Tony Bartone remains unstoppable.

This past Sunday, the veteran racer from Long Island, N.Y. won his sixth Nostalgia race in a row dating back to last season.

Bartone’s lastest win came at the prestigious Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet in Bakersfield, Calif.

“You never go out there and say you're going to win 40, 30 or 20 rounds in a row,” Bartone said. “You go out there and do your hardest. You persevere and you get out there and try to win round by round and the round wins lead to race wins. We have a great team, a great combination and a great crew chief and a fantastic group of guys and I have to salute them all for doing a great job.”

Bartone was the 1996 Top Alcohol Funny Car world champion in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, but he clearly enjoys piloting the “Bartone Bros” Nostalgia Top Fuel dragster.

“The driving comes easy for me,” Bartone said. “They (his crew) do the tough part. They spend long hours. They put the car together. They go on the road. They drive from New York to California, and I want to thank them all.”

The last time Bartone was at Auto Club Famoso Raceway was Oct. 19, 2014. That day he won theTop Fuel class at the California Hot Rod Reunion. He also capped a perfect season with five race wins.

“I only try to give my guys guidance and the monetary support and anything they need from me to get the job done,” Bartone said.

When Bartone showed up at Bakersfield this time his dragster didn’t look too much different than it did last year.

“We attempted to front half the car, but we ran out of time to put a new body on it,” Bartone said. “Hopefully, we will be able to do that before the next race in Bowling Green (Ky., June 18-20). Basically, we just went through the car, rebuilt the motor, and made very few changes as you could see. The car is running on par, and where it left off in 2014. We just have a great race car. I don’t know what else to say. They made us show our hand (Sunday). I had to drive it to the finish line. We try not to do that too often and it resulted in a lot of carnage, but we got the win light and everybody at Bartone Brothers racing couldn’t be happier.”

With his current string of success, Bartone welcomes opponents to knock him off his throne.

“Competition is always welcome and my brother Michael is sitting in the tow vehicle and every once and awhile he says he wants to build a Nostalgia Funny Car,” Bartone said. “I don’t know if that will ever happen, but the idea is certainly in his head.”
 
 

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