Tasca And Motorcraft/Quicklane Reach Second Round

TOPEKA, May 24, 2010: Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team hoped to make another appearance in the semi-finals for the third consecutive race. Unfortunately, that goal was dashed in the second round.

After several months of continuous improvement, the team was confident heading into this weekend event at Heartland Park Topeka.

Tasca qualified in the 13th position with a best pass of 4.256 seconds at 294.05 miles an hour. In his Mustang, Tasca would face Jack Beckman and his Dodge Charger during Sunday’s first elimination round.

“We struggled on the tune-up because the track conditions were not what we normally see in Topeka,” said Tasca. “The track had tremendous traction and bite, so unfortunately we were a little behind on Friday and Saturday. Chris [Cunningham], Marc [Denner] and the guys were pretty pumped on Saturday night because we found a combination to make our Mustang run well on Sunday.”

During Sunday’s first round, Tasca took the lead at the click of the green and never trailed in his race against Beckman. Tasca’s 4.150 second pass at 305.22 miles per hour defeated Beckman’s 4.173 second pass at 302.10 miles per hour. Tasca’s margin of victory was 0.0440 seconds, approximately 19 feet.

“We ran a 4.15 and beat Beckman,” said Tasca. “That was a big first round win for us.”

In the second round pairing, Tasca faced Ron Capps. Tasca was the first of the line, but Capps took the lead by the tree and reached the finish line in 4.126 seconds at 298.40 miles per hour. Tasca ran a 4.184 second pass at 304.53 miles per hour and missed the semi-final round by 0.0488 seconds, approximately 22 feet.

“The track got hotter in the second round and we pulled back the tune-up a bit because we thought we could have smoked the tires,” said Tasca. “Even though the track was hotter, it really didn’t lose much traction and the motor got away from it. Capps ran low ET of the round, so he would have beat everybody in that session. Unfortunately, we ran the wrong guy in the second round.”

Despite the second round loss, Tasca improved one position in the standings and now sits seventh overall.

“I’m proud of my guys and that we moved from eighth to seventh in points,” said Tasca. “We’ve had a great couple of weeks – testing, back-to-back semi-finals and a big first round win against Beckman. We’ll move on to Chicago and look to go a few more rounds there.”

Robert Hight, Ford Mustang, won Sunday’s 22nd Annual O’Reilly Summer Nationals at Topeka, Kansas.