When Bob Floch’s legendary “Bullet Bob” Corvette coasted to a stop at the top end after suffering a catastrophic parts failure and bursting into flames at the Nitro Jam season opener at Palm Beach International Raceway earlier this year, Floch admits that he wasn’t quite sure how the team would survive.

“My initial thoughts were ‘I think we are finished and we didn’t even get started,’” Floch recalls.

Prostalgia racers help get ‘Bullet Bob’ car ready for Baton Rouge

When Bob Floch’s legendary “Bullet Bob” Corvette coasted to a stop at the top end after suffering a catastrophic parts failure and bursting into flames at the Nitro Jam season opener at Palm Beach International Raceway earlier this year, Floch admits that he wasn’t quite sure how the team would survive.

“My initial thoughts were ‘I think we are finished and we didn’t even get started,’” Floch recalls.

The team was already low on funds and Floch will admit that the success or failure of the popular “Bullet Bob” team and of the blue machine itself rested solely in the hands of its performance on the track.

“We were basically banking everything on a strong start to the season and getting this team off and running with a successful first event,” said Floch. “Obviously that didn’t work out as planned.”

Floch took care of one part of the equation, hiring longtime nitro racer Jeff Diehl to pilot the machine, but the rest lay in the hands of fate.

And fate did not smile on the team that weekend.

The weekend started well enough as one moderately successful pass to open the event placed Diehl and the “Bullet Bob” machine in the first ever IHRA Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car final against Greg Jacobsmeyer after Mike McIntire, the man who was supposed to occupy the other spot in the final, broke.

Thrilled to seemingly have such luck fall in the team’s lap Diehl and the rest of the crew prepared the car with hopes of putting their names in the history books as the first ever Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car winners.

As Diehl pulled into the beams Floch admits that he was overcome with the thought of his machine being the first to light the win bulb in Nitro Jam competition, but that excitement was quickly replaced with disappointment as a flashing win light was replaced with a glowing red light as Diehl hit the throttle moments too soon.

Unaware of the mistake Diehl roared to life and launched down the Florida quarter-mile, but it didn’t take long for things to start going wrong. About halftrack the car began to run into problems before finally bursting into flames near the finish.

Diehl tried to get the car stopped, but he was unable to halt the nostalgia machine as it rolled into the sand trap at the far end still fully engulfed in flames.

IHRA’s Safety First rescue team was quickly on the scene and removed Diehl from the car and subdued the fire in a matter of moments as Diehl escaped with only minor injuries.

“The IHRA safety crew did an outstanding job getting the fire out and helping Diehl. They saved his life,” said Floch. “I hope this incident makes every racer who runs with IHRA feel confident that no matter what happens on the track they are in good hands. I can’t thank the safety team enough.”