Bob Tasca III was likely doing some California dreamin’ Sunday night – and who could blame him?
The veteran nitro Funny Car owner/driver qualified No. 1 and then mowed down the competition to take the title at the Denso Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals.
Tasca clocked a 4.088-second elapsed time at 277.15 mph to defeat Ron Capps’ 4.729-second run at 175.59 mph in the finals at Sonoma Raceway.
This was Tasca’s second career win in Sonoma – he won there the first time in 2022. This is Tasca’s 18th career nitro Funny Car win.
“It’s so hard to win these races. To go out there and do the job we did this weekend, it’s really a testament to the effort put in by Todd Okuhara, Aaron Brooks, and every guy on our team,” he said. “They give me an unbelievable race car. We pull it back, it runs 337 (mph). We push hard Friday night in a 15-mph headwind, it runs 338. The car is just awesome. But I’ll tell you, I was surprised in the finals. I was transitioning to the finish line, and it was pulling great, and I didn’t hear him, I didn’t see him, and then it knocks the tire off and, oh, my god, you have no idea how that feels sitting in the car. Your heart falls to your stomach. And I rolled out, I rolled back in, and I swear to God I looked out the side window.
“I drove that car like this to the last, I think, 300 feet. I’m like, ‘No. Please, please.’ And I figured that he was probably in trouble as well. But when I pedaled it, I was able to get it to recover pretty quick, and that’s why I was able to run 4.08 and hold them off. But man, it’s tough. It’s tough out there.”
Tasca’s victory march in his Motorcraft Ford consisted of wins over Buddy Hall, Paul Lee, Austin Prock – on a holeshot – and then Capps.
“Well, Ron had a great weekend so I’m sure he was looking at our notes and we were looking at his notes. We knew what he ran throughout qualifying and (Sunday). He knew what we ran. And we figured that if we ran what we ran in Q4, which was a run that we were really looking at, we could probably beat him,” he said. “We didn’t think he could outrun us. But then he ran 86 (Sunday morning). So, it was one of those things where I said to Todd, ‘Listen, just set the car up to run as quick as you think you can run on that track, and if he outruns us, I’ll be the first to go over and congratulate him.”
The run wasn’t pretty, but it turned on the win light.
“We just wanted to race the racetrack. Why it smoked the tires, I’m sure Aaron (Brooks) is probably pretty frustrated,” Tasca said. “He’s probably already gone back to the trailer and figured out what happened. It shouldn’t have smoked the tires. We weren’t trying to do that. We weren’t trying to run anything crazy out there. But maybe it was a little warmer than what we (expected), and it felt good. It was locked up. I was right in the center of the groove, and it knocked the tires off, and obviously he had more problems than I did, but he could’ve knocked us off pretty easily then.”
Tasca III shocked the drag-racing world Feb. 9 when ran 341.68 mph in Bradenton, Fla., during qualifying for the PRO Superstar Shootout. It was the fastest run in the sport’s history, even surpassing the best of any Top Fuel dragster.
Now, though, he is unsure whether the 340-mph run is going to happen before the NHRA season ends.
“I think it’s going to be pretty hard. Again, it all depends on Mother Nature,” Tasca said. “This car has already done it, so this is a semantic thing for us, to do it in NHRA racing. We want to do it worse than anyone out here, but you have to have perfect conditions. The reason why no one does it all the time is because it isn’t easy. Brainerd, it all depends on what the weather’s going to be up there. I’ve been in Brainerd where I had to wear a jacket, and I’ve been in Brainerd where it was sweltering heat
“I’ve been in Indy where you’ve had to wear what … people don’t realize this track is actually a one degree uphill, so it’s like 13 feet, I think, difference between start line to finish line. As you get into the fall races, though, the conditions are going to cater itself to the 340, and this car will run 340 this year. I made a commitment I think a few races back, so I don’t want to let the fans down.”
Tasca has acknowledged he has parts in his trailer that will make his Ford go even quicker.
