Opportunities can come out of nowhere, which was definitely the case for Bobby Bode.
Bode, 22, who has been campaigning his family’s nitro Funny Car since he was 18 recently received a phone call out of the blue.
Bode answered, and Del Worsham was on the other line.
Yes, that Del Worsham.
NHRA Top Fuel World Champion in 2011.
NHRA Nitro Funny Car World Champion in 2015.
Renowned crew chief
“It was two weeks before the race (second annual SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton, Fla., Feb. 6-8), and he called and told me what he wanted to do,” Bode said. “He wanted to go to Bradenton and Gainesville (Fla., the season-opening Gatornationals, March 6-9). It was that call you dream about getting as a little kid someone ask you to drive their race car.”
Once Bode agreed to pilot Worsham’s Toyota, the process began.
“The week after (his phone call), I went to his shop in Fort Wayne, Ind., and then I got fitted for the car, and the next week was Bradenton, and then we are going to Gainesville,” Bode said.
It was a process Worsham explained from its infant stages.
“Well, upon our separation with Alexis (DeJoria), I was just at home, sitting around, thinking about my life, and putting it all together,” Worsham said. “And all I’ve ever done is just drag race. That’s all I know. And I really need to go to Gainesville. I have some business I need to do there with my car anyway. I need to go there.
“I’m just wrestling around with what to do next. Do I just take time off? Do I run the car a couple of times? What do I do? And the only thing I really know is drag racing. So, I’m like, I really need to just go ahead and just run the car and just see how I feel about it, take it out, and just run the thing. I didn’t think me driving it was much of an option right now. I’ve been outside of the car for so many years now to jump back in there, and my dad can’t be here, and I don’t have Nicky (Boninfante) and all my people with me here. It just didn’t seem like a really good idea for me to be driving.”
So, he began his search for someone to put in the cockpit.
“I just started going through different drivers and looking through (things) and if I was going to run it, who would I have drive it? I’ve had several people who have helped me in the past with Jeff Arend or people like that who still possibly will drive it here in the future,” Worsham said. “But for (Bradenton) and the Gainesville event, Bobby Bode’s name kept coming up.
“Every time I looked, every time I went through stats and looked at drivers, and they’re young, and they’re hungry, and I’m like, man, I think this guy could probably do a pretty good job at this. I talked to my wife about it, and she’s like, ‘Well, I don’t know, maybe just give him a call.’ Because it’s not the first time I’ve called for him to drive for me.”
The first time Worsham summoned Bode’s help, Bode was much younger.
“It was 10 years ago or more; I called him one day, one of my daughters; we were on our way to the Conference Finals for Junior Dragsters in Salt Lake City, Utah. We needed a driver for one of our Junior Dragsters,” Worsham said. “I called him up when he was a lot younger, and he came up, he and his dad came up and drove our Junior Dragster for us. So here we are, over 10 years later, history repeats itself, and here he is.
“I called his dad (former nitro Funny Car driver Bob Bode) first, talked to him about it, asked him what he thought about it, and I said, ‘Well, give me a little bit of time to work some things out here and see if I can do this. If I can do this, I think we should go to Bradenton, make a few runs, get him in the car, and feel good about it, and see what he thinks about it. If everything works out, we will take him to Gainesville and see what we have.
“We had a similar background; we both grew up racing with our dad. He drove for his dad, and I didn’t actually drive; my dad wasn’t a driver, but he was so involved with the car, hell, he might as well have been. So, our paths are pretty similar, and he’s a nice kid.”
Bode acknowledged the experience was surreal for him.
“It started to feel real once I got on the plane,” he said. “Leading up to it, I just kept thinking this was not happening. I’m not flying to Florida to go race Del Worsham’s car. Then, when we got to the track (in Bradenton) and went through all the tech stuff, then it started to feel really, real. It was a fun weekend.”
Not one without nerves for Bobby, though.
“I was really excited, but I was a little nervous, too, driving someone else’s car,” Bode said. “This was my first time driving someone else’s car. I didn’t want to do anything bad on my part and ruin this opportunity. There were some nerves, but Del was pretty mellow and great to work with, and he helped with everything.”
The first run younger Bode made in Worsham’s Funny Car in Bradenton was forgettable as he clocked a 4.233-second elapsed time at 214.76 mph – but it wasn’t a sign of things to come.
“The first pass was a sh*t show with just a lot of little things that went wrong,” Bode said. “It just took a pass for all of us to get in sync, and the second pass, we ran 3.91, and the last qualifier, we ran a 3.88, which was my career-best, and we qualified eighth with that 3.88. It went 328 mph, but I think it has a lot more in it.
“Right after qualifying, I went to the chip draw, and I drew Chad Green; he was qualified seventh; that was the best draw I could have, but it just didn’t go our way Saturday night, but it was a fun weekend. I didn’t really know what I was getting into. Del wanted to go to Bradenton to see how the car ran and how I drove, and he didn’t think it would be a fair shot to give me to just roll into Gainesville with nothing under my belt.
“We rolled into Bradenton and did good, and the other teams were saying how cool that was. It just shows how smart Del is. Now, I’m excited for Gainesville.”
