Late last month, the NHRA fined Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Tony Bartone $5,000 for illegal modifications made to the supercharger at the Automobile Club of Sothern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif., which concluded Nov. 13.

Bartone drives team owner Rick Jackson’s Ford Mustang.

“What led us to fine them, and this is true in all of our classes, we found a modification to the blower that was illegal,” Glen Gray, NHRA’s Vice President, Technical Operations told CompetitionPlus.com. “It is actually illegal to modify a blower in any way. First of all, it is an SFI (Foundation Inc.) approved part, so when you start modifying things on the blower you are violating the SFI certification of the part. Also, the modification was obviously intended to be a performance enhancement. Even if it was not an improvement to performance, it was a modification to the blower, so why else would you make a modification to your blower if you were not trying some kind of performance amp. But, whether it worked or didn’t work as a performance enhancement, it was still a modification to the blower which is against the rules as written in the rulebook, and it also a violation of the SFI certification. We work very closely as does NASCAR and the IRL and others with SFI because they do certify parts.”

According to Gray, the punishment handed down to Bartone wasn’t out of line.

 

Late last month, the NHRA fined Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Tony Bartone $5,000 for illegal modifications made to the supercharger at the Automobile Club of Sothern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif., which concluded Nov. 13.

Bartone drives team owner Rick Jackson’s Ford Mustang.

“What led us to fine them, and this is true in all of our classes, we found a modification to the blower that was illegal,” Glen Gray, NHRA’s Vice President, Technical Operations told CompetitionPlus.com. “It is actually illegal to modify a blower in any way. First of all, it is an SFI (Foundation Inc.) approved part, so when you start modifying things on the blower you are violating the SFI certification of the part. Also, the modification was obviously intended to be a performance enhancement. Even if it was not an improvement to performance, it was a modification to the blower, so why else would you make a modification to your blower if you were not trying some kind of performance amp. But, whether it worked or didn’t work as a performance enhancement, it was still a modification to the blower which is against the rules as written in the rulebook, and it also a violation of the SFI certification. We work very closely as does NASCAR and the IRL and others with SFI because they do certify parts.”

According to Gray, the punishment handed down to Bartone wasn’t out of line.

“That is no different than modifying a head or a crankshaft or anything else you would have on a car in another class,” said Gray about the violation. “In another class, if you are caught with an illegal crankshaft in your car, you would lose your points and you would be fined and the fine would be in the $5,000-range. That is consistent and historical to how big the fine is going to be. You may also be put on probation or suspended from racing competition for six months to a year for finding that kind of infraction. That is what led us to do this, just the consistency of what we what we would do in other classes if we found an illegal part or an illegally-modified part on a race car.”

Neither Bartone or Rick Jackson Racing have been suspended or put on probation, according to Gray.

Steve Boggs, Bartone’s crew chief, obviously isn’t happy with NHRA’s decision.

“They were looking for a significant modification in the blowers and did not find them and found a deburring mark in the front case (of the blower) and made a mountain out of a mole hill,” Boggs said. “They completely overreacted to this deburring mark in the blower (in the front case).”

Bartone finished second in NHRA’s 2011 Top Alcohol Funny Car Lucas Oil championship point standings behind Frank Manzo. Bartone also captured his second consecutive Division 4 title this past season.

Calls and texts sent to Rick Jackson by CompetitionPlus.com were not returned.

Gray said he has photos of what NHRA deemed to be the violation by Bartone, and he also has the blower in question. The blower is physically in Glendora, Calif., where NHRA is headquartered, in a warehouse.

“It (the blower in question) will not be returned (to Rick Jackson Racing),” Gray said. “Once again, historical and to be consistent with what we have done in the past, we do not return parts that are in violation of the rules. It (the blower in question) will be kept with us (NHRA) for a long period of time, and then at some point and time it may be destroyed. To return it, we run the risk of it showing back up on another car somewhere.”

CompetitionPlus.com requested to see photos of Bartone’s supercharger violation, but was denied.

NHRA confiscated Bartone’s blower, Sunday, Nov. 13 at the NHRA Finals in Pomona.

“We randomly picked five cars as they went out of eliminations on Sunday (Nov. 13), and we had their teams remove their blowers and take their blowers apart in front of us and then we (NHRA) inspected the parts,” Gray said. “We did that at our (NHRA’s) fuel check trailer just past the scales there at Pomona.”

In addition to Bartone, Gray said NHRA checked the supercharger on Paul Gill’s Funny Car, and the superchargers on the Top Alcohol dragsters driven by Joey Severance, Chris Demke and Jim Whitely.

