Texas Pr oves Tough For Tasca And Motorcraft/Quicklane Racing

DEARBORN, September 27, 2009: Tasca and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team entered Texas sitting fifth in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Countdown to 1 championship points standings. Tasca and team remain in that fifth position at the conclusion of the weekend.

Despite the hot and humid Texas conditions, Tasca and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team took the track conditions in stride and posted their best qualifying effort of 4.188 seconds at 291.26 miles per hour. Tasca would seed in the sixth position and face Tony Pedregon during Sunday’s first round eliminations.

In the opening pair, Pedregon was first off the line, but Tasca’s Mustang took the lead before the 330-foot marker. Tasca advanced to the second round by 0.0986 seconds, approximately 39 feet.

“We had a big first round win against Tony Pedregon,” said Tasca. “Our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang was phenomenal. We ran a 4.17, which was the low ET of the first round.”

Tasca would face Jerry Toliver in the second round. Toliver was on the throttle first, but the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby would quickly take the lead. Tasca smoked the tires around 400 feet and pedaled the Mustang while Toliver cruised to the finish line.

“We knew that you had to be in that left lane to really run hard and that’s what we did,” said Tasca. “We ran as hard as we could run and unfortunately, it was a little too much. I pedaled it and felt it knock the tire off well past where it normally would. I knew I was in trouble, stepped off the throttle, rolled back into it to try to get it to recover. Jerry set his car up to do what he needed to do. We were a little bit too aggressive in that second round.”

“This second round loss was a disappointing way to end our weekend,” continued Tasca. “We wanted to be in the left lane to win and in the second round against Toliver, it was about lane choice for the semi-finals.”

Despite the second round loss, Tasca and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team remain fifth in NHRA’s Countdown to 1 championship standings.

“We’ve put ourselves in a position to compete right down to the wire with this Countdown to 1 by winning a round in Charlotte and winning a round here in Dallas,” said Tasca. “That second round loss today was painful but we’ll learn from it and move on to Memphis. We’re still in a position to win the championship. We just need to keep going rounds and that’s what we’ll do next weekend.”

Robert Hight won the 24th Annual O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas.