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This Week in Ford Racing: NHRA Edition

Wednesday March 11, 2009

 

Bob Tasca III, driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang, heads to the NHRA Gatornationals this weekend after a two-week break sitting sixth in the points standings. When Tasca wasn’t at his dealership in Rhode Island, he was at his new race shop in Concord, N.C., and at zMAX Dragway testing the 2008 Tasca Cobra Jet.

BOB TASCA III – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE STATUS OF THE TASCA RACING SHOP IN CONCORD? “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 spent a couple of days down in Concord 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.”

WHAT ELSE DID YOU DO IN CHARLOTTE? “We took 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 had 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 on to 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.”

AND FANS CAN SEE A COBRA JET THIS WEEKEND IN GAINESVILLE AT THE MOTORCRAFT/QUICK LANE RACING EXPERIENCE. “Yes, the Tasca Cobra Jet. The display is such an important part of our program with Motorcraft and Quick Lane and Ford. It’s the business-to-consumer interaction and connecting with the fans directly. That’s the wonderful thing about NHRA racing. The fans have an unprecedented access to us and the sponsors have unprecedented access to the fans. This 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 Hole Shot 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, and this one is awful special to me because it’s the Tasca version. Our car 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.”

Ashley Force Hood, driver of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang Funny Car, is in ninth place in the NHRA Full Throttle points standings heading into this weekend’s Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. Ashley, who is now in her third full season in the series, says she’s looking forward to getting back to the race track after a two-week break in the schedule.

ASHLEY FORCE HOOD – YOU HAD A COUPLE OF WEEKS OFF, NOW IT’S TIME TO GET BACK TO RACING. YOUR THOUGHTS HEADING INTO GAINESVILLE? “ We have had two weeks off, it’s been kind of strange we’re not used to having two weeks in a row, but Pomona and Phoenix were kind of spread out and now we’ve been kind of waiting around so I think everyone is relieved to head into the next race cross country in Gainesville, Florida. I’m excited to get back and see my team and see everyone, most of them have been working at the Indy shop so I haven’t seen them since Phoenix Nationals, so it will be good to get back.”

AFTER THE GATORNATIONALS YOU HAVE WEEK OFF AND THEN THINGS REALLY START TO PICK UP. YOU HAVE BACK-TO-BACK RACES IN HOUSTON AND VEGAS. DOES IT FEEL LIKE THIS IS REALLY THE START TO THE SEASON NOW. “It usually seems like at the beginning of the season there is a lot of stop and start and then later in the fall it starts to space out again around October. We are pretty used to in the warmer months having a tighter schedule, that’s usually when most of our races are. That’s the routine and that’s usually how it’s always been so I don’t really see any difference in this year’s schedule and any past year.”

MIKE NEFF WENT TO THE FINAL ROUND AT THE LAST RACE IN PHOENIX AND HE WAS RUNNING EXTREMELY WELL. YOUR THOUGHTS OVERALL ON YOUR OWN PROGRAM TO THIS POINT AND JOHN FORCE RACING OVERALL AS A TEAM. “Mike did a really great in Phoenix, it was good to see them do well without having their crew chief John [Medlen] who was in the hospital there. They didn’t want to be out there without him but they kept their spirits high and they did so well. They went from round to round and it kept their minds occupied, they were still working with John over the phone and through texts and it really made their team closer to go through something like that. It was really exciting watching Mike come so close. They came close last year, they were in a handful of finals last season and another one this year so it’s got to be right around the corner for him to get that win. Sometimes you just need a little luck. I know from experience since close to this time last year I went to three finals in a row before I won my first race. I know it’s frustrating for them, but they got to look at going into those final rounds that’s a lot of points you’re gaining towards that Championship at the end of the year. They’ll get their win. As for us, we’ve really struggled the last two races, fortunately with how the point system is now it gives you a little more room if you do have struggles to have them in the beginning of the year because it really gets tight towards the end of the year when each round is counting. Not that we’re being lax about it or anything, but we know that we’re not letting it get into our heads that we’ve struggled, we know that we’ve just got to keep trying and we’ll get our stuff figured out. Sometimes you just go through those low points but if you’re going to have a low point we rather it be in the beginning of the season and hopefully now that we’re going to start going to races more often week after week we can get into our groove. Last year around this time in the spring is really when my team just clicked and did a really great job and that’s when we got our win. We’re hoping to repeat that this year.”

MIKE NEFF IS RUNNING THE NEW FORD BOSS 500. ARE YOU RUNNING IT YET IN YOUR MUSTANG? “No we’re not running it yet. It’s definitely in the plans. I know they have switched Dad over so two of our cars are running the BOSS 500, so it’s just a matter of changing one team at a time trying to get everyone organized and get them everything that they need. I know that “Guido” (Dean Antonelli) my crew chief and my team are real anxious to have the BOSS 500 especially with how well Mike’s been doing with the engine.

BARBIE: IT’S HER 50TH BIRTHDAY THIS WEEKEND AND YOU OF COURSE HAVE YOUR OWN BARBIE. YOUR THOUGHTS ON SEEING YOURSELF AS A BARBIE DOLL. “Well my first year in the A Fuel Dragster we had a sponsorship with the Mattel Toy Store which Mattel had just opened up across the country. They had some in California, Texas and other places so they really wanted to promote that. They have a history with Hot Wheels and being in racing so they thought it would be a good match to go with me as I was starting out in A Fuel and I was a female and it really was a lot of fun. The kids just loved that my car said Barbie and Hot Wheels, I mean those are emblems that a lot of kids and adults recognized so it was really just a great way to kick of my career in A Fuel. They were really great to me, we had a lot of fun when we did the Barbie doll. In fact we did two of them actually, that are duplicates of the fire suit that I had that particular year. That is probably the main thing that I sign other than t-shirts at the track that people bring up to get signed because its just something that’s one of a kind at the races. There’s tons of diecasts, t-shirts and hats but there’s really no dolls other than maybe the bobble heads at some of the events. I’m proud that I got the chance to do that.

WHERE CAN FANS GET YOUR BARBIE DOLL? “We sell them at all of the National events in our John Force Racing trackside trailers and we sell them at our Race Station store and for a while they were selling them through the Mattel Toy Store when we were racing with them. They’re definitely still out there, there’s two different ones, there’s the Mattel Toy Store fire suit and then the next year I had a Castrol fire suit. Both have pictures of the car on the box and a little bio on the back.”

Andrew Caddell is the defending champion of the Ford Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup. The Mustang Challenge kicked off last year and 20-year-old Caddell made his mark winning the first two races and leading the championship wire-to-wire. The Mustang Challenge presented a great opportunity for Caddell to break into racing and has been a boost to the Graham, Washington native in racing circles. He had the opportunity to drive in the ’09 KONI Challenge season opener in a Jim Click Mustang and Caddell returns to defend his Mustang Challenge title when the series kicks off later this week.

ANDREW CADDELL—TAKE US BACK A YEAR AGO, DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THAT 2008 WAS GOING TO BE A CHAMPIONSHIP YEAR? “No I didn’t. Well I knew that if we could make the full season that we could have a great shot at it and be able to go for the championship. To tell you the truth, a few weeks before the first race I wasn’t even expecting to be in the Mustang Challenge. Once we got to the first race and realized we had the speed to make a run at the Championship it ended up working out for us.”

AS THE SEASON WENT ON, DID IT FEEL LIKE YOU WERE LIVING A DREAM? “Well it pretty much was a dream season, we got out there and the first two races we lead every single session that you could lead. Then at Mid-Ohio we had a little stumble, but we still finished second so we didn’t really lose any points with that one. Then I had the chance to race with Terry Borcheller for the last four races of the season and was able to learn what he has learned throughout his career. It was very much a dream season.”

AFTER WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO RACE IN THE KONI CHALLENGE DOWN AT DAYTONA THIS YEAR. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THAT EXPERIENCE? “It was a very cool experience, we raced with Jim Click, I got to race with him last year but I was able to spend a little more time with him this time. I also spent some time with the Hyper Sport team, which of course won the Championship last year in the KONI Challenge Series so we had a good team, and had a great co-driver. Running around Daytona was pretty awesome, especially to be driving a Mustang around there. It was pretty surreal once I got down to Daytona and saw the track and go out there knowing that that’s where the Daytona 500 and the Rolex 24 are and to get to drive a couple laps around there.”

WE’RE LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY FROM THE START OF THE ’09 SEASON. TALK ABOUT WHERE THINGS ARE WITH YOU, AS YOU GET READY TO START THE DEFENSE OF YOUR MUSTANG CHALLENGE TITLE. “Right now we’ve got the first race we are for sure on and then we’re probably going to try and make a run really hard to get into Barber Motorsports Park because it’s the 45th Anniversary of the Mustang (April 17). Right now I’m pretty sure we’ve got the first two races and my Dad, Chris Thompson and myself are out looking for some money to run the full season so hopefully we can do it again and go out there defend the title and win some more races again this year.”

WHEN WAS THE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD ABOUT THE MUSTANG CHALLENGE AND WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS WHEN YOU HEARD ABOUT THIS SPEC SERIES THAT WOULD ALLOW ASPIRING DRIVERS TO RACE AT A VERY COMPETITIVE YET AFFORDABLE FORMAT. “We live about 20 minutes away from TC Motorsports and I went down there and wanted to check out the cars and see what the cars look like. I really felt the series was a great series and I ran in the MX-5 Cup before last year that was similar to that, cost-effective, very young drivers and a mix like the Mustang Challenge was and that really got us talking about doing the Mustang Challenge. We talked to Carlo Sparacio, team owner of TC Motorsports about the race and he said if you guys can guarantee a couple of races we will get the car and we’ll head to the first couple of races. So it was an easy decision to go do the Mustang Challenge once we heard about it, it was just getting all of the logistics and stuff like that worked out for the first couple of races.”

DON’T FORGET … IT’S WEDNESDAY!! NEW CONTENT ALL OVER THE MAIN PAGE!

Many fans are frequent Frontstretch visitors, but how many actually scroll all the way down to the bottom of our main page? Well, now we’ve given you a reason to give our site a few extra clicks. On the right-hand side of the main page, we’ve brought back our popular Foto Funnies feature poking fun at the pictures of the week, a perfect match for the Top Ten always located in your bottom right-hand corner. Add in a main page poll, a Carey and Coffey blog, and there’s a brand new destination spot for Wednesday content. It’s just the latest way to give you the best NASCAR news, commentary, info, and entertainment anywhere on the web!

This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Kim DeHaven.

 

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