One of the more surprising...
One of the more surprising trucks on the dyno was Scott Countryman's Ford. With the nitrous-assisted twin-turbo Cummins leading the charge, Scott's 1,420 lb-ft of torque was good for Fourth Place.
DynoThe trailer tow really shook things up, and there were three ties going into the dyno competition. Nick had dropped in the standings after his run, while Chris Werner managed to do pretty well as he sat on top of the heap. The dyno was the event that was going to separate the ties for Second, Fifth, and Ninth place. All eyes were on Charr, Nick, Chris, and Al, as everyone was pretty sure one of them would take the event.
As per previous years, we relied on peak torque to declare a winner, not horsepower. Almost all the trucks in attendance were over 1,000 lb-ft, including those owned by Ernest Schwartz, Tyler Scheers, and Rob Coddens. The competitors who brought smaller turbos to the party, such as Jeff Dean and his Cheetah VGT turbo, seemed to have an advantage because the smaller turbos spooled quicker in thin air and gave better torque numbers. Jeff also had nitrous, and these two factors helped him jump into Fifth Place with 1,232 lb-ft, despite having lower horsepower numbers than many of the other trucks that finished behind him. We knew Scott had some horsepower at the track when he ran 113 mph in a big, heavy, lifted Ford, and he didn't disappoint, taking fourth with a strong torque number of 1,420 lb-ft set up by the Ford/Cummins/Allison creation.
Heading the "I'm sure glad I brought nitrous" group, Chris Werner used a small 100hp shot to inch him ahead of Scott with a 1,426 lb-ft reading. Al Babneau made over 1,800 lb-ft a few weeks before, but that was at a lower elevation and on a load dyno. Despite almost setting his back brakes on fire to help load the truck, Al spooled up the big twins to an impressive 1,466 lb-ft to snag Second Place without the use of nitrous oxide. Charr Drever's big Dodge made enough cylinder pressure to blow a head gasket the day before, and if there is one thing that a common-rail Cummins is good at, it's making big power on a dyno. The Dodge didn't disappoint, as big turbos and a big shot of nitrous oxide helped the truck make 1,062 hp and flatline the dyno software at 1,800 lb-ft of torque. Since the dyno didn't measure the truck's true torque number, it was hand-calculated (torque=horsepower/rpm x 5,252) at a whopping 1,891 lb-ft of torque.
The last person who could dethrone Charr was Nick D'Amico, who was last up on the rollers. Unfortunately, Nick's turbo issue only got worse. Every time he tried to load the truck down, a cloud of black smoke would erupt from his engine bay because of the leaking exhaust. With not much boost to speak of, Nick made over 1,100 lb-ft and 776 hp. The next and final run made 827 hp, but even less torque. The crowd then started ducking for cover, as turbo parts came raining down everywhere from out of Nick's stack. He'd fried his turbo and sent shrapnel into the air, and the crowd started fleeing like someone had just released a swarm of bees. The dyno was finally over, and day one finished with Chris on top, followed by Al, and the third spot shared by Jeff and Charr.
 Jerimiah's truck didn't have...  Jerimiah's truck didn't have nitrous or huge twin turbos. Since we measure torque, a lot of trucks that couldn't make big boost at low rpms weren't making big numbers. At 995 lb-ft, Jerimiah came in Tenth Place. |  After his First Place finish...  After his First Place finish in the tow test, Al nearly set his brakes on fire trying to load his truck on an inertia dyno. It must have worked somewhat, as 894 hp and 1,466 lb-ft of torque were good for Second Place. |  |