Hockey and Thanksgiving

Hello everyone!

The off-season is flying by and a big part of the off-season, in addition to getting the race cars and a lot of the things back in gear on the race side is spending time with the family. For me, the off-season is about my three boys and my wife Terri. However, the last several weeks have been a transition from drag strips to ice rinks.

We went to a Thanksgiving hockey tournament for my son Bob in New Haven, Connecticut. We spent the weekend with the entire hockey team and the kids went to their first finals. It was really exciting for me to see how competitive these kids are at such a young age. They won two games on Saturday, which put them into the finals on Sunday. Although they didn’t win the tournament, coming in second and getting trophies as a team was fun the team and for me, especially to see Bob get his first trophy. He carried the trophy with him all day long even when we went shopping on the way from Connecticut, and at Austin’s hockey game.

In addition to their second-place title, Bob scored his first goal in that tournament. That goal was a turning point for him. He’s in a very competitive league and he’s one of the younger ones on the team. To see him get his first goal was as special for me as it was for him.

This past weekend Bob and his team had another big hockey game which the won with a 2-0 score. Bob had one of the two goals in that big win over a local state rival. At this rate, they could potentially reach the state finals and win the championship. I really enjoy watching the boys play hockey and to be able to attend a lot of the games during the off-season is great.

It is amazing to watch my sons and their friends. One day in the hotel, there were seven kids, all seven years old, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder playing Nintendo DS. What I didn’t realize was that they had their games synchronized. They were playing a race car game against each other. They were so intent on competing with this game, which is why I took a picture of them playing. Bob is sitting on the blue chair in the back. Then my youngest, Cameron, was sitting in-between the boys looking at the games. I remember playing Atari when I was a kid, so this was fascinating to watch.

In addition to all the hockey games, I can’t forget to tell you about my favorite holiday – Thanksgiving. Ever since I can remember, Thanksgiving is the only holiday as a family that we spend together. The Tasca family is a big family and as you can imagine, we get pulled in a lot of different directions as most families do around the holiday time.

Although Christmas we all go our own ways, Thanksgiving is a holiday that we spend together on the Tasca side of the family. Thanksgiving is, without question, my favorite holiday because Thanksgiving is more about family and appreciating what God has given us as a family and to celebrate that day together. We spent Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s house. We watched football games and ate too much, although I was good because I want to stay in fight weight here with the season just around the corner.

Coming up, I’m going to the PRI show (Performance Racing Industry), which will be the time first for me. Then I’ll spend a week at the race shop and with the guys getting a lot of the final plans in place as we approach the season. I’ve got more hockey in my future here and we have a big Christmas tournament with Bob, so we’ll be somewhere up in Massachusetts, so it will be exciting to see them compete again.

More hockey updates in my next blog! I hope everyone is enjoying their off-season. We’ll be back on track very soon.

-Bob

Off to Pomona!

It’s been a while since my last blog and I have so much news to share with all of you. Unfortunately time has eluded me these last few weeks but I’m bring you up to speed on all the latest and greatest from Tasca, Motorcraft and Quick Lane. Since Charlotte and then four races in a row – I’ve been in race and championship mode – there’s not much going on other than what you see on ESPN from race to race.

Since the last time we blogged, I had the opportunity to go to my first NASCAR race and that was a pretty wild experience. It’s amazing how different their platform is than ours. But there’s still all the excitement of racing and teamwork. I had the pleasure of being guests of the Wood Brothers and Bill Elliott during the Charlotte race. We swapped racing stories with the Wood Brothers back in Chicago when they came to our race, so they invited me and the entire team to be their guests in Charlotte. Thanks to Eddie and Len Wood, Bill Elliott and their entire Motorcraft team.

When I’m not at the race track, I spend a lot of time with my family and the family business. I’ve been working with the Tasca Ford management team on the fixed ops stop side of the dealership, which really works well with my race sponsors. I’m really lucky to have two jobs – one at the dealership and the other at the track because I’m able to connect with a lot of Quick Lanes and Motorcraft customers and distributors in a very unique way. Being back at the store keeps me at the top of my game on what’s going on in the fix stop operations end.

When I’m home, other than being at the dealership, I’d say the second place I spend a lot of time at is the hockey rink. All three of my boys, two of them (Bobby and Austin) are active in hockey. Cameron is learning how to skate and will catch-up to the older boys pretty soon. Terri and I take turns picking up kids and dropping kids off at the hockey rink for practices and games. It’s great for me to see, at such a young age, Bobby (age 7) and Austin (age 5), how competitive they are and how competitive as a whole how five and seven year olds are. I really enjoy watching them develop and work as a team. Watching the boys play hockey reminds me about the dynamic of my race team. We work, win and lose together as a team and to see my kids go through something so similar at such a young age and in such a competitive sport as hockey, is remarkable. It’s been real fun for me. Soon I’ll be traveling with the boys because once my season ends, their road season begins. They go to a couple of tournaments around New England, so that will be fun traveling with the boys and their hockey league.

