It has been a rockier road than Bob Tasca expected since coming back into the nitro funny car ranks of NHRA competition full time. Ford invested in his program, Tasca invested in a new body, he has invested in great people, proven parts, and the results, to this point had been frustrating. His loyalty to crew chief Eric Lane has never been questioned. He has stuck with Lane though the whole time he has been back. Recently with the addition of Jon Schaffer to his operation things have really, really come together. The car has been a contender at the last handful of races and in Bristol, Tennessee all the right calls were made from the driver’s seat and the crew chief’s seat. The result? Rhode Island has a nitro funny car wally within its borders for the first time since 2012.
Tasha’s win solidified his current 9th place spot in the standings and brought him far closer to Tim Wilkerson who currently resides in eighth and Matt Hagan who is in 7th. Tasca’s main goal is to lock in a place within the top 10 in nitro funny car in order to compete for a world championship during the NHRA’s playoff known as the Countdown to the Championship.
As a legacy family in drag racing, it is pretty neat to see the Tasca name back in hot contention for race wins. No longer a part time runner and having all of the right people, parts, and procedures in place, Tasca could easily get on a role here and move his way up in the points tally.
The boo-birds like to point out that there are no Ford parts on Tasca’s car but the reality is that the company did engineer the body that is on the machine and debuted in in 2019. A significant investment of post debut changes have created one of the slipperiest floppers in the series now. All four major OEM manufacturers are actively involved in nitro funny car with engineering support at the track as well as testing and development work. Weirdly, not even NASCAR can claim that.
Tasca will be lining up his funny car in Norwalk, Ohio this weekend for the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals!
And they wonder why fans flock to the much slower Nostalgia Funny Cars. That thing is supposed to look like or even resemble a Mustang? Somebody please explain it to me.
Pure function over resemblance…two different animals IMHO…That Jeanie is out of the bottle, unfortunately….