Bobby Bode knew his team was in definite need of a pick-me-up when it came to his results at NHRA national events.
The fan favorite nitro Funny Car driver found what he was looking for at the 44th annual NHRA Brainerd Nationals this past weekend.
After qualifying No. 13, Bode pulled off the first-round upset of Daniel Wilkerson, winning with a 4.483-second elapsed time when Wilkerson smoked the tires off the starting line Sunday morning, Aug. 23.
Bode then gave 2018 NHRA Funny Car world champion J.R. Todd, out of the vaunted Kalitta Motorsports stable, all he could handle in the second round.
Todd clocked a 3.953-second time at 330.63 mph to edge Bode’s 3.954-second elapsed time at 318.77 mph. Todd’s margin of victory was approximately six feet.
“The coolest part of the weekend was probably that whole deal with J.R. (Todd) after the second round and doing the (on-track interview) interview and stuff,” Bode said. “That was so cool. It was just a fun weekend overall. We finally got the car sorted out, and we had all the sponsors on the car too, which was cool, and we did good. It was a really fun weekend.”
Bode’s effort wasn’t lost on Todd.
“You’re hungry when you’re his age (24),” Todd told FOX Sports reporter Amanda Busick after the round. “I feel like they don’t really have anything to lose out here. We are trying to race the track, and you need to race this guy. He said he needed some of that Brainerd magic and they definitely have some of that Brainerd magic and I’m glad they are going to Indy because we need them out here full time.”
Bode was listening to Todd’s interview and taking in the moment.
“I love racing and whenever we come out here, we just try and race hard and I think we raced hard right there (against) Todd,” Bode said. “The margin of victory was one thousandth (of a second), so we are right there. I have looked up to J.R. Todd since I was probably 12 years old in Junior Dragsters, so just to be that close to J.R. is a win in my book.”
The Bode Brainerd magic dates back to 2010 when Bob Bode, Bobby’s father, shocked then-Don Schumacher Racing driver Jack Beckman in the final round of Funny Car to claim his lone national event Wally.
Nothing came easy for the younger Bode in Brainerd.
“We only did two qualifiers, and we were struggling with our fuel system,” Bode said. “It kept burning up stuff. Then, the first run on Sunday, it was running really well, and then it just smoked the tires. And we actually had the quickest 330 (foot time) of the round. (The car) wouldn’t get to the finish line. So, then we slowly figured it out, and then for E2, we put it all together. Then we almost won (against J.R.), which was really cool.”
Bode acknowledged the reception he received from the Brainerd fans was incredible.
“The fans there are always crazy, and they were really awesome this year too,” he said. “You know, that track’s basically a home track for us. I had at least 50 people telling me, ‘Oh, I was here in 2010, when your dad won.’ And I’m sure that it was the same for my dad. He had so many people telling him that too.
“Whenever we go there, it’s always like, whatever we expect something to happen there, it’s always, you know, like, 10 times better.”
During his latest stop in Brainerd, Bobby found time to visit the wild fans in the Zoo, the legendary, massive 300-acre on-site campground at Brainerd International Raceway.
“At first, I wasn’t going to go over there (last) weekend. And then Saturday, we got the car put away, semi-early,” Bobby said. “So, then I was like, ‘You know, I’m going to run over there and see what it is.’ It was the same as when I went last time a couple of years ago. It was just different people, but it was a good time. I stayed there for a couple of hours and met some cool people.”
Bobby’s team initially planned to do a strong mix of IHRA and NHRA races this season, but that had to be revised with all the turmoil and canceled races in the IHRA.
“We’re going to do Indy (the U.S. Nationals, Sept. 4-7) and St. Louis (Oct. 2-4) for sure right now and maybe we’ll do Dallas (Oct. 14-18),” Bode said. “We will just see how the car’s running. Our plan was to do some of that IHRA stuff and that was a bad deal with that.”
This season, Bobby competed in one IHRA event, losing to Del Worsham in the semifinals in Columbus, Ohio. On the NHRA tour, he has competed in Chicago (May 17), Norwalk, Ohio (June 28), and Brainerd.
“After a weekend like that (in Brainerd), it makes you want to go to all the races,” Bobby said. “It was definitely a confidence booster. I don’t want to say that we needed a weekend like that, but it had been a while since we’ve won a round in NHRA. So, to do it at Brainerd and then almost won second round against J.R. Todd. I mean it felt like we won the race.”
Now, Bobby has to return to his job at Ar-Bee Transparent Inc., a manufacturer of plastic bags in Elk Grove Village, Ill., near Chicago. The company is owned by his dad.
“I didn’t realize how good I had it when I was at school,” said Bobby, who graduated from Arizona State University in Tempe. “I had to come back to, you know, back to reality after a weekend like that, it’s definitely different than when I was in school, you know? Like my dad always tells me, ‘If you want to play, you got to pay.’”
What’s impressive about Bobby is that he is also the team’s crew chief, making the tuning decisions that help his car go fast and win rounds.
“From where I started, I think I’ve come a long way,” Bobby said. “I still have a lot to learn. But when I look back now at my first couple of years when I was doing it, when I thought I knew everything, and I really didn’t, I really didn’t know anything back then. I think I’ve come a long way from where I started. It’s cool that there’s so many big teams out there that want to help me learn, and they see that I’m really interested in learning about how the car runs and how it works.
“So, there’s like five or six people who I can just go ask out there that are, you know, really, really smart and really, really good. And they’ll kind of steer me in the right direction and explain why. My dad is like a car chief. He makes sure everything goes on the car properly. Then, I’m plugging in what is actually going into the car as far as everything, like the head gaskets, the blower overdrive, the timing, how the clutch is set up. Then, when I’m not at the track, I’m doing a lot of work in the shop, like rebuilding a lot of our stuff. We keep the car in the middle of all the plastic bag machines, so we have to listen to all of these machines running around us whenever we want to work on the car.”
Tuning the car also benefits Bobby when he’s in the driver’s seat.
“Because I tune it, it makes driving easier too because I understand what’s going on with the car,” Bode said. “As far as, like, pedaling it. I know how I want to pedal it because I see what damage it does to everything if you don’t do it the right way. I think it gives me a better feel as a driver because I know what’s going on.”
