The Ford Mustang Funny Car of Bob Tasca III was dialed in on the drag strip at Sonoma on July 26th through 28th, 2024. He roared his way into Victory Lane in the final round on Sunday, outperforming chief competitor Ron Capps’ Toyota Supra for the win as the Countdown to the NHRA Championship heats up. The latest win comes two years after the teams 2022 victory at Sonoma.
The weather at Sonoma started out cool on Friday, with an 85 degree Fahrenheit track temp setting the stage for a challenging race. Tasca and his Ford Mustang blew through qualifying at 338.43 mph, a 3.839-second run. He stayed on top of the board throughout the rest of qualifying, a welcome result for his relatively young team, Tasca Racing.
“Smooth as glass,” Tasca said. “That last run was exactly what we needed. We’re one and a half years into our book. We’re at a significant disadvantage – we are the underdog.”
Come race day, Tasca beat Buddy Hull with a 338.77 mph run, then faced off against Paul Lee, winning with a 3.912-second run at 335.82 mph. In the semifinals, he beat points leader Austin Prock by 0.014 seconds thanks to his 0.022-second reaction time paired with his 3.931-second run, compared to Prock’s 3.901-second run.
In the final round, Tasca’s Ford Mustang beat out Capps’ Supra, landing him in Victory Lane for the second time at Sonoma, his third of the 2024 racing season, and 18th career victory.
“When you have a great car, as a driver you want to live up to the expectation – for your team,” Tasca said. “The sacrifice that they put in and the effort they put in, you just don’t want to let them down. A great car makes you better, and a great team chemistry…I’ve never had the chemistry I have now.”
Despite his success, Tasca couldn’t help but wonder what it would have looked like if he’d been just a hair faster.
“I’ve never been so disappointed to run 338 [mph] in my life,” Tasca said. “We really wanted to give the fans a 340-mph run.”
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Comments
So, I thought the reason the NHRA shortened the tracks for the Nitro classes from 1320 to 1000 ft was to reduce trap speeds? Is an 800 ft track length next?
An additional reason for going to 1000′ was to increase the length of the shutdown area – a big concern for some of the older tracks.