Diesel Power Challenge 2017 Presented by XDP continues
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Welcome to the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge
00:10 presented by XDP.
00:11 It was a punishing day on the drag strip
00:13 at Vandermeer Speedway as our competitors
00:15 were trying to pull a 10,600 pound trailer
00:18 to the eighth mile as quick as they could yesterday.
00:20 Today, we take the trailer off.
00:22 It's heads up, quarter mile drag racing.
00:24 We're gonna find out exactly how quick
00:26 and fast these trucks are.
00:27 It's gonna be fun and it's gonna be fast.
00:29 We're gonna find out if everybody can hold together.
00:31 Let's go drag racing.
00:32 Well, it's time to go quarter mile drag racing here
00:37 at Vandermeer Speedway, the activity that built
00:39 the foundation of this place more than a half century ago.
00:42 Joined here by Sean Holman, who is the content director
00:44 of the Truck Trend Group, who oversees Diesel Power Magazine
00:46 and several other titles.
00:47 It's the most basic concept of motorsports,
00:49 but it's also one of the most fun.
00:51 - And one of the most difficult too.
00:52 You know, we actually have people here
00:53 who haven't raced before.
00:54 And so, you know, these guys are ripping down the track.
00:57 They have to understand the staging.
00:58 We've got a sportsman's tree today.
01:00 And you got guys who, their trucks are dino trucks, right?
01:03 They haven't done all the things we're putting them through
01:06 or they might be specific to sled pulling
01:07 or something like that.
01:08 And now they're doing drag racing.
01:09 So, you know, just the mysterious way
01:11 of setting up the trucks.
01:12 These guys are totally off their game.
01:14 And mile high up, you really gotta know your truck
01:16 and be tuning for the altitude up here.
01:18 - So the qualifying format is very simple.
01:22 We basically open the racetrack up to the competitors
01:25 for a half hour.
01:26 They were able to make as many runs as possible
01:28 in the best numbers that they laid up
01:29 where they're qualifying times.
01:30 Now, Charlie Keeter is basically the most experienced
01:33 drag racer we have in the entire event.
01:36 And you can see his experience coming in here
01:38 in the staging process, spooling the truck up,
01:41 getting the thing ready to go.
01:42 He is well ahead of the staging beams.
01:44 Now he's just gonna roll it ahead,
01:45 lock the brakes down and stage it in.
01:47 His number here is gonna be a very big telltale.
01:50 Comes off the starting line, there he starts spraying it.
01:52 When the exhaust cleans up,
01:53 you know the nitrous is heading through the engine,
01:55 right past the eighth mile.
01:57 And Keeter is absolutely rolling.
01:59 Look at this thing, perfectly down the center of the lane.
02:01 11.067, 126.92 miles an hour,
02:06 almost 127 miles an hour.
02:08 If anybody beats that, it'll be a miracle.
02:10 So we have Rich Stroup coming up now.
02:13 He's got that 9,000 pound GMC Sierra 3500 Dually.
02:18 And here he goes.
02:18 You can see the license plate, 900 horsepower at Duramax.
02:21 And man, he has got this thing
02:23 absolutely loaded up with fuel.
02:24 It's blazing the tires off the starting line.
02:26 You can see the white smoke off the tires
02:28 matched only by the black smoke coming out of the exhaust.
02:31 Not the run that Rich wanted to make.
02:33 Now he does have extra time to come back
02:35 and try to make another qualifying attempt,
02:37 but this one, well, this one's something
02:39 he's probably gonna throw in the trash.
02:40 21.61, only 57 miles an hour.
02:43 He's going back to the drawing board.
02:45 So here comes Levi Kretsch to make a qualifying pass.
02:52 Kind of an important time for him
02:53 to get the truck set up right
02:54 and figure out what this baby's capable of.
02:56 Got an inch in ahead, got the boost built up.
02:58 And whoa, here he goes.
02:59 Look at that smoke in the front tires
03:00 with things still going in a straight line.
03:02 And Kretsch has got the hammer down.
03:04 This truck is making a very nice run.
03:06 But look at this, he lifts at the eighth mile.
03:08 Kretsch goes through the traps, 12.70 at 78.3 miles an hour.
03:13 And that was when he was off the throttle
03:14 after like 600 feet.
03:16 And whoa, if you get a look at this thing,
03:17 it's got a death wobble going on in the cab.
03:18 Look at the front of the steering wheel
03:20 going like a paint shaker in there, crazy.
03:23 So Kevin Jacob coming up to the starting line
03:25 in the Dodge Ram.
03:26 Working on his reaction times,
03:28 working on elapsed times as well,
03:29 and trying to get a handle on the tune up
03:30 up here in the thin air at Bandemere Speedway.
03:34 Jacob creeps the truck in, gonna pre-stage it,
03:35 and then spool the turbos up.
03:37 Qualifying going on again, this open session,
03:41 allowing the drivers to come up,
03:42 make any changes they want to make,
03:44 and hit the tree again at the end of the session.
03:46 The low ETs recorded by each driver
03:47 will determine their qualifying position.