We went into Las Vegas, clearly our “Game 7” and we needed a win to help keep our championship hopes alive. We qualified well but unfortunately we just missed it by a little, but enough to smoke the tires in the first round against Del and ending our championship hopes. I’ve said all season, what a remarkable job Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner and my guys have done to make our second year our breakout year. I think it shows the spirit of our team and the desire of our team to win. Winning a championship is the only reason why we race and it’s the only acceptable outcome to a season. This year our championship hopes might have been extinguished but clearly we’re well on our way to achieving our goal of winning a championship. So hopefully, we’ll end this year with one more win, that’s all were looking for. Next year, we’ll come out of the box strong again and compete for this championship.

I missed my family last weekend in Las Vegas because I didn’t get to see the boys dressed for Halloween. Unfortunately, they didn’t come to Las Vegas last week, but they sure had fun. Terri took the boys trick-or-treating through the neighborhood. Bobby was a zombie, Austin was the Hulk and Cameron was Woody from Toy Story. I tried to get one of them to dress like a race car driver, maybe next year.

Wait until you see what I’ve been working of for 2010. Starting in Pomona next February, it will be easier to find Tasca Racing apparel at the race track. I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me, “Where can I get a Tasca shirt?” You won’t have to ask that question anymore because we are working on a state-of-the-art merchandise trailer that will have a complete line not only of Tasca Racing merchandise but Ford Racing merchandise. It will be the official trailer for Ford Racing and Ford Racing apparel, so that will be debut at the 50th Annual Winternationals. Working on the design and getting everything ready consumes a lot of time, not to mention getting the whole apparel line pulled together. Be sure to stop by the trailer next year. I’ll keep you posted on the details.

In addition to the merchandise trailer, there will be a show car. You’ll see that pop-up at Quick Lanes near race tracks and in between different races. We’re going to help drive traffic and get fans into Quick Lane Tire & Auto Centers nearby them to see our race car, and see services that Quick Lane provides. Trust me, this won’t be an ordinary show car – this will be an interactive show car with a 52 inch plasma that comes out of the roof with a video highlighting our season and some of our technology throughout the years. It will be a pretty cool experience to see the show car at a Quick Lane, hopefully near you.

12th Annual Mustang Show at Tasca Ford

Hello Race Fans!

This weekend is our Tasca, John Force, Tim Wilkerson Mustang Food Drive - the 12th annual food drive that we’ve done at our dealership – Tasca Ford. It’s a car show with some of the finest Fords on the east coast. We’ve had people from Florida, Virginia and even Michigan that drive out to put their car on display. We’ll have three rock bands that come in and play everything from the Beach Boys to The Rolling Stones to all kinds of music. The admission to the car show is two cans of food. In years past we have raised over 10,000 pounds of food for the food bank. John Force flies in to show that he kicked this off 12 years ago. It’s hard to believe how time flies. This year, I’ll have my partner and teammate Tim Wilkerson there, as well as the Wood Brothers of NASCAR fame who are attending. Of course, I will be there with my grandfather and family. We’ll fire-up the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang and that’s a pretty wild deal because a lot of Rhode Islanders don’t get to experience what we do every week. Unfortunately, there isn’t a track that is real close and a lot of people just watch us on television. It’s always amazing when we hit that throttle. The fans at NHRA they know what to expect, but you see thousands of people surrounding the Mustang and then we hit the throttle. It’s like an earthquake. Everyone jumps two feet off the ground. It’s fun for me to bring our Funny Car to Rhode Island, to my hometown and at the same time help such a worthwhile cost with the Rhode Island Food Bank.

After the car show, we’re going to take the crew guys fishing. A lot of the guys on my team are from the Midwest and down south and they’ve never been out deep-sea fishing. We’re going to charter a boat and Wilkerson, Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner and the guys, we’re going to go about 40 miles off shore and see if we can catch some tuna and mako shark. The guys came back from fishing in Brainerd with three or four-pound walleyes and they had some fun doing that.

They’re in for a treat.

When we hook into one of those big fish they’ll have something to talk about for years to come. It’s our little break in the action. It’s kind of the calm before the storm. We get a chance to give back to the community, have a little fun on that Sunday morning and then we’re off to Indy – the biggest race of the season. We did pretty well at one of the other biggest races on the circuit this year at Gainesville. Hopefully our luck will continue the same in Indy. This is an exciting time for me to be in the position that we’re in. We’re three-quarters through our second year, it’s quite an accomplishment for my guys. I really enjoy it. All the time, travel and energy everyone puts in is tremendous. When you set low ET of the day or win a big round, that’s what makes it all worthwhile. We’re solidly in this field for ‘The Countdown to 1’, we’re looking forward to moving up before the points reset and roll into Charlotte where we have another big event with our JDRF unveiling and debut of the JDRF-themed Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang.

Full Steam Ahead!

This is an exciting time for us. We’re back from the West Coast Swing and I’ve been full steam ahead both at home and at work.

Last week, I went out to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture Oshkosh Show and it was amazing. There were more airplanes in one spot, at one time than I’ve ever seen in my life. It was fun to get out to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, sign some autographs and do a Q &A for the aviation folks. There were a lot of racing fans there. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of airplane engineers that respect what we do.

