The 2019 Magic Dry NHRA Northwest Nationals will go down as one of the most insane, off-the-wall events that the sport has ever seen. The way it ended was one thing. They way it played out through qualifying is totally another. Bob Tasca ripped to the number one qualifying spot early on and then during the third session, a valve train failure caused near instant explosion that destroyed the body on the car and caused a thrash for the ages to get the machine ready for qualifying session four.
Members of various teams assembled by Tasca’s car and went to work. There was damage to the (non-structural) area at the front of the chassis where the body locks are which was repaired and then there was a complete engine swap, body swap, and systems inspection made front to back.
Ford engineers descended on the body immediately to inspect it. The body break is the weirdest part of the whole thing because it sheared off at the firewall and left Tasca with no vision other than the side windows. He did a boss job of not hitting anything.
From jump street this was a great race. It had every element a fan could want from performance to carnage to flat out history.
