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January 18, 2008
Bob Tasca III is moving up.
In a deal announced Friday, Ford Customer Service Distribution’s Motorcraft brand will be sponsoring Tasca’s Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny Car for the 2008 National Hot Rod Association season.
Motorcraft and Ford’s Quick Lane Tire & Auto Centers will also have a major interactive presence at 14 NHRA events.
Tasca is Rhode Island’s most successful race car driver and a vice president of the Tasca dealerships. He is moving up to the nitro-powered Funny Car after two seasons driving Alcohol Funny Cars, where he currently holds the record for the fastest quarter mile – 5.541 seconds at 263 mph.
He will be running for Rookie-of-the-Year in the Nitro Funny Car and will make his first appearance in the new car during pre-season testing at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix on Jan. 24. The season opens with the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., on Feb. 7-to-10.
“I’m just really excited about taking a step up and racing a Nitro Funny Car in the 2008 season with Motorcraft and Quick Lane,” he said in a prepared statement.
“It’s going to be an exciting year for us and certainly we have big goals,” he said in a prepared Q&A. “We’re building a program, certainly we’re new, but my crew chiefs aren’t new, they are very experienced and veterans in the top fuel ranks.”
“The Fuel car [Nitro car] from 300 feet on is a much faster and much more aggressive vehicle to drive than an Alcohol car,” Tasca said. “It’s just accelerating so much harder from that point forward. From zero to 60 feet, they’re comparable. … Then from 300 feet to the finish line, there’s a huge difference. The car at half-track, the Fuel car is going faster than the Alcohol car is going at the finish line. There is a significant difference from that respect.”
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