On the business side of things, I’ve been real busy with the Cash for Clunkers program. It’s been great to walk into the dealership and see so much excitement and energy on the showroom floor. Right now Ford has the number one vehicle that people are trading in for - the Ford Focus. The Cash for Clunkers program has really been great for us at Tasca Ford and all the Ford dealers around the country. Great time to buy a Ford!

There’s been a lot happening back at the dealership, and at the same time I’ve been busy working with the guys in Concord, North Carolina, finalizing the race shop. We’re busy getting ready for the grand opening in September. I’ve also been helping with the JDRF program, working to promote that great organization. The big reveal for Ford Customer Service Division’s Second Annual Funny Car Design Contest winning paint scheme will take place during the shop’s grand opening. Voting is open until Friday, August 14 at www.jdrf.org/ford



I was down at the Tasca Racing shop in Concord this week finalizing some of the graphics up on the walls in the shop. The guys have been working in the shop this week as well, getting it ready for the race fans to come and see.



In addition to working on prepping the shop for the grand opening, the guys have been working full steam on the blower dynos, prepping our Superchargers. We’ve got a couple new blowers we’re working on, getting them race ready.

I had the best surprise waiting for me when I got home this week. In addition to spending time with my family, the folks at Ford had a Taurus SHO there ready for me to drive. Ford is launching the I’m Driving One program this year with the 2010 Taurus and Taurus SHO. What’s neat about the program is that I get to drive both vehicles around and experience the great products that Ford has to offer. The boys are excited too, I promised to take them out for a ride to get ice cream. Check out the preview video at http://www.imdrivingone.com/

It’s been a busy time since getting back from Sonoma, but all in all, I’m eager to get back to racing. We only have three races until the Countdown begins, and as it gets closer, it gets harder to move up the ladder, and harder to move down the ladder. We have our sights set on the fourth and fifth slots, that’s really what we’re focusing on right now. We have a Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang that is very consistent and was only an eyelash away from winning Sonoma.

It was great to see Tim win that race!!

For our team right now, we have as good a chance at winning this Championship as anyone out there. When it comes to NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing anything can happen. You need to put your team in a position to WIN. We have done that consistently all year and willing continue to do so as the season winds up! For now we are focused on Brainerd. We want to leave there locked into the top 10 and with a Wally in our hands!

See you at the race track.

Bristol and Testing the Cobra Jet

Hello race fans!

While at the Bristol airport heading home from the race a fan stopped and asked me, “What are you going to do for the next week because you have an off week?” That was interesting question because, as a race team owner and driver, I’m never off. I’m always doing something with the race team, the dealership or my family.

Since racing takes me away from my wife and children a lot, spending time with them is my first priority when I get home. It’s always nice to get back and spend some time with them. Then it’s back to work. I’m in the dealership from 7 o’clock in the morning until whenever the job gets done. I’m working on a lot of different fixed operation strategies for the dealership. Then I’m on the phone throughout the day, doing an interview or talking to Chris and the guys. We talk about a variety of things, our performance of the past race, what adjustments we want to make going into the next race, what do we need to buy, and where we are with budgets. We run a race team similar to the way a lot of people run their businesses. We’re keeping track of parts life, investing in blower and clutch technology and moving Mustang bodies around the country. While one body is being repaired, another one is being fitted for something else. Trailers have to get serviced, guys have to be flown in and out of different places. Logistically, there’s a lot of stuff going on. Then it’s the mundane stuff like paying bills. We’ve got the same type of stuff that goes on as any business goes on. What happens between races is a lot and there’s always something going on.

Since I last blogged, I had another test session up in Empingham, New Hampshire; this time with the Cobra Jet that we’re building. My Uncle Carl made his first nine-second run; he went 9.91 at almost 140 miles an hour. That was a great sense of accomplishment for both of us. It was something that he worked hard on, and as a new driver has made mistakes and has learned from them. I was proud to see him make his first nine-second pass; it was really a special day. Now he’s ready to get to a NHRA track and make his licensing run because he needs to do that three more times to get a Super Gas license, which I know he will.

From New Hampshire, we went and raced in Bristol. The weekend had ups and downs, like they all do. One thing about racing, nothing goes the way you expect it to go. It is either a lot worse or a lot better. The weekend wasn’t what we wanted it to be but the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang ran the best of any car on the track on Saturday, where we had the quickest runs of the day. We measure ourselves session by session. A lot of people will focus on who qualified No. 1 for the weekend, but that might have been one run and that person might not have gone down the race track the other three times. You always like to gauge yourself on how you did each session of qualifying, and ultimately, how did you do on that day.

On Friday, we were good but we weren’t the best. Then on Saturday, we were the best and that was on a 120-degree track, which is the type of summer conditions that we’re about to head into for the next three months. Then Sunday rolled around and it’s a whole new world. It was like we went to another state. It was 48 degrees when I woke up on Sunday morning. Then in the first round, two out of 16 Funny Cars made complete runs. I was sitting in the Mustang Shelby and had a front row seat to see John Force almost hit Jack Beckman. When you see something like that coming and every other car smoking the tires, you know that you’re about to hit the gas and most likely pedal the car, which is exactly what happened to us on Sunday. The reason why we had an issue in the first round was because we discovered we had an ignition malfunction that caused the car to smoke the tires. We think our Mustang probably would have won if the ignition didn’t malfunction. I pedaled it and Head pedaled it; for him, he was further down track before he lost traction. That was the difference between winning and losing. That’s racing.

