| RACERS CONVEY CHANGES NEED TO BE MADE TO TAFC IN THE NAME OF SAFETY | ||||
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Neal Parker’s fatal high-speed shutdown accident at the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown NJ had the pits buzzing on Friday afternoon about making 
Fuel racer and former TAFC competitor Bob Tasca III believes the time has come for the alcohol classes to have the same safety features as the nitro classes. [Roger Richards]
Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Dr. Tom Carter said he wouldn’t have a problem with racing to 1,000 feet after witnessing the untimely death of his fellow TAFC driver. Former TAFC racer Bob Tasca believes the nitro’s feeder class needs the same safety devices his Ford Motorcraft Mustang uses to keep him safe. “It wouldn’t upset me to run 1,000 feet, especially on some of the shorter tracks,” Carter admitted. He was next in line to run and witnessed first-hand Parker’s accident. “We should have those electronic units [Electrimotion] on our car that deploys the parachutes and shuts the car off at the end of the quarter-mile,” Carter continued. “They are using them on the nitro cars and I believe they are going to eventually put them on our cars. I think at the very minimum, we ought to have that.” If Carter is looking for someone to second the motion, he needs to look no further than Tasca. Tasca raced for two seasons in the Top Alcohol Funny Car division, reaching the final round eight times. Tasca speaks from experience when he says the alcohol cars are more difficult to stop than his nitro car. He believes today’s accident only reaffirms the dangers inherent in this style of race car. “These cars [Alcohol Funny Cars] need to have the same technology as that on a nitro car,” Tasca said sternly. “They are harder to stop at 260 than I am at 300. They couldn’t run a fuel car at some of these divisional events and yet they run these alcohol cars. I may get in trouble but I am going to be vocal about safety. That is all we should be focused on. When it comes to racing, safety is all we should be focused on.” Two weeks ago Tasca sat in his old alcohol car and he shuddered at the thought he used to race to the quarter-mile with it. “I wouldn’t ever drive it again,” Tasca said. “I will tell you why. I would have to make so many changes – a three rail chassis, I won’t ever drive a car without one. Number two - auto shut off devices. They weren’t even invented when I raced in the alcohol classes. They have air parachutes, we didn’t even have those back then. If you have an air parachute and with two hands on the wheel, the parachute opens and hit the brake. As opposed to go on the steering wheel at 1,000 feet, hit the lever and then grab the brake. There are things in fuel racing today that make it safer than in an Alcohol Funny Car. “There’s a lot we can do to bring that class up to our standards in fuel racing. They [TAFC racers] might not like it, there may be those who don’t like it … say racing 1,000 feet is no good. If I was that gentleman [who crashed today] I would have like to have had that extra 320 feet.” Starting in 2007, the NHRA, along with input from Ford and the nitro racing community, implemented a series of safety devices ranging from specific chassis requirements to safety devices designed to automatically shut off a runaway vehicle in the event a driver becomes incapacitated during a catastrophic accident. 
The remnants of Burl Brown's TAFC following a high speed crash in Chicago. [Anatol Denysenko photo]
“What is on these cars is the best we knew would help all of these cars at a high rate of speed, we all did this together,” said Tasca. “Nobody told the Alcohol drivers they couldn’t put this on their car. We all are responsible for this. The NHRA, it’s their court, they set the rules. I’m certainly not bashing anyone, we all have these devices on our fuel cars that are as good as can be, but they aren’t on these alcohol cars. We go to 1,000 feet in a car that is easier to stop and they go to 1320? We have to look at this because we don’t want to get anyone else killed in a car.” If anyone understands the plight of the NHRA to make the cars safer it’s Tasca. He reiterates his words are not designed to criticize the sanctioning body but rather to point out an issue which the community needs to address as a whole. “It’s easy for us to be Monday morning quarterbacks, and I’m not blaming anybody,” Tasca said. “We are all in this together for safety. It bothers me because I have been very outspoken in certain circumstance to both racers and officials.” Now, Tasca believes, it’s time to ask the tough and challenging questions. “Alcohol cars don’t have the safety advances that we have and they are going quarter-mile with a car that’s more difficult to stop,” Tasca explained. “That’s when you have to ask yourself isn’t it time we make their cars as good as ours.”
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