BARTONE'S RENEWED APPROACH
“I never doubted John Dunn,” Bartone said of the team’s manager and marketing agent. “He is relentless when it comes to finding sponsors. He kept digging out back and came up with a great sponsor called Canidae Natural Pet Foods. We're glad to have them aboard.”
For the first time in his professional career, Bartone is the front-man for a non-automotive sponsor.
“I never doubted John Dunn,” Bartone said of the team’s manager and
marketing agent. “He is relentless when it comes to finding sponsors.
He kept digging out back and came up with a great sponsor called
Canidae Natural Pet Foods. We're glad to have them aboard.”
For the first time in his professional career, Bartone is the front-man for a non-automotive sponsor.
“Your goals are still the same,” Bartone explained. “You're out there
to promote the product, promote the company and help them increase
their sales through a million different marketing things that we do out
here in NHRA racing.
MEMORIES OF THE TOP ALCOHOL DAYS
As a Top Alcohol racer, Bartone more than held his own ground. In fact, the New Jersey native
won 25 national events in Top Alcohol Funny Car and three more in the dragster.
“My days in the Top Alcohol ranks remain a distant but fond memory but
I enjoy being out here in the nitro ranks,” said Bartone. “I enjoy
driving any kind of race cars as long as it goes fast and has four
wheels on it.”
Oh really? What about the rear-engine Funny Car his boss made famous?
“Jim tells me that when he had that car his helmet was about an inch
away from the front windshield,” Bartone said. “I've seen pictures of
it and it looks a little intimidating to try to drive but I'd give it a
shot. Why not?”
Bartone’s demeanor makes him the perfect driver for Dunn. He’s often
considered as a David among the Goliaths. This makes knocking off the
higher financed teams quite an impressive trophy.
“Any round win you can get in NHRA funny car competition is a coveted
item,” said Bartone. “You're out there to do your job and it's always
nice to win. At the end of the 1320 you see that little light come on
-- on your side in your lane it's a pleasurable experience.”
What Bartone didn’t see as a pleasurable experience, though, was the
uncertainty of a solid spec for the Funny car chassis design for 2008.
“NHRA believes that they're doing what they have to do to increase the
safety of the sport,” said Bartone. “A team like ours, I believe that
the chassis that we use, the Mike Plueger chassis, one of the stronger
more rigid chassis out there. I think our chassis is fine, but again
we have to abide by the rules. As part of the testament to the Plueger
chassis I rolled the car into the sand trap in Denver, CO. We put a
new body on it, changed the headers, made sure the chassis was still
square and straight and wasn't broken. We went out and ran with it the
next day and ran over 300 mph on the next lap. The Plueger chassis has
a lot of integrity in the strength and design of the chassis. I think
it's a very good piece.”
This chassis uncertainty has been tough on the teams like the Dunn’s.
“We had a hand full of chassis that we had set up under the old rules
and now they've rendered them useless unfortunately,” admitted Bartone.
“We're building new chassis to conform to the new rules and now they
have to be on the track by July 1 so we're making our best efforts to
make that happen.”