We stayed in Bristol on Monday to test. I think, hopefully, we have gotten all of our bad luck out of the way. On Monday, we had a catastrophic engine failure at about 800 feet. It was the worst fire I’ve ever been in. It wasn’t anything like some of the fires that can happen in these cars but it was hot enough to burn my fire suit and certainly get my attention. We lost the crankshaft, it threw the rods out of it and pretty much melted anything that was plastic underneath the body.

Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt and we didn’t hurt the body, but we wrecked pretty much everything else. Unfortunately, it was a massive amount of work for the guys to rebuild the race car. We were able to get one more run in but we just went to 300 feet just to test and it went great. The car ran good after that explosion. The bad news was the explosion, but it happened in testing and not during competition. If it didn’t happen at testing, it would have happened in Topeka because it was one of those things that it was going to let go. The crank was well within its life range; it just failed. That type of stuff happens and I’m glad it did during testing and not during a race. Unfortunately, we only made three runs and wanted to make five during the test session. These cars are very serious business. They can be as evil as they are fun, and they can be as violent as they are awesome.

For me it was another step in the learning process. I haven’t been through anywhere near some of the situations that some of the other drivers have been through. Chris Cunningham and my team don’t let me go to the line unless they think that car is going to down that race track safely but in this sport inevitably things happen and you just hope no one gets hurt. I’m looking forward to Topeka.

Visit to Coca-Cola World Headquarters

On the Wednesday before the Atlanta race, I was invited to tour the Coca-Cola World Headquarters. Brian Kelley, who oversees the division of Full Throttle (series sponsor of the NHRA), and I started talking last December and we were able to arrange, not only for me to be there, but for the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Mustang as well. It was great to see Brian and his team and hundreds of people over at Coca-Cola.

I really enjoy talking to people about drag racing – and this visit to Coca-Cola was one of the most fun places to be. It gave me a wonderful opportunity to explain what we do and to showcase the great platform, and also what NHRA, and the Motorcraft and Quick Lane brands have to offer. It’s always amazing to see people’s reaction and disbelief when they hear how fast we go in such a short period of time.

A lot of people were amazed that the Shelby Mustang we brought was the actual race car and not a show car. We took pictures, signed autographs, and were able to invite a lot of people out to the race track on Friday and Saturday where they were able to see all of us in action.

Brian came out with a lot of members from his team and it was fun for me to give back and show our appreciation of Full Throttle being our series sponsor, in addition to getting to interact with a lot of people from Coke. We look forward to working with Full Throttle in the future and meeting a lot more of Coca-Cola employees out here on the race track.

Wally Goes to Dearborn

Last week Ford invited me to participate in “Take Your Kid To Work Day.” I had a lot of fun with the kids, answering their questions and signing hero cards for them. It’s always neat to see their reaction when they hear what you do because it is really hard for people to believe just how fast these car are! It’s always fun when you have them guess how much horsepower our Shelby Mustang produces and you hear all sorts of numbers.

In addition to talking with more than 200 kids, I was also a guest judge at the Ford Flex decorating contest. There were several groups, each with kids on a team, and they painted a fiberglass miniature model of the Flex. The heartbreaking part of it was having to judge it in front of them. I thought it was going to be a secret ballot, but to judge the winning Flex and take pictures with the winners was a fun time.

Then on Friday morning I achieved a major goal that I set for myself when we started this program. We had a celebration in Dearborn, and I delivered the Gainesville trophy to Ken Czubay, Brian Wolfe and Brett Wheatley, the key Ford people in our program. It was great to be there with them and their team. I was able to share with them my story, how I got into racing and about the win down in Gainesville.

To give them a Wally, for me, was kind of a small mission, but certainly a mission accomplished on that front. Our whole foundation for our program is “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday,” and we’ve accomplished the win on Sunday, so now we got to keep going. I’m certain that there are more wins in our future, but the first is certainly one of the sweetest and to leave that trophy behind and have Ford put it up in their case is a very rewarding experience.

While in Michigan, I went to the AutoWeek offices to meet Mac Morrison and Roger Hart to talk about racing. Whenever you get the chance to talk about what we do and how we did and what the experience is like as a driver, it’s always a great time. I know the guys at AutoWeek enjoyed our conversation. While I was there I met Keith Crain, he’s a pretty cool guy and he’s really a legend. He and my grandfather were friendly when he raced back in the ’60s. Keith has an appreciation for what we do. I had some time to spend with him and share some stories for what we do here today in 21^st century drag racing versus back in the ’60s.

Before heading to St. Louis, I spent a couple days back home with my wife and children in Rhode Island, tested the Cobra Jet at zMax Dragway in Charlotte and checked in on the guys in the Concord shop. I’m working with my Uncle Carl to get him a Super Gas license. He is making great progress but it is not easy to jump in and drive a nine-second racecar. After lunch I had to jump in and make a pass, I ran a 9.88ET at 140mph! What a fun car to drive.

