If the drag racing doesn’t work out, Bob Bode has a future as a stunt show driver.

This comes after his display of driving prowess during Saturday evening when a fuel line came loose on his Funny Car engulfing the car in flames.

Bode was in trouble five feet after his ride left the starting line.

Bode crossed from the left lane into the right and appeared headed directly for the retaining wall. A last minute correction saved Bode from hitting the wall violently.

So what caused all of this chaos? If the drag racing doesn’t work out, Bob Bode has a future as a stunt show driver.

This comes after his display of driving prowess during Saturday evening when a fuel line came loose on his Funny Car engulfing the car in flames.

Bode was in trouble five feet after his ride left the starting line.

Bode crossed from the left lane into the right and appeared headed directly for the retaining wall. A last minute correction saved Bode from hitting the wall violently.

So what caused all of this chaos?

“The fuel line just separated,” Bode explained. “It was tight on the car; nobody did anything wrong, and what happened is it was pressed together, an Aeroquip-type fitting that just pulled the fuel line apart.”

Bode said the line was in the front of the motor by the control box. The fuel started pumping out at the hit of the throttle and got under the tires. 

“The car turned sideways,” Bode recalled. “It [the fuel] must have hit the headers and ignited.  Then all of a sudden we got fire, it was pointed towards the wall.  I got it off the wall the first spin around and the fuel switch wasn't working because it burned the air line off, so it wouldn't shut off.  The thing's running and it's still spinning the tires, I reached over and when I hit the fuel shut off it zipped the tire even more because it leaned the motor down.”

All of this happened before Bode made contact with the wall

“I was standing on the brake, finally I ran out of gas and I could get out of the darn thing,” Bode said. “It was a handful.”

While the car was rolling and burning, Bode attempted an escape. That was a bad idea.

“I had to wait until the thing ran out of gas.  I'm standing up there pushing on the brake with my foot, and I actually pushed on the brake so hard,  one of the brake lines pulled right out of the fitting, squirting brake fluid, we had that flying all over too.  So it was a real nightmare.”

After this experience one might think Bode’s weekend was complete. The determined racer who competes on a limited budget was back for the next round of competition.

“The body got hurt so we went to our spare body,” Bode said. “The chassis, the one tire had just glanced the wall so the tire took all of the impact, didn't hurt the chassis or the rear end or anything.  So, [the fire] burned all the lines off the car, the radios, the control systems; we had spares of everything.”