Hull rolling with the punches of his latest Funny Car setback

Buddy Hull will be sidelined from NHRA Funny Car competition for another few events after a catastrophic fire in the season-opening event at Gainesville Raceway. The car burned to the ground during qualifying for the Gatornationals, leaving the team on its back foot. Not only did Hull not make the event, but then he sat out the next race.

“I don't bow down to anything, and I’m not scared of anything,” Hull said. “I just respect it all, and so for me, it’s been more of a mental game trying to work with my sponsors and all the people around me, my team members, to get things rebuilt to have it make sense again. Because we didn’t expect this. This is the last thing we expected.

“They always say, ‘Expect the unexpected,’ but not like this. What that means is spare motors, heads, and blowers, and we have all that stuff. We have tons of that stuff. But what we didn’t have is a spare body.”

Hull is not only recovering from minor burns, but getting a new body and then getting the car back on track. The newly minted team owner, as of this season, anticipates being back in the pits, hopefully in May.

“The truth is, it was simply a simple part wasn’t put together the right way,” Hull said, “and caused the engine to be lean and the rest is history. I wouldn’t wish that fire on my worst enemy, that’s for sure. That was one that I’ll probably never forget in my life, and I wish I could.”

The hardest thing to get right now, according to Hull, is a body. It is what will hold the team back from returning to racing in a timely manner. And as a dedicated Ford man, Hull is waiting for a Ford body. He will not mount a different one, even though there are other options.

“I hope this never happens again,” Hull said. “I’m tired. I went virtually 20 years racing and never wrecked a car. Never. I’ve been on fire. I have had things happen to me. But never wrecked a car. … In the last year, I’ve had five completely catastrophic events, and it’s getting old. It’s time to have some success and have some fun.”

Hull is not a quitter and loves racing too much to even entertain that idea. But he has been an NHRA highlight reel for all the wrong reasons in recent years. Gainesville was the latest example.

A few of the others include a blowup and ride through the sand at Sonoma. There was also a ride through the sand trap in Bristol when the parachutes didn’t come out. The incident in Sonoma injured Hull and sidelined him for two months.

The plan is for Hull Racing to run 12 races this season. It will not include being in Pomona this weekend.

“We can’t get a body and get it mounted by then and get the car together and get it tested,” Hull said. “We’re going to go test, too. So, you could see us in May. That’s our goal. Because we’re not only rebuilding a race car, we’re going to do it the right way and go test in Texas. We want to make sure we show up, and we show up prepared. We want a car that goes A to B off the trailer.

“We don’t want to just show up somewhere and go, ‘Oh, well, let’s hope it works and let’s use qualifying as a test session.’ No, we’re going to do it the right way. We’re going to put a new car together and go out there and go 300 feet, then 500 feet, and then hopefully to the finish line. So, sometime in May.”

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