Although it was an off week for me, I was busy. I’m looking forward to racing in St. Louis this weekend. St. Louis is neat place and we had a solid Mustang there last year. We’re about two rounds out of second place, and the top 10 cars are really tight in the points. I think we’re due to go a few rounds off there, and St. Louis is as good a place as any to get a few rounds under our belt and another Wally!

California Dreamin’

Hi, race fans. March was a busy month for us and almost too busy for me to blog. But since this is an off-weekend for us, I can tell you all about my trip to see Jay Leno and the American Idols.

In my Gainesville winner’s speech, I thanked the women of the program because they let us chase our dreams of racing. Sometimes we get caught up in this sport because we just love what we do. There’s a huge price the women of the sport have to pay and we couldn’t do it without them.

My wife, Terri, crew chief, Chris Cunningham, and his wife, Shelia, scheduled a trip to Los Angeles before the Gainesville racefor Valentine’s Day. Chris and I were trying to think of something cool for our wives for Valentine’s Day. So, Chris and I thought going to see American Idol would be fun. One thing led to another, and through the brilliant efforts of the people at Ford and Motorcraft, we were able to take a pretty neat tour of not only American Idol, but we went to The Tonight Show on Monday night, met Jay Leno and gave him a helmet. That was real special; I’ve never been to anything like that.

Elizabeth Hasselbeck was one of Jay’s guests that night and she’s from Cranston, Rhode Island, believe it or not, where I’m from. We talked with Elizabeth after the taping about home, and she knew Tasca Ford as soon as I said my name. Before we left that night, I gave Jay one of my Motorcraft/Quick Lane helmets. It was pretty cool because he knew who we were, he loves drag racing, and he’s friends with John Force and Ashley Force Hood.

Tuesday morning, Jay knew we were touring his garage, and he had already taken the helmet down on Monday night after the show, so it would be on display when we arrived. I got there Tuesday morning. We got a first class tour of Jay’s garage. What can I say about it? I think you could live there; all you needed was a mattress. It had a kitchen that was right out of something you would see in Las Vegas and the history of cars that he has there was beyond words. It was absolutely remarkable. Every car was registered, ready to go and detailed to perfection.

In the other building, he had a complete restoration operation where he can restore a car from scratch and had all of the equipment needed. The people that he has working there, you can just tell, that that’s their passion. With Jay’s lifestyle and schedule, and the incredible amount of hours that guy puts in, that’s his sanctuary where he goes to unwind and enjoy the fruits of his labors, his cars.

Then Tuesday evening it was off to American Idol. What was really cool, for me anyways, was to meet a lot of celebrities. It’s amazing how many people know drag racing, know and follow what we do as drivers. What was even more amazing, and it was a very interesting comment, the people who don’t know who we are, they know we go fast.

I met Simon Cowell, of all places, leaving the bathroom. We didn’t have a lot of time together because it was during a commercial break, but I introduced myself to Simon and he said, ‘Man, you guys go fast.’ That’s all he really knew, and I told him how fast we drive and he grabbed my arm and he said, ‘Impossible, I can’t even fathom that.’ I told him we go 300 mph, and he asked how long it took us to go 200 mph, and then I told him we go about 267 mph in about three seconds and he couldn’t believe it. That’s the reaction people who really don’t know what we do, when we tell them what we do, they don’t believe. They can’t believe that an object can accelerate to 300 mph in four seconds flat. It’s pretty neat explaining it to people, and I have to be honest, I see these fuel cars come through the finish line, and I drive one, and I can’t believe there’s somebody in it, that’s how fast they are.

American Idol was an amazing experience and I met all of the Idols backstage. A lot of them saw that I brought a Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew jersey with me. I had all 13 of them sign it, which I’m going to get framed and put up in our shop in Charlotte. I invited Lil Rounds and her family to the Memphis race in October because that’s where they live. Hopefully she wins American Idol and will be too busy on the tour and won’t have time to come to the race. But even if she wins it and has time, we would love for her to come out with us and see what we do. Some of them were just as excited to meet me, as I was to meet them, it just goes to show how far our sport is coming.

Which is faster, a space shuttle or funny car?

Hi, race fans. Although things didn’t work out to our expectations in Houston last weekend, I was able to do something that I’ve always wanted to do – tour Johnson Space Center.

Since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated with space shuttles, Apollo 13 and landing on the moon. When ESPN invited me to tour Johnson Space Center, it was something I just couldn’t say no to.

I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to go on the tour because not only was it meeting the people, it also was seeing the history of space exploration. What amazes me is their aspirations of the future and what they want to achieve. It’s so motivating.

”What a place to work!” was a comment that I said to a lot of the employees. Imagine waking up every morning and working on projects that send people to the moon and outer space. We had the opportunity to meet a couple of the astronauts and had a couple of them out to the race track.

Both of them Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly (brothers) had flown multiple missions in space. Scott is heading to the space station for six months this time next year.

It was truly an honor to meet the astronauts and everybody that worked at the space center. They told us about their missions and I was amazed. Their bravery is just incredible.

While on the tour, we saw the inside of the shuttle and where the astronauts live on missions as short as two weeks or as long as six months. These men and women are just incredibly brave and it was very motivating just to be around them. Their stories were just amazing, both of the mission and the behind-the-scenes stories about what goes on in the space shuttle. I couldn’t believe what they were telling me. Things like how you go to sleep at night, and if you get sick in space, and simple things like just going to the bathroom, and how complicated a task becomes. It was an amazing experience.

