Tasca And Motorcraft/Quickland Racing Exit Pomona In First Round

POMONA, November 16, 2009: A first round loss brought an early end to the weekend and the 2009 season for Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team.

After four qualifying sessions, Tasca piloted his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang to the 12th qualifying position with his best lap of 4.142 seconds at 300.13 miles per hour. Tasca would face Ron Capps in the Sunday’s first round eliminations.

Tasca was first off the line and lost traction around the 600-foot marker. Capps also lost traction at the 600-foot mark but was able to pedal his car, take the lead and cross the finish line about one car length ahead of Tasca. Capps’ margin of victory was 0.07 seconds.

“Clearly not the outcome we wanted today and for our season,” said Tasca. “We were hoping to go a few rounds and move up on the ladder but we fell a little short in the first round against Capps.”

In his second NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season, Tasca finished eighth in the series championship. This season Tasca won two races, earned his first No. 1 Qualifier and a season record of 26 round wins and 21 round losses.

“It was an exciting year for our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team,” said Tasca. “I’m proud of Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner and all my guys and all that they accomplished this season. I’m proud of Motorcraft/Quick Lane and the activation we’ve done on and off the race track. Our sponsorship gives us a great sense of accomplishment as a program even though we didn’t win the championship.”

“We made the Countdown, we won two races and we ended the year in eighth, so that is a major improvement from last year. You always want go in and win, particularly in Pomona and the last race of the year. So, we’re going to take the good with us, leave the bad behind and focus on 2010. I’m more excited about 2010 right now and it hasn’t even started yet.”

Late last season, Tasca and Tim Wilkerson formed a technical alliance. Both drivers ended the 2009 season with two wins each and in the top-10 in series standings.

“Our teammate, Tim Wilkerson, did really well today by reaching the semi-finals. So we’re proud of Tim and his entire team for finishing fourth in the series standings.”

Less than three months before the 50th Annual Winternationals, Tasca and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team are looking forward to the off-season and returning to Pomona in February.

“We have an off-season that we’re really looking forward to, because the last two years, we really haven’t had an off season,” said Tasca. “In the first year we were building the race team and last year we were building our race shop in Concord. This will be a year for us to focus on some research and development – areas that we know that we need to improve to run stronger on cool condition races.”

Mike Neff won the 45th Annual Auto Club Finals on Sunday in the John Force Racing “Ford. Drive One.” Mustang.

Robert Hight won the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Funny Car Championship title in the Auto Club of Southern California Mustang.