“Aaron Brooks, you must talk to him a lot because he asked me that question (Sunday) about what he wants to test in Brainerd. I said, ‘Aaron, you actually want to test that in Brainerd after how we’re running?'” Tasca said. “For me it’s all about winning a championship. And I think the cars that have the best chance are the ones that have the best handle on the race car going up and down the racetrack consistently. I have no doubt the stuff we have in the trailer is quicker and faster than what we have now. They have not convinced me it’s as consistent as what we have now.”
Although Tasca’s not sold on using new parts he is giving his team the green light to experiment with some things during a test session in Brainerd.
“I think I probably will let them test it in Brainerd on Monday, but we probably won’t run it until the beginning of next year. And you have to literally sacrifice three or four races because we’re chasing thousandths of a second, hundredths of a second,” Tasca said. “Let’s understand this: We’re all watching the Olympics now and people get excited when someone wins by like two tenths of a second. We’re running 340 miles an hour and we’re chasing thousandths and hundredths, so the level of perfection is hard to even measure with a stopwatch. And when you have to try to find that with a new combination, even though we know it’s got more power, it takes time.
“And I gave them, I think, four races this year with it, and it was ungodly fast on certain conditions, but it wasn’t as consistent. It will be there. We will end up with that package on our car. I don’t know if it’ll be this or into next year, but that’s the evolution of our sport. We want to go quicker and faster because everyone out here is trying to go quicker and faster, but it just takes time.”
Defeating the red-hot Prock is something Tasca took time to address.
“Austin’s an incredible driver. I take zero away from Austin, but that car, the book of data that AAA car has with Jimmy Prock tuning it, do you know how many thousands? I’m not talking hundreds. How many thousands of runs they have. Thousands with the same setup,” Tasca said. “That’s what we’re competing against. That’s why, over the last 10 years, that car has been the best car on the planet. And then you put a good driver in it next to Robert (Hight, out for medical reasons), it’s still one of the best cars on the planet. We’re literally one and a half years into our book. Todd and Aaron have been together racing for one and a half years. They’ve never raced together before coming with me, so we’re at a significant disadvantage. If anyone thinks that we’re not the underdog, we are the underdog fighting the behemoth in the room, and that’s John Force Racing.”
At this point in his career, Tasca’s greatest evolution has been inside the cockpit.
“I think I am the best driver I’ve ever been, and I give the credit to the team and the crew. You could take the best driver in the world and put them in an average car and they’re average at best,” Tasca said. “You can take an average driver, put them in a great car, they’re great. And when you have a great car as a driver, you want to live up to that expectation not for the fans, not for your sponsors, for your team; the sacrifice that they put in and the effort that they put in. You just don’t want to let them down. And a great car makes you better. And I think great team chemistry. I have never had the chemistry that I have with Todd and Aaron. It’s almost like we’ve done this together for a decade.
“We work incredibly well together, we communicate well together, and I think we feed off one another, and it makes me better. But I will be getting on an airplane to go back to sell some more Fords because that’s what I do during the week. Some drivers say, ‘Oh, what are you going to do? You going to take off the week?’ No. No, I’m going back to work. I got to go pay for this thing.”
Tasca also credited the legendary John Force for getting him to this point of his career. Force has been sidelined since a crash in late June in the race at Richmond, Va.
“He’s the reason why I’m here. Wouldn’t be here without him. He showed me the way at a young age. He was the guy that I always looked up to. Introduced me to my best friend today, Tony Pedregon,” Tasca said. “My brother sent me a picture today from when me, Tony and John met many years ago, and I miss him out here. I told him to get his butt back out here on national TV.
“Hopefully he was watching. He’s a special guy to a lot of people, and I think all of us owe him a debt of gratitude for putting the sport where it is today. … I’m sure he was rooting for Austin, but I’m also sure that, if there was anyone that was going to beat him, he was pretty happy it was me.”
