By Duane Sprague
Bob Tasca Senior, founder of Tasca Ford in Providence RI,
began NHRA drag racing in 1962 with a Ford Galaxy 2-door.
During his 10 year career, he raced all over the country,
and won 94.6% of the races he entered. He owned the nations
#1 Ford drag racing team in the 1960's, and he became known
world-wide. His racing success also put his dealership on
the map. Now, Bob Tasca III, has his own Pro-Stock license,
and has never lost a local race.
Q: You have had a great deal of success in drag racing,
but how has that victory on the strip lead to sales at the
dealership?
A: In 1963, 64 and 65 alone, we sold 2,300 additional Ford
cars as a direct result of our racing program. In the same
time frame, we sold over a million dollars in additional
parts to fellow racers and race fans. We created a huge
name awareness for our dealership. People came from all
over the Northeast to see the race cars we displayed in
the showroom, and to buy high-performance parts, and even
cars from us. To this day, our web site receives an average
of 250 hits per month, from people wanting to talk about
our 1960's drag racing team.
Q: With such success, why did you get out of it in 1972?
A: That’s when Ford Motor Co. got out of it, so we
did to. In the 70's drag racing began to decline in fan
numbers and general interest among the manufacturers. Big
engines and performance were taking a back seat to mileage,
and the economy was slow.
Q: So what brought you back into it?
A: Well, drag racing began taking off again in the early
90's and my grandson Bob Tasca III took a real interest
and started racing. Then, three years ago in January, the
famous drag racer from Southern California, John Force,
walked into my showroom to buy a car. It was snowing, and
he and his publicist were afraid that the rental car they
had would not get them to their many scheduled appointments
and appearances, so he wanted to buy an Explorer. We started
talking about racing, and he mentioned that he and Pontiac
were not seeing things eye-to-eye. At the time, Ford was
still out of drag racing, but I knew John Force was the
best in his class, and we had to have him in the Ford camp.
Shortly afterward, Pontiac got wind of John talking to
Ford, and they parted company just before the race. But
I had already received backing from Ford, so John quickly
removed the Pontiac body, and replaced it with a spare Mustang
Funny Car body from another team, sponsored under the Ford
banner. From that day forward, John and Ford started winning
races together, and Pontiac’s loss became Ford’s
gain, which made Tasca happy.
Q: So how has John Force and his Ford Mustang Funny Car
helped Tasca Ford?
A: Well, since I was key in getting Ford back into drag
racing, and behind John Force, John offered to do appearances
at our dealership. Last May, we had 18,500 people at the
dealership for an autograph party and BBQ. We served 36,000
Cokes, 26,000 hot dogs, 750 pounds of Italian sausage, and
1,000 pounds of hamburgers. We had a phenomenal public turn-out,
and a received a great deal of media coverage.
We did not sell any cars that weekend because we were so
busy with the event, but the following weekend we sold twice
what we normally sell, and sales have increased ever since.
People came from NY, PA and surrounding states to see John
Force. It put us back on the map with a new, younger generation
that we have not seen since the 60's. We are selling cars
to a new demographic segment that we were missing until
now.
In addition, we got John to do a TV spot for us, which
has helped tremendously with generating additional traffic.
We even included John in our web site, and that has helped
as well. See tasca .com johnforceracing.com and castrolusa.com.
Q: Is there anything else that racing has done to help
your dealership?
A: Yes, we are now developing our own “Brute Force”
Mustang and pick-up that will be built and endorsed by John
Force Racing. These will be very unique and special vehicles
that will bring media attention, fans, curiosity seekers,
and dollars to our showroom.
Q: This all sounds impressive, but why NHRA drag racing
over other motor sports?
A: Drag racing offers a higher return on investment for
one thing. Also, take a look at the cars in the parking
lot of any drag racing event. Ninety plus percent of them
are domestic. Who cares about the snooty Indy crowd, they
don’t buy our products. Drag racing is hot again,
and growing, and we want to be a part of that. Our sales,
name awareness, showroom, and web traffic are all up since
we got back into drag racing.
I did some research into the NHRA viewership and attendance
figures, and found that as of November 1998, year to date,
61,214,997 people have either attended live or watched a
drag race on TV. And 64,000 more people attended a race
in 98' over the previous year. Major events are televised
on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and TNN. See nhraonline.com and goracing.com
for more information.
NHRA fan demographics and vehicle purchasing information:
1: 70% of NHRA fans surveyed said they were more likely
or somewhat more likely to use a sponsor’s product
seen in an advertisement
2: 23% intend on buying a new vehicle within the next year
3: 86% will buy a domestic vehicle
4: 33% drive a pick-up
5: 76% live in a single family dwelling
6: 84% are between the ages of 21 and 49
7: 52% earn from $30,000 to $75,000 per year
8: 70% are male
