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For Bob Tasca III, winning is a family tradition

Getting a handle on some early-season chassis woes, Bob Tasca III is more convinced than ever that his first win of the season is just around the corner.
12 Apr 2019
Kevin McKenna, NHRA National Dragster Senior Editor
Race coverage
Tasca

Last weekend at the NMCA event at Atlanta Dragway, Carl Tasca, the uncle of NHRA Funny Car racer Bob Tasca III, won his first race when he drove his Cobra Jet Mustang to a victory the Factory Supercar class, which mirrors NHRA’s own SAM Tech.edu Factory Stock Showdown. The win was one of many for the Tasca family, which has a long history of success in drag racing going back to the 1960s. Heading into this weekend’s Houston event, Bob III is convinced that his time in the spotlight is coming soon.

“I’m really happy for my uncle; he drove a great race and he was really excited to finally get a win,” said Tasca. “Now, I want to think we’re next. So far, we’ve had two good races and two [crappy] ones but I think we’ve turned the corner. We were on our way with a semifinal in Phoenix but then we broke both cars and we brought out a new chassis in Gainesville and it just acts differently. That threw us a curve ball but I think we’ve got a handle on it now.”

Tasca went on to explain that his old chassis used a Chrisman rear-end assembly while the new pipe is fitted for a Strange Engineering unit. There are subtle differences between the two rear-end assemblies and the change resulted in an abundance of wheel speed which caused the car to smoke the tires in Las Vegas.

“The rear end rotates a little differently and it actually has more traction,” Tasca said. “It was putting so much torque to the track that we broke the chassis. If this was a Pro Stock or Pro Mod car, we could just make a shock adjustment and that would fix the problem, but we can’t do that. We have to manage it with the clutch and that’s been the challenge. I think we’ve getting a handle on it.”

Through the first four races of the season, Tasca’s Mustang, which is tuned by Eric Lane and Mike Green, has been solid in qualifying. They’ve been ranked between No. 6 and No. 9 at each event. He’s also scored round wins against world champions J.R. Todd and Jack Beckman.

“It’s coming together; I can tell we’re getting closer,” said Tasca. “This weekend would be a good time for us to finally break through and show people that we’re for real.”