As reported by Competition Plus last weekend, Bob Tasca III’s nitro Funny Car team is trying out a new body at the test session at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, which ends Thursday.

After making two runs Wednesday and one Thursday morning, Tasca is happy about how his new Funny Car body is responding.

“We are excited about it,” Tasca said in an interview with Competition Plus Thursday morning. “We made a really good run (Wednesday), a 4.11 shutting it off at 700 feet and it ran 267 mph at half-track. The body was perfect. (Wednesday night) we had a manifold gasket come off and soak the tires in oil and almost ended the body. It shot me straight across the race track, but we still ran 265 mph at half-track. Luckily I was able to pull it back. I clipped a cone, but that was the worst of it. The body test is going great. We just made a run (Thursday morning) and we shook the tires just trying to put it through a lot of different simulations to see if we can see any failures. So far, so good, we are really excited about it.”

As reported by Competition Plus last weekend, Bob Tasca III’s nitro Funny Car team is trying out a new body at the test session at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, which ends Thursday.

After making two runs Wednesday and one Thursday morning, Tasca is happy about how his new Funny Car body is responding.

“We are excited about it,” Tasca said in an interview with Competition Plus Thursday morning. “We made a really good run (Wednesday), a 4.11 shutting it off at 700 feet and it ran 267 mph at half-track. The body was perfect. (Wednesday night) we had a manifold gasket come off and soak the tires in oil and almost ended the body. It shot me straight across the race track, but we still ran 265 mph at half-track. Luckily I was able to pull it back. I clipped a cone, but that was the worst of it. The body test is going great. We just made a run (Thursday morning) and we shook the tires just trying to put it through a lot of different simulations to see if we can see any failures. So far, so good, we are really excited about it.”

Tasca said he was scheduled to make three more test runs Thursday at Indy.

“We will have six runs on it (with the new body),” Tasca said. “Then, we will make a decision whether we will run it in Indy or Charlotte. We will have to wrap it and stuff like that.”

The U.S. Nationals are Aug. 28-Sept. 2 in Indianapolis. The NHRA Nationals in Charlotte, N.C. are Sept. 13-15 at zMax Dragway. The Charlotte race begins the six-race Mello Yello Series Countdown to the Championship Playoffs.

Chris Cunningham, who is a co-crew chief on Tasca’s Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford with Marc Denner, explained to Competition Plus Friday at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway the dynamics of the new body.

“It has got stringers and ribs in it to alleviate a lot of the titanium tree work (that holds the front of the body),” Cunningham said. “We are going to get rid of all that and the body should be overall twice as strong as what is currently out there. If that works then there will not be any need for a tether.”

Tasca and Cunningham said the new body is something Ford and world-renowned company Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats have been working on to design since last year. Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats is based in Bristol, R.I.

“NHRA has been working with us every step of the way on it,” said Tasca about the new body. “They have been very cooperative. They approved the design and approved the concept and have worked closely with us on it.”

Glen Gray, NHRA’s Vice President, Technical Operations, likes what he has seen from Tasca’s Funny Car body so far.

“They have only made a few passes with the body, but it looked good,” Gray said. “It looked very strong. What I would like to see is high speed camera views of the car going down the track. Getting that kind of footage would really be helpful.”

There’s a strong likelihood, said Gray, if there’s the ability to put a camera on the car they might be able to procure the data they are looking for. Gray even hinted he might ask the team to put one on during Thursday’s testing.

“[The new body] looks stronger than the traditional tree body,” said Gray. “It looks more rigid, more along the lines of how you build an Indy car. It has some pretty big stiffeners and cross members in it. I think this might be the way to go in the future.”

Gray said the body’s legality will be determined by how it fits in the NHRA’s chamber, a device which measures all of the outer dimensions and ensures compliance with the current regulations. Additionally, further investigations to determine the team’s data will also be taken into consideration.

Tasca believes his new body could have a significant impact on Funny Cars in the future.

“I think this is going to change the way Funny Car bodies are built, in my opinion,” Tasca said. “Time will tell.”
 

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