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Race report

Tasca drops semifinal at Pomona

John Force took the semifinal victory with a 4.025 to Tasca’s 5.007.

Bob Tasca III

Bob Tasca III

Todd Steitle

POMONA, Calif., Feb. 9, 2014—After struggling in the first three laps of qualifying, Bob Tasca III and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Funny Car team made the show with a solid 4.132-second pass on the last attempt – and continued that streak straight through to a semifinal matchup with John Force Sunday at the Circle K Winternationals.

Bob Tasca III
Bob Tasca III

Photo by: Todd Steitle

Force took the semifinal victory with a 4.025 to Tasca’s 5.007. Tasca, who held a 9-7 head-to-head advantage over Force going into the race, got his machine up to 195.51 mph before the engine let go. Force hit a staggering 322.27 mph.

“I’m so proud of my guys,” Tasca said. “We were a little bit down on Friday and Saturday but we came out swinging on Sunday. I said coming into this race that I wanted to get this team off to a fast start. We had pressure on us to do that. I feel really good going to Phoenix.”

The NHRA Mello Yello Series now heads to Arizona for the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals Feb. 21-23, 2014.

Tasca reached the semifinals with a 4.035 in the quarterfinals with his top speed of the weekend, 317.72 mph, while opponent Ron Capps brushed the wall and was disqualified. He defeated Cruz Pedregon in a round-one upset with a run of 4.076 seconds at 316.30 mph to Pedregon’s 4.832 at 156.12.

The team struggled to get the car down the track during qualifying, posting a 4.577, 7.126 and 4.529 before getting it right with a 4.132 in the fourth and final qualifying attempt.

“We were (trying for) 4.0 runs, but we were not finishing,” said Tasca, who remained confident he and his team could get the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang into the Sunday eliminations.

That confidence paid off with a solid 4.132 at 311.20 in the last qualifying session as the sun set behind Pomona’s hills, giving him p13 and a date with Pedregon in round one of eliminations.

Tasca Racing

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