I had an opportunity to put on 3D virtual reality goggles; when you open your eyes, you’re in space. It is unbelievable how realistic it was. You can look down and see Earth, look to your left you see the guy next to you and you’re navigating on the outside of the space station. Astronauts use that exact same protocol so they don’t lose their way, because there is no up and there is no down in a zero-gravity environment. They use that just so they know how to navigate around the space station when they have to repair things when they get to certain places.


After we toured the space center, it was the astronauts’ turn to tour our world of drag racing. We invited them out to the track on Friday and Saturday and brought them up to the starting line. One of the astronauts could not believe the energy, and said that it reminded him of being in the shuttle when feeling that power.

We kind of joked between the two of us. I asked him, ‘How long does it take you to get to 300 miles per hour?’ and he said, ”20 seconds.” I said, ”Well, I’ve got you beat.” Then he asked, ”Bob, how long does it take you to get to 17,000 miles an hour?” And I said, ”Now you’ve got me beat.” It was very opposite, the dynamics between the two vessels. I have all the respect for them and they had a new-found respect for what we do.

It was a blast. We made some really good friends on this trip. Next year, they’re going to give us an even more behind-the-scenes tour. We might go up in a zero gravity flight and experience weightlessness or as close to what the astronauts experience in space. We made a lot of friends.

I spent some time with Paul Page getting in and out of the space shuttle and sitting in the cockpit. I’m going to stick to driving Funny Cars and leave the space missions to the astronauts. It was a pretty neat experience.

See you at the track!

Gainesville Victory

It’s great to be back here blogging! I’ve had an exciting week and so much to tell you.

Let’s start this one with Gainesville. What a weekend! To qualify No. 1, and beat veteran Jim Head, our teammate Tim Wilkerson, the 14-time champ John Force and then my dear friend Tony Pedregon in the finals was a dream come true. What else can you say? When you beat the champions of the sport that solidifies your place as a major contender in 2009 season. For me, I keep it in perspective, it was only one win but it was a great win!

Having my family there to see my win at Gatornationals was just perfect. They don’t come to every race so it was even more special when your family, people that you love so much are around you, and it was great to have the kids in the Winner’s Circle. I know it will be a moment they will never forget.

Not to sound like a cliché, but from there we went to Disney World with Tony Pedregon’s family. I’ve known Tony since 1996 and our families are very close. We had a great time. I think our kids like the pool more than the Magic Kingdom.

When I came home to Rhode Island, I had a hero’s welcome. All of the local news stations covered my return home and hundreds of friends where on hand to congratulate us. It really hit me a few days after the race, when I received emails and comments from people all over the country, how fun it is to be a part of something like this. If there is one thing that people get out of this blog it’s that every text message, every email, and every Facebook comment I receive, I really take time to read each one. I try to respond to nearly everyone and while I can’t, I really do read everyone. I’m very blessed to be able to bring this kind of excitement and enjoyment to so many people.

I get most of the glory being the driver, but in truth I’m a very small piece of the equation. I couldn’t be successful without all of the hard work that the team puts in and the support we get from Ford, Motorcraft and Quick Lane. Everyone wants to be associated with a winner and to be able to capitalize on a successful asset, I’m just fortunate to represent Ford, Quick Lane, Motorcraft and a great group of guys on my team. Chris Cunningham said in the Winner’s Circle that he was glad he was able to give me my first win. And let the truth be told, I’m just so glad to give him, the guys and Motorcraft and Quick Lane their first win because of all of the hard work that goes into one of these programs.

Cobra Jettin’ in Charlotte and Gainesville

Everyone thinks that drivers go on vacation when they’re not racing, but that’s certainly not the case for us. Since the race in Phoenix, We have been really busy getting the Tasca Racing shop together in Charlotte. A couple of the guys came right back to Rhode Island from Phoenix to load up a lot of the equipment that we had at our race shop in RI. I’ve spent a couple of days down in Concord, NC with Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner and the guys working on where to place the equipment and a lot of the odds and ends that go into building a racing shop.

We also had the opportunity to bring our 2008 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet down to Charlotte to zMAX Dragway, and it was pretty cool because it was opening day for the race track. The track has been closed all winter and the Ford Mustang Cobra Jet that my uncle, Carl Tasca Sr., drove was the first car down the race track. That was pretty cool for him because he hasn’t been in a car like the Cobra Jet in a long time.

The interesting thing is we operate in a 60 mile per hour world. When you put somebody in a Mustang that goes 145 miles per hour in nine seconds, the car is so far ahead of you, that you’ll do things you don’t realize you’re doing. On one of the runs my uncle left before the tree came on and he said that he didn’t even know it because it’s so fast. It was fun for me to spend some time with him and take him through some of the pointers that were passed onto me along the way. By the third or fourth time in the car, Uncle Carl was going up and down the race track. It was fun in a multitude of ways to see him have a great time in the car and to see the Ford Cobra Jet back on the track, it was great to just be a part of that.

