Houston Proves Problem For Ford Mustang Funny Car Team

HOUSTON, May 1, 2011: Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car team took a tough-luck shot to the chin at Royal Purple Raceway in a first-round loss to Ron Capps.

Tasca fought for a 6.250-second lap at 110.57 mph to Ron Capps’ healthier 4.211 at 303.09 in Round 1 of the NHRA Spring Nationals. Capps turned in the fourth-highest performance of that round, and later lost to Bob Bode in Round 2.

“The conditions were very challenging,” Tasca said of the soupy air and hot temperatures. “We saw a lot of cars smoke the tires in Top Fuel, but we thought we could go out pretty much on par with what we ran in Q2 and Q3. It didn’t turn out that way and we just smoked the tires. Nothing stupid happened. It was just the slightly wrong combination for a challenging track.”

In the match-up with Capps, Tasca’s was the higher-qualifying car. The Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang qualified sixth with a 4.144 at 301.13 to Capps’ 4.209 at 299.53 (qualified 11th).

It wasn’t what the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team wanted to see, after a strong runner-up performance at the VisitMyrtleBeach.com NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte April 17.

The team now focuses on Atlanta, where they’ll hope for better results.

“We came in eighth in the (NHRA Full Throttle Series) points and we’ll leave eighth in the points,” Tasca said. “It’s still a very tight group of guys between five through ten, really. We had a few friends from NASA at the track and we really hoped to do well for them, but we’ve got to look forward to Atlanta. We’re going out to win rounds.”