In the ninth position was none other than Long Island City, New York’s Tony Bartone, making his much-anticipated debut in a nostalgia Top Fuel dragster at this event. Bartone and tuner Steve Boggs struggled to find a good tune-up for the high altitude and hot dry conditions at Firebird. 

In Saturday night’s final session it looked as though the master tuner Boggs had gotten a handle on a tune-up. The brand new Top Fueler launched straight and true and, according to the early numbers, was on a mid-5.80 pass when just past half track one cylinder went out, aluminum started burning and eventually the engine knocked the rods out, sending Bartone mowing down cones on the center of the race track.  Not only did they kill a motor but badly damaged the front and side-mounted canard wings of the beautiful maroon dragster. 

During that same session veteran T/F shoe Jim Murphy driving the WWII machine launched on a good looking pass that saw the tires start to spin and smoke. Then it got very interesting when Murphy discovered that the throttle was stuck WFO. With the tires smoking and the car starting to move around on him, the veteran Murphy calmly reached over and pulled the fuel shutoff, which leaned the motor out, causing it to backfire and push the blower burst panels out. 

When Murphy was able to get the car stopped he exited the bright green dragster and said,
“I’ve never had a throttle hang open on me before,
| I’m just glad I knew where the fuel shutoff lever was.”

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