“It was a surprise,” said Demke about the random check of the superchargers. “Clearly they (NHRA) were aware something was up because they did catch somebody and in that respect it is good. It keeps those who are willing to cheat cautious. I think that’s good because it lets people out there who are willing to go over the edge know that they can get caught and will be fined.”

Bartone and Gill each lost in the second round to John Lombardo Jr. and Keeter Ray. Severance and Demke also were defeated in the second round by Mark Taliaferro and Whitely, the eventual winner.

“There were some allegations made by different racers throughout the end of the summer that there were some modified blowers out there,” Gray said about what prompted NHRA to check the superchargers at Pomona. “Every three years these blowers have to be brought back in for SFI certification. PSI (Superchargers) had been receiving blowers back that had been heavily modified inside. So, we became aware of it from working with PSI and from racers telling us (NHRA) that these modifications had been made. I have been in the middle of this and we (NHRA) did quite a bit of research before we did this at Pomona.”

PSI, Superchargers are based in Tempe, Ariz. They are the only NHRA-approved blowers to be used in the Top Alcohol dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes.

“There was a concern by racers that what PSI was doing as a part of their blue-printing process was also illegal, and it is not,” Gray said. “It is not illegal because it is only bringing the part to the original print. They are making it consistent to what the original print is.”

Jay Payne, who won the Top Alcohol Funny Car class at NHRA’s Finals in Pomona, didn’t have his supercharger checked.

“They (NHRA) never said a word,” said Payne when asked if NHRA asked him to get his supercharger checked. “I never had a conversation with NHRA about it all. They (NHRA) did inspect my blower in Texas (at NHRA’s Fall Nationals Sept. 22-25), and my blower was still sealed up. From the last three times it (the blower) has been inspected, it is still sealed because I do not take that stuff apart, so I do not know anything about it. The only thing I know about the whole blower thing as far I know we weren’t supposed to take them apart. They were only supposed to be taken apart by the manufacturer or somebody certified to work on them. I think my blower was checked by (NHRA) around four times last year.”

When asked if NHRA overreacted to Bartone’s violation, Gray reiterated NHRA’s stance.

“Like I said before, it doesn’t really matter if it was a performance advantage, but why would you do something to your blower if it wasn’t an advantage of some kind?” Gray said. “You could try something on your car that violates the rule, but it doesn’t make your car faster. It is entirely possible that the team might not even know where that their blower had been modified. You could buy a part from another team or anyone and it could violate the rule, and you wouldn’t know. But, you are responsible for knowing what is on your race car. To give you an example, there have been instances where people have bought race cars from teams, like in Stock and Super Stock. They bought a car with an engine in it that was illegal. When they bought it, I do not believe they knew the engine was illegal, but that doesn’t matter. They are responsible for knowing that. They are racing against other people who do not have illegal engines. We do not know if it (Bartone’s violation) is a performance advantage because we would have to take it to a blower dyno and test it, but we do not have to do that and we do not need to do that because we know there has been a modification made to the blower.”

Gray also said NHRA also has spoke to the manufacturer of Bartone’s blower, PSI, Superchargers.

“In talking to the manufacturer of the blower, there have been other blowers modified in this manner, so it wasn’t an accident,” Gray said.

Roger Olander, the owner of PSI, Superchargers, when contacted by Competition Plus Wednesday had no comment about NHRA fining Bartone.

There are rumors swirling around that NHRA is trying to make hardships so difficult in the Top Alcohol Funny Car and Top Alcohol dragster classes so that NHRA can do away with both classes. Gray squelched that rumor.

“Absolutely not,” said Gray when asked if there was any truth to that rumor. “That is not a true comment at all. We have been working, Graham Light (NHRA’s senior vice president-racing operations), myself and Josh Peterson (NHRA’s director, racing administration), and the divisional directors have been working very hard with a number of the alcohol racers to try and strengthen the field and the car count at every race.”

Gray did acknowledge NHRA is going to continue to randomly check Top Alcohol Funny Cars and Top Alcohol dragsters for rules violations.

“We will continue throughout next year at national events, and at divisional events, we will continue to inspect blowers as well as other engine components in this class,” Gray said. “I’m hoping people get the idea now that if you are violating the rules, you are going to get penalized for doing so.”

That is something Payne favors.

“You have to keep people honest,” Payne said. “If you do not check people, I know there are people out there that will do stuff that is against the rules.”