NHRA - Bob Tasca III And Tasca Automotive Win Ford's Highest Award

Charlotte, Apr. 12, 2011: What would Bob Tasca Sr. have thought?

Where would he have watched, had he been at the Tasca family dealership he founded in the 1960s, as Brett Wheatley, director, Marketing, Ford Customer Service Division, handed the highest award Ford gives to dealers, the bar for which was practically invented by Bob Sr. himself, to his Tasca Automotive family?

“He would have been right there on the stage with us, and he would’ve been proud of our entire team,” said his grandson, Bob Tasca III. And in the same breath, he would’ve said “win it again this year.”

Tasca III is a success in his own rite. While at the track, the driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang checks in on the goings-on back home, afraid to miss an e-mail lest the sender be offended, or a problem go unsolved. He works from a mobile office he set up in his hauler, between going to the ropes for autographs, doing media interviews and spending time with the stream of visiting friends and family that never slows down. And so he doesn’t either. There are too many people to please.

It’s that ever-present focus on the “customer,” in all of its forms, that makes Tasca III driven to perform – the physical manifestation of the motto Bob Sr. impressed so thoroughly in the members of his family: “You WILL be satisfied.”

Since the last time they won, in 2005, the Tasca Family (and this encompasses the dealership’s 275 employees, as much as blood relatives), has been just tenths of a point away from winning what Bob Sr. viewed as the symbol of complete success – the President’s Award. Every year since then, they’d had to look him in the eye and try (and fail) to explain why they hadn’t won, said Jaime Tasca, Tasca III’s sister and customer relations manager at Tasca Automotive. Explaining was impossible, she said. They simply had to win.

And so they did, for the patriarch they thought of every day last year. Not only that, they brought home something better: The President’s Award for customer satisfaction, the Sales Leadership Award, and another for top Parts sales. It was the trifecta that earned them the biggest of the best – Ford’s Triple Crown Award, the ultimate motivation for a family so focused on one common goal. They won as a team. It was more than Bob Sr. could have dreamed of.

“It’s not just how we take care of our customers,” said Carl Tasca, Tasca III’s uncle. “It’s the way we treat each other. I see people working together every day. What really made this thing work, in my opinion, is how we respect and treat each other. We do not allow our team members to fail. We all back each other up. That, to me, is very key.”

Tasca III hopes to translate that idea of teamwork – many members working toward one common goal - to his 2011 campaign in the NHRA Full Throttle Series. That, paired with his grandfather’s belief that one never arrives at success, and that success is a moving target to chase and not a destination, are ideals Tasca III will bring with him to zMAX Dragway for the second annual VisitMyrtleBeach.com NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. It doesn’t matter if the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team has won in the past. What counts is the next race.

“To me, teamwork is key,” Tasca III said. “My grandfather always said bricks and mortar don’t sell or satisfy a customer. People do. Teamwork is the primary focus.

“Charlotte needs to be a turning point. We got to get our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car hot rod going A to B on Sunday. We’ve improved our qualifying over the last couple of races, but we just haven’t put it together on Sunday. So, no excuses. Not acceptable. Chris (Cunningham, Crew Chief) and the guys know that, and I feel very confident that we’ve got a race car that’s got the parts that can go up there and win the races.

“The Ford teams have done incredible, with Robert winning two and Mike (Neff, driver of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang) winning one. Me, John (Force, driver of the Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang) and Timmy (Tim Wilkerson, driver of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang) now, we’ve got to get our hot rods to run the table on a Sunday, and I feel very confident that we’ll put ourselves in a position in Charlotte to do just that.”