To Say We Had A Close Competition At This Year's Diesel Power Challenge Would Be An understatement. At the dragstrip, a 12-second pass was needed to even finish in the top ten. On the trailer tow, a mere half-second separated the front-runners from the back of the pack. We even had a tie in the fuel economy event, which was supposed to be our tiebreaker. Read on, and we'll give you the lowdown on one of the most exciting Diesel Power Challenges ever.
RegistrationOn Monday night, we had a drivers' meeting at the hotel, and took photos of all the competitors' trucks. While this made it easier on us, it also made it possible for the racers to snoop around others' vehicles. This led to some interesting conversation and friendly banter about who would be competitive in every single event. Jeff Dean and his Duramax had everyone worried about the tie-breaking fuel economy test, as he was injecting compressed natural gas into his engine and reported he had achieved 50 mpg during testing.
Both Dodges from Canada had twins and nitrous, and both broke 1,000 hp on a chassis dyno during pre-event testing. Al Babneau's Killer Bee had just made 1,100 hp, so he was another threat, as people knew the big heavy truck would do well in the sled pull and on the dyno.
A welcome presence for the second year in a row was Christine "The filter girl" Lemasters, who was on hand for TV commentary and to present trophies.
Perhaps one of the most feared competitors was Chris Werner and his rollcage-equipped Dodge. His truck had run three consecutive high 10s in the quarter-mile a few weeks before, and he made over 900 hp with no nitrous on an engine dyno before the event. He'd also run the truck up to an amazing 2,200-degree EGT to test the durability of his freshened engine, and it never missed a beat.
Returning champion Nick D'Amico's Duramax just had its 6.6L rebuilt and had three stages of nitrous added as well. Other competitors were still thrashing to get things done. Scott Countryman's Fummison (Ford with a Cummins and an Allison transmission) was just barely finished in time for the event. In fact, they were still working on it, trying to do some last-minute wiring during our photo shoot. Both Scott and his friend looked like they hadn't slept in days, which made us wonder how the truck would perform the next day.