The next couple of days are going to be kind of action packed for me. I’m heading out to Los Angeles on Monday to meet Jay Leno and to tour his garage. I’m bringing a helmet for him, which I think will be pretty neat to have him put into his garage, which I hear is just incredible. I’ve been on the website and seen some of the neat cars. I know Jay has always held Ford close to his heart, so it should be fun to go out there and spend a little time in his garage. I’ll be with my wife Therase and Chris Cunningham and his wife, Sheila. Chris is already out on the West Coast disassembling the blower dyno we purchased from Del Worsham that will be sent out to our new shop in Charlotte.

Tuesday night we are going to see American Idol. It’s a show that my wife has watched regularly and I get to watch it when I’m in town. It’s a great show, and great fun. Hopefully, we’ll get the opportunity to meet Ryan Seacrest or Paula, Kara, Randy or even Simon. I brought a Motorcraft shirt with me, so maybe on my next blog you’ll see Ryan in a Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing shirt.

After Idol, it’s back home to switch suitcases and head out to Gainesville. I’m taking my son Austin; this is the first time we will be traveling alone together. My wife is bringing the other two boys down on Friday because we are going to spend some time in Disney World after the race with the Pedregons, Tony Pedregon is my dear friend, and his wife and my wife are great friends. I’m looking forward to taking Austin down on Thursday, it will be fun for my four year old to spend a little time with his dad. When people win the Super Bowl they always say, “I’m going to Disney World,” hopefully we’ll win the race and we can say the same thing. Last year Pedregon won in Gainesville, so I think the Disney trip brought him a little bit of luck, hopefully it brings me a little bit of luck this year.

For all the race fans going to Gainesville, be sure to stop by Nitro Alley and The Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing Experience. I’m a fan of the car that is parked out in front of the display – the Tasca Cobra Jet. The display is such an important part of our program with Motorcraft and Quick Lane and Ford. The fans have an unprecedented access to us and the sponsors have unprecedented access to the fans. That’s the wonderful thing about NHRA racing. The midway display allows the fans to have a pretty cool interactive experience. Whether it’s the pit crew contest on the Quick Lane side or the Holeshot contest on the Motorcraft side. Then you have the Custom Accessories display where you can win a lot of prizes and have some fun there. We’re also going to have the Cobra Jet there and this one is special to me because it’s the Tasca version. Our CJ was in the area, so Motorcraft and Ford asked us to have our Cobra Jet on display. It’s lettered up like the nostalgia one was lettered up back in the 60s. I know there’s a lot of buzz going on. A Cobra Jet won at Pomona, not our car, and a lot of people want to get up close and see one of these things. We’re happy to have it out in front of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing Experience display.

See you in Gainesville!

Bob Tasca – Driver, Owner, Hockey Dad and American Idol Fan

Hello Race Fans!

Here we are! We’re looking at the second race of the season. I’m thrilled to be back racing in the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang. We’re going to have a great year.

Firebird International Raceway is a special place to me because that is where I earned my NHRA Funny Car competition license just three weeks before the start of the 2008 season. Once I had that license in my hand, we were ready to go. Last year at this time, I was anticipating the Phoenix race as a place where we would be able to capitalize on test data and first-hand experience. All that went awry when we were unable to qualify our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car during the 2008 qualifying competition.

Fast-forward one year and we’re looking at Phoenix again. Crew Chief Chris Cunningham and the entire Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are ready to conquer Phoenix again with a whole new fire. Now that we have a full season under our belts; a technical alliance with Tim Wilkerson, 24 test runs during the offseason, a third of which were logged at Firebird; and a strong season-opening showing at Pomona, we couldn’t be more prepared. Phoenix is a race that has been circled on the calendar for several months. This year it’s a whole different deal. We have a lot of data on Phoenix, so out of the gate we’re a lot more confident.

Even though we have increased experience, Chris, the crew and I understand the unique characteristics of the Firebird race track. Phoenix is known for tire shake. It’s one of those tracks that’s really funny because some of the quickest runs in history have been put down in Phoenix, but it’s also a track during testing, where I think it took 85 percent of the field three days before they could make a full pass.

Since my last blog, I have been on the phone almost everyday coordinating the final details on our new Tasca Racing shop in Charlotte. We are moving in the first week of March. So as soon as the guys are done in Phoenix, they’re going to the shop. I’m so excited about that. We’re getting our blower dyno right after Phoenix.

Racing is in the Tasca family. My grandfather raced the Cobra Jet 40 years ago in NHRA competition and the new Cobra Jets returned to Pomona this year. I’m proud to say our new Cobra Jet came in a couple of weeks ago and we’re in the process of getting it race ready. We’re actually going to test in Charlotte on March 5th at the zMAX Dragway in Charlotte. My Uncle Carl is going to make his debut in the Tasca Cobra Jet at zMAX.

How would you like to see the Cobra Jet? It will be on display in Gainesville so anyone who will be at the Gainesville race will get to see the Tasca Cobra Jet, the new version of it, 21st Century Cobra Jet. We’ve been working with Ford Racing, because Brian Wolfe has been very instrumental in helping us get that car race ready.

