NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Just hours before the day’s first Funny Car qualifying session, Bob Tasca III’s Motorcraft team discovered a broken pipe on their primary chassis and, in a swap that would make their Quick Lane oil-change partners proud, were able to do a complete chassis switch in order to make the call.

The broken pipe, which is part of the structure that holds the rear-end housing in place and is located right beneath the driver’s seat, apparently was damaged by heavy tire shake on Friday’s aborted pass but not discovered until this morning.

“That was the hardest tire shake I’ve ever felt in my life,” said Tasca. “It was just brutal. Ideally we would have discovered it after the run yesterday, but the pipe is partially obscured by wiring that goes around it. One of the crew guys spotted it this morning as he was mounting new tires. I’m thankful we found it.”

Crew chief Mike Green crawled under the car and shot some cellphone photos that allowed them to analyze the damage, and the decision was quickly made to bring out the team’s spare chassis. The team, led by Green and co-crew chief Eric Lane, efficiently transplanted the powertrain and associated parts into the new chassis with plenty of time to spare.

The chassis that broke was in service last year but fronthalved over the winter. The new chassis is a fresh piece from the Don Schumacher Racing chassis shop that has never made a run. 

Chassis hiccup notwithstanding, Tasca remains excited about the event and the season ahead, especially the new Mustang body that debuted in Pomona.

“The new body is so good,” he said. “The car is really planted to the ground in the front and the vision is excellent. The drivability is a huge improvement. We reinforced it in a lot of areas that allowed us to remove the roof bracing of the old body that was in my vision. I couldn’t be happier with the performance and we’re learning a lot for the next version, which we hope to have out for the Las Vegas race [Denso Spark Plugs Four-Wide Nationals in April].

“Any time you bring out something new, parts of it are educated guesses, and that’s even before you put a nitro motor in it, so as we continue to find structural issues we’re addressing them in future body layups. We’re stiffening the nose and the B pillars. The next body will be the full manifestation of everything we’ve learned so far.”