Bobby Bode, 20, a fan-favorite nitro Funny Car driver, will be back in the seat of his family-owned ride for the 2023 NHRA season.

“We are going to run the normal ten races,” said team owner Bob Bode, Bobby’s father. “But we’re not starting in Gainesville (Fla.). We’re going to start in Phoenix.”

The Gatornationals are the season-opening race March 9-12 in Gainesville. The Arizona Nationals are the second race on March 24-26 in Phoenix.

“We chose Phoenix because Bobby goes to school there (at Arizona State University in Tempe),” Bob said. “Bobby wanted to do Gainesville and Phoenix, and I told him we can’t do both. I can’t do both sides of the country. So, he decided he would rather do Phoenix first.”

In addition to Phoenix, Bob said Bobby will be competing in Las Vegas (April 14-16); Chicago (May 19-21); Bristol, Tenn. (Jun. 9-11); Norwalk, Ohio (June 22-25); Brainerd, Minn. (Aug. 17-20); Indianapolis (Aug. 30-Sept. 4); St. Louis (Sept. 29-Oct. 1); Vegas (Oct. 26-29) and Pomona, Calif. (Nov. 9-12).

A year ago, Bobby tasted his first real success reaching the final round in Houston before losing to Matt Hagan. He finished with a 4-9 elimination round record and was 15th in the points standings.

“Having good weekends, that’s really hard on us cause then everybody wants it every weekend,” Bob said. “So yeah, that was a good race in Houston and then Brainerd, we had a great one going there too, and we screwed that up on the clutch in second round. But yeah, the car is good. The expectations, all the guys working on the car, they want to go to more to try to get Bobby back into that final round again. So yeah, we buy more parts now than we used to because he runs the car harder, so we’ve got more heads ready.

This year, we got a bunch of stuff from (Tim Wilkerson) and some other new stuff and bought more clutch stuff. Now that Bobby’s riding the car that hard and can drive it that hard, we got to keep feeding it better parts to keep up there. It’s all good. But it puts more pressure on everybody because we all want to do better now.”

Bob said his team will be running a Ford Mustang body again. “

Actually, it’s not the newest Mustang, but it’s the... We’ve got three of them now, so we’re ahead of it,” Bob said. “Cause there’s not a lot of cheap ones out there anymore.”

According to the elder Bode, the veteran driver/team owner Tim Wilkerson will still be a consultant to his team. In the offseason, JCM Racing and Tim Wilkerson Racing partnered to create Maynard Wilkerson Racing (MWR).

“Tim’s been a good friend for all these years, and we wouldn’t run as good as we do without him,” Bob said. “I was just down there last week and saw his new shop. He told me about his good new sponsorship on the car. They’re teasing him. Everybody’s calling Timmy the Tiger now. He said the new sponsor was happy with him. They liked him and wanted to help him because Tim was good for the sport. So, Tim said he plans to keep helping all the guys. Tim helps about probably five or 10 of us out here.”

Bob said he is happy Bobby will still bounce ideas off, Wilkerson. “We’re still in good shape, and Bobby and Tim have a good friendship,” Bob said. “Bobby respects Tim so much for how smart he is with all his race car stuff and wants to be just like him. It has been nice that Tim has taken him under his wing.”

When Bode’s team prepares to roll off the showroom floor in Phoenix, it will come without any test laps.

“Yeah, no testing,” Bob said. “We always laugh when we show up (at a race); wherever it is we go, this is our test pass because, for us, testing is the same amount of money for us to go to a race. We might as well go to a race and try to win or at least qualify, not win, but try to win enough back. When we tested with our type of team, it never really paid off because the track conditions weren’t as good. We were always better off even going to a race and just using the four qualifiers to try to get the car more figured out.”

Competing in Phoenix is a home track for Bobby as he is a junior business major at ASU, and it also has fond memories for Bob.

“The interesting part, years ago, when we’re pitted, I look at the lake; it is this right in front of us?” Bob said. “I raced my power boats on that lake 20, 30 years ago. We used to run what they called a K-Boat. We used to run it around the island there. It was in the American Powerboat Association, and I held the track record for around the island in a blown K-Boat. So, it is a fun place for us. We used to show up, and we’d run the boat in the summertime in August in Phoenix, and it was 125 degrees. It would melt the paint on the deck of the boat. So that racetrack has good memories for me and for Bobby.”

Bob acknowledged seeing Bobby succeed at the highest form of drag racing has been a pleasure.

“It makes me probably the proudest dad you’d ever want to see,” Bob said. “Just knowing, we go back, we were looking at some pictures the other day where he, I’d have to lift him up to put him in his junior dragster, and here he is 12 years later, and he is running the Funny Car, and I hate to say this, but better than his dad ever did. So, you got to smile over that, and we’re proud of him. And on top of all that is, he loves it. He called me last night, middle of the... He calls me at midnight, and he’s looking at data to try to figure out little ins and outs of the car. He loves it, and that’s a good thing and a fun thing for the family.”

Bob does lead Bobby on the nitro Funny Car NHRA Wally count as he won an improbable title in Brainerd in 2010.

“It would be awesome,” Bob said about Bobby winning a Wally of his own. “I would love to see him pass me up. For me to win that Wally was, it was like lightning striking. Bobby was so close, and he’s got a better car, hopefully, this year. He’s more talented. Hopefully, there’s one around the corner for him. He’s worked hard at it, so it’d be fun to see that happen for him.”