Nationwide?
Nothing Describes His Determination And Drive Quite Like his organization's motto, "It's not just an engine, it's a passion." And for Eric McBride, founder and CEO of the Diesel Hot Rod Association, the past eight years have been one wild ride.
"I just bought a truck," McBride said. "I worked in the lumber yard next to a co-op, and these boys would be coming to pick up their ammonia with their straight-piped trucks," McBride recalled. "That sound, the smoke...a diesel was just the ultimate truck in my eyes.
Up until that point, McBride's only experience in motor sports had been with go carts and drag racing whatever car or truck he was driving at the time-but it wasn't a diesel. And in purchasing his first new vehicle, a '98 Dodge with a 12-valve Cummins, McBride was well on the way of catching the fever, adding a 5-inch lift and fabricating his own stacks.
His budding interest grew the way most diesel enthusiasts' do, with time spent pecking around on a keyboard, typing in a few words about his new truck in an Internet search and watching things pop up.
Becoming a member of the Turbo Diesel Register Web site, it didn't take long for McBride to transition from the road to the track.
"I got into drag racing so heavy," McBride said. "Myself and a few friends were traveling all over on the weekends to drag."
McBride's growing participation-and speeds-inspired him in 2000 to start organizing an event at Dave's Diesel in Muncie, Indiana.
"I was going faster and faster all the time, and it was like, all of a sudden, people at the tracks started saying 'you're making it too smoky,' and it's 'too dangerous for the guy next to you,'" McBride said. "I thought, 'We need a class for this.
With the rental of the track alone costing $3,500, McBride was able to get help from Dave's Diesel but also garnered sponsorship from what would become his first three event sponsors, Edge, Diesel Transmission Performance, and Bully Dog. In 2001, his first event got underway with what McBride described as having no expectations and little or no purse. With the success of the first event came McBride's aspirations for running a diesel-only race.
By February of 2002, McBride had contacted the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to again try and find out how to establish an independent entity for diesels.
"They said, 'If you're serious, come see us and we'll talk to you,'" McBride said. He then packed up and headed to the SEMA trade show in Las Vegas to talk to an NHRA representative.
"I knew they were shocked to see me," McBride said. "I think they were surprised I even showed up.
Making good on their promise, NHRA staff members met with McBride who detailed his challenges thus far. "I told them about us being basically black-balled at the track," McBride said. "The guy said, 'Hey, if you think this has a future, start your own thing. Go back, get together a rule book and send it to us.'"
"We had to get rules, insurance...it was a lot of work," McBride said. "We didn't know what we were doing.
"I was looking for legitimacy and organization for diesels. You would go to events and make the rules up when you got there, sometimes you'd pay, sometimes you wouldn't...there was a real need for organization.
"Throughout it all, McBride remains a very visible fixture on and off the track at each event.
"My title is CEO, but my job is to walk up to each person working and ask them how I can help," McBride said. "We built the DHRA for the pullers and racers, and if I'm not down there with them listening, how can I make it better?"
Another drag racing venture has resulted in a partnership of interests between McBride and Scheid Diesel Motorsports.
"I wanted a rail, they wanted an engine in a rail to go quick," McBride said. "I wanted to show that a diesel can compete with the masses."
So far, McBride and the diesel dragster are well on their way to proving just that, having already achieved a 8.25-second quarter-mile at 162.06 mph.
"At first, the whole thing was a blur, and I held my breath the whole time," McBride said of his first few trips down the track in the dragster. "But now, I can see, check what I need to, and make adjustments...it's like the most wicked roller coaster ride you've ever been on."
Even after achieving a speed in a diesel that is inconceivable to most, McBride has set his sights on a much loftier goal.
"I want to be the first man to hit 200 mph in the quarter-mile in a diesel."
For McBride, though, each day holds a new and different goal.
Were it not for the perseverance that accompanies McBride's love for the sport, few could be expected to conquer as many roadblocks and obstacles.
"A few years ago, I went back to school and completed a degree in Leadership," McBride said. "I just knew a long time ago I wasn't going to make anyone a good employee-I'm too independent."
McBride's degree has indeed come in handy, as has the great amount of support he gets from his family, including his wife, Nikkole.
"My wife has been behind me all the way," McBride said. "When this all started, she said 'Go for it.'
And while his two-year-old son, Kess, gets excited about anything with a motor these days, he will undoubtedly inherit his father's love for diesels, as even now he manages to say a soft "diesel trucks" at his father's prompting. More than anything, the gratitude of the fans is what McBride considers "the pay."
"The gratitude, it makes you so flattered," said McBride, recalling one fan who had made it a point to personally thank him after she and her husband had used their one week of vacation to travel from Arizona to an event.
"The fans make it worth it, when you're trying to pay your bills and you're putting all the money you're making back into making the next show bigger and better," McBride said. "Making money was never my mission. I've always seen this as a bigger and better thing."