Throughout life, we often walk away from the things that we’re most passionate about, be it forced or otherwise. In many cases this is caused by circumstances in our lives that dictate a refocusing of our time an efforts, while for others it’s a gradual loss of interest or a conscious decision to pursue other venues. But ask anyone that’s been involved in the sport of drag racing in any capacity and taken a hiatus and they’ll tell you, it’s one tough, addicting drug to permanently separate oneself from. Jonesboro, Arkansas’ Lloyd Wofford raced back in the 1960’s and 70’s in the heyday of Stock and Super stock racing, at one time campaigning a SS/BA ’65 Plymouth built by the legendary Herb McCandless with great success before walking away from the sport in 1981.

Images courtesy: B&B Race Cars

But after a 28-year layoff from competition, the now 59-year old Wofford, who, along with his wife Linda founded Engines Inc., a distributor for large diesel powered products for OEM, marine, agricultural, and industrial customers, found the itch to compete again too strong to deny, and jumped back into the sport he so loved in early 2009.

“I wanted a HEMI car and I did some research and it looked like B&B Race Cars would be the way to go on the chassis, so I met with them and went over what I wanted and made a deal on the Barracuda. But I needed a car to drive in the meantime because I hadn’t raced in 28 years, so they got me in touch with Sonny Stancil and James Caro, and we worked out a deal to drive Sonny’s ’78 Plymouth Volare SS/JA car.”

Wofford competed behind the wheel of the Volare for five races to gain some seat time and grade points, and after forming a close friendship with Stancil and Caro, ended up purchasing the car and forming a team with the pair, campaigning for the rest of 2009 and the 2010 season to the present time.

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Wofford, with sons Cameron (left) and Trey, dropping the '68 Barracuda that he purchased for $2500 off at B&B Race Cars in the spring of 2009.

He had previously located a ’68 Barracuda owned by a gentleman in Jonesboro that he’d expressed interest in purchasing to make a street car out of before he had any desire to return to racing. He eventually purchased the car for $2500 and put it off to the side in his shop, planning to work on it sometime in the future.

“I was just going to work on it some day – just one of those projects that you put in the shop and get to it when you have time. When I bought the car there were no intentions of it being a race car – it was just going to be a street car. I never really dreamed I’d get to go racing again, but I missed it every day for 28 years.”

But once he got the bug to racing again, with a car already on hand, it was just a matter of making a deal and dropping the car off at the shop in Tennessee. Construction of the car began last spring and Wofford picked the car up, ready to run minus a few odds and ends, last week.

“There was no hurry on the car because I was driving the Volare. When I had Darren [Breaud, owner of B&B] build the Barracuda, I told him to build it like it was yours – like it was going to be your car. I didn’t push him to finish it and that’s exactly what he did. It also took a lot of time because parts are so hard to find for these cars. It’s not like a late model car where you can just go down to the dealership and get parts. They spent a lot of time on the phone trying to chase down trim parts, parking light lenses, windshield trim, back glass, and those sorts of things. There are no aftermarket parts made for this car.”

The car sports a stunning paint scheme designed and painted by revered designer Scott Brown, and while it’s certainly a looker worthy of any best appearing car award, there is little doubt it’ll have the go to match the show. Under the hood lurks a 426-inch elephant built by none other than Charlie Westcott and backed by a ProTrans Torqueflite transmission. Westcott’s powerplants have been virtually dominant in recent years, and Wofford’s slick piece can certainly be considered a contender right out of the gate with that kind of power in his back pocket.

“I can’t wait to get the car out on the track. We’ll see how it runs, but we hope to qualify in the top five at the HEMI Shootout at Indy.”

Wofford, along with Stancil and Caro, plan to test the car the middle of next week before debuting it at the Beech Bend Lucas Oil points meet and then making the short trek up to Indianapolis the following week. Lloyd was quick to point out that he doesn’t foresee much trouble getting the car sorted out considering the craftsmanship of the guys at B&B.

He plans to campaign the car on the full NHRA Division 4 Lucas Oil series, all of the HEMI Shootout series races in 2011, and about half of the national events splitting time between the Barracuda and the Volare.

“I just can’t say enough about B&B Race Cars. The car is absolutely beautiful. I hate to brag on my own car, but it’s just the best engineered Barracuda I’ve ever seen. I’m still having a hard time believing the car is mine…I’m looking at it right now and I just have to pinch myself to make sure it’s real.”

Like many former racers before him who have stepped way from the sport they love so much, the time they missed just makes it that much more bittersweet.

“It’s absolutely been a dream come true to get to race again at my age – I’m just having an absolute ball.”