By David G. Firestone
So, I’ve been following the whole Prock Family moving to Tasca Racing saga. Like many others, I have questions about the Prock Family leaving John Force Racing. It’s always odd when a driver leaves a championship winning team. It’s even more pecular when said team was consistency the strongest team in their division. But that’s what happened with Austin and Jimmy Prock.
Well, on January 30th, Bob Tasca gave an interview with Competition Plus. During the interview, he gave some perspective on the move, and had some interesting things to say. Some of his quotes include
“When you have a common vision of what you want to do long term and you’re not making decisions based on maybe what’s the best tomorrow, it kind of all fell into place,” Tasca said. “The Prock family’s long-term vision of keeping their family together and our long-term vision of building a championship caliber platform—it was really a perfect scenario for both families.”
“The kids made the initial moves. My sons Austin and Cameron started talking to Thomas and Austin. That’s where the concept really started. The Procks want to keep their family together, and that’s the harsh reality. There were other opportunities, not just with us, but they chose this one.”
“Jimmy’s learned a lot from my setup. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t consistent enough, but we ran as good as anybody against them for the last three years.”
Reading between the lines here leads me to beleive that there is some heat between John Force and Jimmy Prock. This would not be the first time. Long time NHRA fans will remember that, in 2014, Jimmy Prock was fired from John Force Racing after a falling out with John Force. He joined Don Schumacher Racing, and changing the angle of the exhaust pipes, helped Jack Beckman become the fastest man in Funny Car.
Even though Force and Prock eventually mended their relationsip, Force seems to be the source of strife. Why else would you leave a team where you were not only champion, but so consistent? Why else would you take chance on a team that isn’t on the level of John Force Racing?
I have a lot of respect for owner/drivers, but let’s be honest, who has the better engine program over the last several years? Bob Tasca is a great team owner, and driver, but you cannot argue that Force is the stronger team in NHRA Funny Car. It seems to me as if something happened behind the scenes, and the Procks felt the need to find greener pastures.
John Force is the greatest in his field, nobody is arguing that. But like a lot of those considered the best, he is a control freak. To outsiders, that might seem like a bad thing, but I would argue otherwise. James Cameron is one of the best directors in recent memory. He joins others like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, and others who were control freaks, and made some of the greatest movies of all time. Would you rather work with easy-going director, and have an unremarkable career, or work for a control freak and work on an Oscar-winning movie?
There has to be, at least in my mind, more to this story than meets the eye, and I will be more than interested to see how this plays off, both on track, and behind the scenes.
Next week, my thoughts on the Daytona 500.
Sources cited:
DGF2099-Main Page 