I wouldn’t be in racing if I didn’t have the support of my family, my wife Therase and boys Bob, Austin and Cameron. In between Pomona and Phoenix, my six-year-old son, Bob, has been in three hockey games. Bob just loves hockey. I think he skates better than he walks now, but it’s fun to see at such a young age how competitive all the kids are, but particularly my son. I think it’s great to get kids involved with sports as young as you can. It teaches them teamwork, competition, winning and losing: all things that are involved in Funny Car racing, which I love so much, are also a large part of hockey. I’ve had fun watching my son play out there.

Lucky for me, Valentine’s Day fell on a weekend when I was home, so I was able to work on a great gift for Therase. After Phoenix, we are going to Los Angeles, to see an American Idol Show. My wife is a fanatic, believe it or not, I watch it with her, but of the two of us - she’s the really big fan. I think it is a great contest, so that will be fun. I’m really looking forward to going. We’ll definitely have a great time; I think she’ll love it.

I’m so thrilled that the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Season is underway. We’re taking the momentum from Pomona and hope to carry it through the year, right back to Pomona in November.

I’ll keep you posted on the latest news with our Motorcraft/Quick Lane team. Have a fantastic time in Phoenix and we’ll see you trackside.


-Bob

Welcome to 2009!

Happy New Year, race fans!

As I look toward the 2009 season, I can’t help but look back at 2008 and how things have changed so much in matter of 12 months. Less than one month from the first race of the season, I was getting my first race car. That day was January 15th, and I couldn’t wait for the season to start.

Ford had signed me to a multi-year contract and I was on my way to the Phoenix test. It wasn’t until the last run of the last day of the final test session that I earned my license. Looking back, that was a lot of pressure but we pulled through. We earned that license, and by we, I include everybody that helped, my entire team, Motorcraft, Quick Lane and of course Ford.

There are a couple of exciting changes this year for us at Tasca Racing. First, let me tell you about the new technical alliance with Tim Wilkerson Racing. Running as a single car entry in the NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car Series is a daunting task. Multi-car teams enjoy a significant advantage because of the extra runs and additional data that they have access to. As a single car team your margin for error is zero. If you get sidetracked on your set-up then you are on your own. One of my goals when I formed Tasca Racing was to foster a technical alliance for our second season.

When I looked at forming a technical alliance, I not only wanted to associate myself with a team that is championship caliber and a person that had the same philosophy that I have, but also a chemistry that will work well with my crew chief Chris Cunningham. Tim and Chris have known each other for many years and have a similar style on how they approach a tune-up. Tim is a first-class family man, which is obviously a big part of what I’m all about. He races his car in a very simple but effective manner, which is very similar to my racing style. He’s just a phenomenal competitor. The more I get to know him, the more excited I am about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him and his team and to attack this 2009 season.

Another thing that’s new for 2009 is our shop in Concord, North Carolina. By the second week of January, the Tasca Racing shop had the foundation complete, a roof and siding. Those are all big steps in building a building. We’ve got some great builders out there that have done an exceptional job keeping this thing on track. We hope to move in just after the Gainesville race. Then that’s when the work really begins. We have to build our blower dyno to get our blower program off the ground and get our clutch dyno operational. There are a lot of things that have to happen once they hand us the keys to the building.

As soon as the Pomona event was over last fall, I was ready for the 2009 season to start, so we went to Las Vegas with Wilkerson’s set up along with some change Chris wanted to try and made some runs. We wanted to get into the off-season at least with a couple of runs under our belt at Las Vegas. We made nine runs; five of the nine runs were the quickest runs we’ve ever made, ever, to half-track. We weren’t making full runs by plan purpose, but it was just incredible. A lot of what we worked on and wanted to try really came together well for us at that Las Vegas test. Certainly, it was a great way to go into the off-season with that enthusiasm knowing that we’ve got a fast hot rod. We struggled in 2008 in certain areas of the race track, but using that time to test in Las Vegas and going into the off-season is a real morale boost. It had Chris and the guys pumped up.

One thing I learned in the 2008 season can best be told by my conversation with Bob Glidden, and who’s more of a world champion than Bob? He said, ‘Kid, don’t ever look back. Look forward, take the good, leave the bad behind and don’t ever look back in this sport because you can’t let it affect you or your thinking next weekend. There are so many lessons that you learn and there are so many lessons that you’re about to learn. But you just have to learn from them and move on.’

With the future in mind, the 2009 season should be a great year for Tasca Racing. We wouldn’t have gotten to ’09 without the progress we made in ’08. Our foundation is set and we’re ready to challenge for the championship. But the championship just doesn’t happen on the race track. I’m looking for two championships this year – one on the track and the other off the track. My grandfather coined the phrase Win on Sunday, and Sell on Monday. Winning on Sunday is why we race. Selling on Monday keeps us racing. If you can’t sell on Monday, there’s no point of racing on Sunday. We have to win on Sunday and win on Monday. For me, that holds true on both sides because on Monday, I’m in the dealership trying to figure out how to win both on- and off-track. It’s a pretty neat relationship that I think is going to deliver pretty tremendous results here and for years to come.

I just can’t wait to get out there and hit the ground running with Tim and Chris leading the way. We’re going to be a tough tandem to beat in 2009.

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