Tasca And Motorcraft/Quicklane Racing Team Reach Semi-Finals At Atlanta

Commerce, May 17, 2010: Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang were eager to attack the Atlanta Dragway on Sunday morning. As making continuous improvement during the four qualifying sessions, Tasca and the team proved to be one of the strongest Funny Cars of the day. Unfortunately, Tasca’s day ended earlier than he expected.

In the first round, Tasca defeated Jeff Arend with a 4.189 second run at 299.40 miles per hour compared to Arend’s 4.874 second run at 177.91 miles per hour – the second fastest ET of the round. Tasca would have lane choice over quarterfinal opponent Tony Pedregon.

During the second round pairing, Pedregon was first off the line, but Tasca’s BOSS 500 powered Shelby Mustang took over the lead by the timing tree and never looked back. Tasca defeated Pedregon with his 4.194 second pass at 296.31 miles per hour compared to Pedregon’s 4.411 second pass at 251.11 miles per hour. Tasca posted the second quickest ET of the quarterfinal round.

Tasca reached the semi-finals for the fifth time, and advanced to consecutive semi-finals for the first time (St. Louis and Atlanta, 2010) in his career.

Tasca had lane choice over Ashley Force Hood in the semi-final round and selected the left lane, which was the same lane where he earned his first two round wins of the day. Tasca raced his Mustang to the finish line in 4.232 seconds at 295.01 miles per hour. Force Hood was first off the line and defeated Tasca on a hole shot, reaching the finish line in 4.241 seconds at 294.05 miles per hour. Her margin of victory was 0.088 seconds, approximately four feet.

“It was a great weekend for our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang team,” said Tasca. “You never like to lose on a hole shot, but we’ll learn from it and move on to the next race. Our Mustang went down the race track six out of seven times and when you have a race car that is as consistent as that, you’re going to win rounds and races.”

Fellow Ford Mustang driver Robert Hight won Sunday’s 30th Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Points 1. John Force, 671; 2. Ashley Force Hood, 556; 3. Robert Hight, 552; 4. Jack Beckman, 538; 5. Ron Capps, 518; 6. Matt Hagan, 497; 7. Tony Pedregon, 459; 8. Bob Tasca III, 455; 9. Tim Wilkerson, 440; 10. Del Worsham, 413.