I noted in an earlier blog that Bob Tasca III's Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang performed flawlessly at last weekend's 40th Annual NHRA Gatornationals in Gainsville, Fla.

It did. He qualified No. 1 last Friday and then proceeded to take down the competition - taking out Jim Head in the first round, teammate Jim Wilkerson in the second, mentor John Force in the third round/semi finals and his best friend Tony Pedregon in the finals.

But it seems that his car gave all it had and more in that final race with the engine burning itself out before he hit the finish line.

"I felt it go and the motor start to go away," said Tasca, who is also executive vice president of the Tasca Auto Group in Cranston, on the phone from Gainesville Tuesday.

But he said he kept his foot down while expecting Pedregon to drive around but to his surprise, Pedregon never came up and he crossed the line and opened the parachute and fire bottles.

I was watching the race on TV and had noticed smoke coming out of car as he popped the top and slid out following the win. But I had not realized the extent of the problem.

But little matter. He had won his first event - he is now second in the standings with 225 points behind leader Ron Capps who has 26 -and was initially unable to speak through his tears of joy.

"It was as good as it gets," he said, noting both the famed locale of the Gainesville Raceway and the competition, most notably Force and Pedregon.

Indeed, his first action on winning was to run to Pedregon and embrace him and as he went on to celebrate with his crew., including crew chief Chris Cunningham who joined the team 16 months ago, and the close-knit Tasca family.

And as he did so, Pedregon appeared visibly moved by his friend's joy in victory.
"He wanted to win as badly as I did," Tasca said of Pedregon. "But right now we're both at Disney World. It was a storybook weekend.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth