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It'll be another new track -- like Firebird was -- for the driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Shelby Mustang. Used to racing -- on the East Coast and winning four times in 16 final rounds, Tasca knows he'll be adjusting to more than the new sensation of rocketing more than 317 mph in less than five seconds.
"A new car, new team, and a tough track to deal with, but we did it," he said after completing his licensing passes.
Tasca, 32, who began racing half his life ago in Modified Mustangs at age 16, is vice-president of the Tasca Automotive Group, helping run the Ford Lincoln Mercury Mazda dealrship at Cranston, Rhode Island, and Tasca Volvo at Seekonk, Massachusetts. And like his grandfather, he knows the importance of keeping that business-sport marriage healthy.
Motorcraft has sponsored such drag-racing champions as Bob Glidden, Mark Oswald, Kenny Bernstein, and Rickie Smith, and it will be primary sponsor for Bill Elliott's Wood Brothers No. 21 Ford Fusion for eight NASCAR Sprint Cup races this year. Along with Quick Lane Tire & Auto Centers, the group will have a major interactive trackside presence at 14 NHRA events.
Its aggressive brand-awareness campaign centers on a massive display that covers more than half a football field. It lets visitors sign up to race virtual dragsters, compete against the clock while changing tires and oil filters, and spin the Ford Custom Accessories wheel for a chance to win prizes.
"I have a lot of ideas and visions on how we can really utilize this race car, not only as a marketing means; most sponsors really look at it from a marketing standpoint, but to really integrate it into training, recruiting, and marketing being a big piece of it," Tasca said. Obviously Motorcraft was excited and Quick Lane was excited with the idea, and then really, [in] a Herculean effort, in a very short period of time, we've pulled this thing together on all fronts."
Tasca, who is expected to host car-building legend Carroll Shelby at several races in 2008, is aware that performing well is what holds these deals together. Said John Force, whose rise to Funny Car prominence and star-status with Ford is traceable to his decades-old introduction to the Tasca family, "Grandpa saw the value of winning."
That includes at the sportsman level. "There are hundreds and thousands of Sportsman racers who come out to these venues, and they are buying parts for their race cars and they're building cars. These are hands-on people who do a lot of work themselves and they are very loyal and they are very engaging to the people who support the series. So as a dealer, there is no better demographic to be surrounded by than these Sportsman racers and the fans of the NHRA," Tasca said.
He said the "drag racing demographic is absolutely dead-on" for Ford, adding that a scouting trip to the parking lot at any drag-racing event confirms that these fans favor domestic passenger cars over imports. One of his goals, ultimately, is keeping it that way.
It's no hobby for this sharp businessman, father of three boys, Pro Stock and Super Comp license-holder, and graduate of both Roy Hill's and Frank Hawley's drag-racing schools.
Given his pedigree, he can't escape the romance of drag racing. He said, "It's in my blood. It's part of the dealership. I was always mesmerized by the stories of racing. I was fascinated with Funny Car racing. I feel I lived back then, but I was born in 1975."
Perhaps sadly, but surely, he is aware that it’s time to lock romance in the toolbox.