bartone recovered first and sped to the 1,000-foot victory with a 4.454-second run at 238.17 mph. Capps clocked a pass of 4.708 seconds at 227.46 mph.
"This is what you dream about, this is what you work for in your career - to win in the pro ranks," Bartone said after hitting the $40,000 jackpot. "Winning was great in the alcohol classes . . . but this is a special moment, a culmination of what you try to accomplish as a pro racer."
With a tune-up that he said "wasn't perfect but it went rounds," Bartone said six previous DNQs and seven first-round losses in the previous 13 races wasn't all that daunting. "How about two crashed race cars and a whole bunch of fires?" he quipped. "You never say die. You never give up. You keep plugging, and days like this happen."
"I probably won't sleep for three or four days," Bartone, a construction-industry executive who divides his time between New York and Florida, said. "Then we'll try to do this again next week in Sonoma. They say the first one is the toughest. Maybe we have the monkey off our back. We'll see."