NHRA Funny Car - Tasca Records Eighth-Fastest Speed In NHRA History To Secure Second-Career No. 1

Bristol, June 18, 2011: Four years may not seem like a long time to wait when the person waiting is someone else. But when it’s you? Four years is 1,461 days of silence.

In the last few months there have been indications that Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car team are on the right path.

They’ve won a few events in the team’s three years of operation. This year alone, Tasca has slowly knocked his career-best speeds up from race to race. And despite the fact that a little improvement here has met a challenge there, Tasca believed all along this year’s car is the best they’ve ever had and waited, watching for the final confirmation that would prove him right. That one big punch that would mean suddenly they’d found the answer.

Then it came.

On Saturday, Tasca and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang rocketed to a flawless 4.056-second pass at 314.31 mph at the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals presented by Tri-Cities Area Ford Dealers at Bristol Dragway. He set personal records for both E.T. and speed. He claimed both ends of the track record with this eighth-best pass in NHRA history. It was his second career No. 1 qualifier. Only time can tell, but it looks like he, Crew Chief Chris Cunningham and Co-Crew Chief Marc Denner have found something.

“It was incredible,” Tasca said. “And we beat a Dodge to do it.”

The Dodge he’s referring to is Matt Hagan’s, and he qualified No. 2. Tasca and Hagan had a memorable end to 2010 – Tasca ended Hagan’s chances of winning the NHRA Full Throttle world championship and opened the door for his ‘One Ford’ teammate John Force, the eventual winner.

This weekend is an important one for Tasca. He’s competing at a Ford-sponsored event in a Ford with Ford sponsors in Motorcraft and Quick Lane (Ford Customer Service Division), sponsors that he not only competes for but also believes in personally. Tasca stayed on top of the qualifying board for most of the weekend, first claiming the provisional No. 1 behind the power of a 4.107 at 308.21 Friday under the lights.

The last time he qualified No. 1, Tasca went on to win the event. In 2009, he led the pack into eliminations with a 4.124 at 296.76 before tearing through the ranks on Sunday. He defeated Tony Pedregon in the final round to win.