Bobby Bode confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com his team will be racing a nine-race schedule in 2024 in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car class.

“We will do Pomona (Calif.) and Phoenix and then a lot of the Midwestern tracks (Chicago, Norwalk, St. Louis) and then we will do Bristol, (Tenn.) and Brainerd (Minn.), Indy, and we will finish the season out by going to Dallas, where in the past we usually did Vegas and Pomona,” Bode said. “That (Dallas) will be a little switch up and I’m looking forward to that.”

And Bode, 21, is optimistic his team owned by his father Bob will have better results than 2023.

A year ago, the younger Bode qualified for nine of the 10 races he entered but he only had one round win in Bristol over Bob Tasca III.

“Last year we qualified at every race we went to but one, but we didn’t have the success that we really expected to have,” Bode said. “We had mechanical problems like the car would be running really well and something would screw up and it would ruin that weekend. Then, other times I would completely miss the setup on the car.

“This year we are trying to fine tune some things and limit mechanical problems and be squared away on everything.”

Since making his nitro Funny Car debut in October of 2020, Bode believes he’s been able to improve his driving skills because of his on-the-job training.

“I have gained a lot of experience and there’s always something new that happens in the moment,” Bode said. “When you’re driving you always learn something new. Last year I felt like I learned a lot. I had impacts with the wall two times (in the second round in Bristol and in the first round in Brainerd) and that was because we kept dropping cylinders. I got better toward the end of the year keeping it off the wall when it dropped a cylinder. I’m still learning how to drive those things and I would say I have learned a lot and I have lots to learn.”

Bode has competed in 31 NHRA events in his family-owned Funny Car. He has six career rounds, including a career-best runner-up effort in Houston in 2022.

“The further we get down the track, the more I learn,” Bode said. “I don’t think we are that far off. I think every time we go to a race, we have a chance of winning. Last year we weren’t able to show it that much. I’m pretty hungry to try and get a win this year.”

Bob Bode, Bobby’s father, shocked the drag racing world in August of 2010 when he captured the nitro Funny Car title in Brainerd, beating Jack Beckman from the powerhouse Don Schumacher Racing team in the finals.

Bode said his team will continue to get tuning advice from veteran team owner/driver Tim Wilkerson. That will not change even though Wilkerson recently announced he is leaving the driver seat, and he will be replaced by his son Daniel.

“We have the same relationship with Tim, and he still helps us here and there, which is nice,” Bode said. “We still buy a lot of his parts that he used a year earlier. It is easier for him to help us if we have the same stuff he had been using.

“I’m pretty pumped for the 2024 season because we will have the stage 8 heads from Alan Johnson. I’m hoping once we get everything fine-tuned it will help even more.”

As Bode prepares for his fourth season driving a nitro Funny Car, he will be plenty busy as he’s in the midst of his final semester at Arizona State University in Tempe. He’s taking 18.5 hours to graduate in the spring.

“I will be getting a business marketing degree and an entrepreneur (certificate),” Bode said. “I have mixed emotions about graduating. I’m excited to graduate and start working and do real-world stuff, but part of me doesn’t want to let go of the college life. It’s pretty fun. I have all my friends here and everyone is going to be doing their own thing when we graduate.”

Following graduation, Bobby plans on going back home and working for his father’s company – Ar-bee Transparent Products in Elk Grove Village, Ill., about 20 minutes from Chicago.

“Growing up, I would always work for my dad in the summers,” Bobby said. “We have like 30 different machines, and they all have different personalities and I have had to learn all of them. Over winter break I worked at my dad’s, and I produced 100,000 bags which was a cool accomplishment for me.”

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