Tony Siscone

Tony Siscone began his racing career driving go-karts between 1962-1969. Siscone had 90 victories which resulted in numerous IKF State and Regional go-kart titles. Siscone and his dad competed several times in IKF National Championship go-kart events against factory backed teams finishing in the top 6 twice.

Siscone began his stock car racing career in 1972 driving the Richie Terruso Brothers' T3 sportsman car to 8 victories at Atlantic City Speedway and Wall Stadium. In 1974 at the Atlantic City Speedway Tony won his first track championship driving the T4 owned by his dad Tony Sr. and Tony Ruberti. 1975-76 Siscone drove the famous #65 car, owned by John Lyons and powered by a Tom Skinner/Lyons chevy racing engine which Tony drove to 12 victories and his 2nd championship. In 1978, Tony also drove the 21X owned by Edward Brown III (6 wins), and the 21 owned by Sal DeBruno (4 wins) winning every race the 2 cars finished resulting in the track championship at the Atlantic City Speedway.

In 1973 Siscone felt that it was time to try to move up to the Modified stock car ranks. From 1973-1975 Siscone struggled to get his Modified career on track. The Terruso brothers gave Tony his first opportunity to compete in the modified ranks but the team lacked the needed finances to compete with the top teams. In the middle of the '75 season Tony and the Terruso team parted ways. Often, Siscone was now a spectator hanging around the pits willing to drive for anyone willing to give him a chance to prove himself. After 4 modified seasons Tony had no wins, 3-2nds and 15 top 5 finishes. Then in 1977 fellow Hammontonian Frank Ransom offered Siscone the ride in his state of the art, controversial #0 NASCAR Modified. The Ransom/Siscone Team won 3 modified events with a 355 CI small block Chevy engine against the big blocks at Wall Stadium and NASCAR's New Egypt Speedway. In April 1978, opening night at Wall Stadium, the Ransom/Siscone team made a statement by winning the modified main event. The following Wednesday Frank Ransom died at the age of 44. It was a difficult time for Tony Siscone since he and Frank Ransom had become very close friends and both had hopes of becoming a dominant team in NASCAR modified racing. For Siscone it was back to roaming the pits.

Then in August 1978, Dick Barney, his son Robert and Hoyt Morrison offered Tony a chance to drive their #14 car during the last six races of the season at NASCAR's New Egypt Speedway. Siscone finished all six races in the top 5 with their 6-year-old #14 modified. Siscone went on to drive the Dick Barney owned #14 for the next 16 1/2 consecutive years. During his 22 years behind the wheel, Tony started in 794 races and collected 151 victories, finished 2nd 121 times and 3rd 107 times. Do the math and the results are rather impressive since 48% of his career finishes were in the top 3! All of these stats resulted in 12 track championships; 6 at Wall Stadium, 3 at Atlantic City Speedway, 2 at NASCAR's Flemington Speedway, and 1 at NASCAR's New Egypt Speedway. In 1983, the Barney/Siscone Team won the New Egypt Speedway NASCAR Championship finishing in the top 3 in every race with no DNF's. Siscone also won the 1984 NASCAR Cardinal 500 at the Martinsville Speedway, only 2 years after receiving serious burns to both hands at the Martinsville track after being involved in a fiery crash with Ray Evernham. Siscone won multiple victories at the Clearfield Speedway, Mahoning Valley Speedway, Evergreen Speedway, among others. During his Championship stints throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Siscone at one point won 11 consecutive feature events at Flemington Speedway and tallied 59 victories in Wall Stadium's NASCAR Modified division, ranking him second all-time in wins at the track behind Gil Hearne. Tony Siscone culminated his career with a victory in the 1994, 44th annual, "Sunoco Race of Champions" at Flemington Speedway. Finally, Siscone had won the race that had eluded him and his team in 10 previous attempts. Siscone competed against many of the greatest modified drivers in the sports history, including: Richie Evans, Geoff Bodine, Gil Hearne, Reggie Ruggerio, Jimmy Spencer, Eddie Flemke Sr., Ed Flemke Jr., Mike Stefanik, Wayne Anderson, Ron Bouchard, Charlie Jarzombek, Fred Harbach, John Blewitt Jr., Jamie Tomaino, Doug Hoffman, Billy Pauch and many other great drivers.

Over the years Siscone became the proud recipient of the "Fred DeSarro Sportsmanship award" and the "Dick Toby Tobias Memorial award".

In 2000, Siscone was voted the 17th greatest asphalt modified driver in the Area Auto Racing News' "Top-25 Asphalt Modified Drivers of the 20th Century". Siscone was also inducted into the National Old Timers Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Garden State Stock Car Club's Hall of Fame in 2001. In January 2013 Siscone was inducted into the Eastern Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame.

2014 aroused quite a bit of activity on Facebook, Twitter and several racing periodicals about Tony Siscone's 2 greatest victories. 30 years ago, Tony and the Dick Barney Team brought the Martinsville Grand Father clock to New Jersey after an emotional comeback win. 20 years ago, Siscone and Team 14 finally won the prestigious Race of Champions and Tony surprisingly retired in victory lane. The Siscone and Barney team, after 60 plus years, are still the only N.J. modified team to ever record victories at Martinsville Speedway and the Race of Champions.[3][4][5]