Cody began making trips down the dragstrip at age 8. He received his first Jr. dragster at the local track on his eighth birthday and began passes that day.

This was back when Jr. drag racing was still in its infancy and the cars really were powered by 5 horsepower lawn mower engines. The cars ran in the fifteen second zone at 35 MPH on regular pump gas.

At the end of his Jr. driving career, Cody was running in the low nines at 70 MPH. These performance numbers aren’t meant to impress anyone, but the racing skill Cody possessed before surpassing the legal driving age was impressive in every way. Cody had accumulated over $5500 worth of college scholarships and savings bonds over his years at the track. One of those big checks came from reaching the final at the Jr. Dragster World Finals in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1998. In all, Cody has accumulated over 25 wins in 40 finals from the 9 years of competing in the Jr. category.

As soon as he turned 16 Cody was competing with his Super Comp dragster that he assembled himself. In his first year, Cody won the Super Pro, National Dragster Challenge “Wally.” Cody has won at least one race each year for the past 12 years. The streak will continue into 2008 since Cody won the Division 7 Bakersfield event.

Cody is competing in the car previously driven by his dad, Bob Perkins, under the team moniker ‘Blown Chances Racing’ referring to the supercharged or ‘blown’ engine. Cody has been the crew chief on the car for the past 5 years. The 2007 season has been Cody’s first full season behind the wheel of the alcohol dragster which has yielded a 3rd place finish in the always difficult western division, and a top fifteen ranking in the national points after only attending ten events.

Cody won in Billings Montana in 2006 in what was his first event behind the wheel of a Top Alcohol Dragster, beating some of the best blown alcohol dragsters in the country. The Blown Chances Alcohol Dragster returned to the final in Billings in 2007 only to suffer a heartbreaking .01 second loss. However, at the next event in Bakersfield, California the Blown Chances team took home the win in their third final round appearance of the season. In the two seasons that Cody has been behind the wheel he has achieved a winning record against TAD standouts Jim Whitely, Chris Demke, and Sean O’bannon. After a strong 3rd place finish in the western division in 2007, Cody and the Blown Chances team have their eyes set on challenging for the Division 7 title and a strong national finish in 2008.

This season, the Blown Chances team chose to do what they could to help the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) by wrapping the car with the charity’s logo in hopes of increasing the awareness of the organization nationwide. It has been a very satisfying experience to be able to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes through the sport we love.