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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