03:49 Eight trucks remain as we had one drop out
03:51 due to mechanical issues.
03:54 (engine revving)
03:56 - Nice clean run, Jacob's truck
04:00 pulling through the eighth mile now.
04:02 Straight down the center lane,
04:04 everything looks pretty good.
04:06 Little bit of a clip there at the end,
04:07 goes 12.69.3 at 100.7 miles an hour.
04:10 - So here comes McCoy Black,
04:13 who's having a coming up and down week so far.
04:14 He goes out and wins the dyno contest.
04:17 Then he falls to seventh during the eighth mile trailer tow,
04:19 did not make the run he wanted there.
04:21 We're gonna find out what he can do here.
04:22 This engine notably has a fairly short fuse.
04:25 It has got multiple stages of nitrous
04:27 and no intercooler on it.
04:28 And McCoy Black is letting it eat.
04:30 Look at this thing go down the racetrack.
04:32 A beautifully clean run through the first eighth mile,
04:34 powering through the back half,
04:36 and Black goes 10.68.5, and look at the speed.
04:39 140 miles an hour for McCoy Black,
04:42 but it looks like there may be a problem
04:44 as he is muscling the truck down through the shutdown area
04:47 and getting ready to come around the corner.
04:48 We're gonna have to go to the pits
04:49 and find out what happened, catch up with him later on,
04:52 but that could be a bad sign after a great run.
04:54 It looks tough.
04:55 So here comes Patrick Whitcomb,
04:59 the winner of the eighth mile trailer tow competition
05:01 yesterday, and it looks as though Whitcomb
05:03 is having problems with the big Ford Dually.
05:05 It is just kind of loafing along out there.
05:08 The truck refusing to accelerate down the racetrack.
05:10 It appears unable to build any boost.
05:12 This is very strange.
05:13 Maybe an exhaust leak hurting his ability
05:15 to spool the turbo up.
05:17 Either way, if he cannot fix the truck and it is wounded,
05:19 it could cause a huge shakeup in the standings.
05:22 He won one of our events.
05:23 This is a big deal.
05:24 Hopefully Whitcomb can get it fixed.
05:26 So here comes Mike Bunkelman,
05:31 gonna make a test pass in the truck right now.
05:34 5.9 truck, big single turbocharger on it.
05:39 Mike's gonna roll it in.
05:40 Pre-stage, again, looking at his boost gates,
05:44 putting it exactly where he wants it
05:45 before he decides to lean on it.
05:47 (engine revving)
05:49 So Bunkelman heads down the racetrack.
06:01 Again, real clean, sounds good.
06:02 On the throttle all the way to the stripe,
06:07 15, 11, 805.18 miles an hour.
06:15 So Wisconsin's Tim Jahn's heading down the racetrack.
06:17 Control launch with the power to it.
06:21 The truck tried to make a move to the right.
06:23 He pedaled it, so ET's gonna suffer for that.
06:26 He is gonna take it through the stripe under power.
06:29 Truck goes 14.77 at 95,
06:31 and there's a whole lot more there to grab.
06:33 So after qualifying,
06:37 our first round competition ladder looks like this.
06:39 Rich Druk will be racing Charlie Keeter.
06:42 Levi Kretsch will be racing Tim Jahn.
06:44 Kevin Jacob will be racing Mike Bunkelman,
06:46 and Patrick Whitcomb is scheduled to race McCoy Black.
06:49 Our own Sean Holman is down in the pits.
06:51 He caught up with McCoy to find out if he'll make round one.
06:54 - I went to do a qualifying pass with the drags just now,
06:59 and I had no four-wheel drive.
07:01 - Hey, we're at Rich's truck,
07:03 and he just broke an axle shaft on his GM.
07:05 Obviously, these are IFS trucks,
07:07 a little bit different than the Fords and the Rams.
07:09 But you can see the shaft,
07:11 this is one of NAPA's finest HD versions.
07:14 But you can see that it might have been a bad heat treat
07:17 or something like that.
07:17 The splines are twisted,
07:19 and it broke right where the splines are grooved into.
07:21 Axle shaft itself.
07:22 - That's a sumo source punch.
07:24 (laughing)
07:25 - So there you have it.
07:26 So these guys are thrashing
07:27 so they can get back to racing this afternoon.
07:29 But good luck.
07:31 - Just talked to McCoy Black,
07:34 and he's done, his engine's out.
07:36 - All right, I'm here with McCoy Black,
07:40 and McCoy, looks like something happened under the hood
07:43 that is probably not great,
07:45 considering there's oil on your fender.
07:47 - Got a little hot, so that's why the head gasket blew.
07:50 Probably ended up hurting the engine.
07:54 We're not positive.
07:55 I mean, it's got, had a lot of blow-by right there.
07:57 - Sure.
07:58 Well, what's the plan?
08:00 Are you gonna try and do the head gasket
08:01 and come back tomorrow?
08:02 - Yeah, well, yeah, we're gonna pull the head off of it today
08:05 and see what it looks like.
08:07 - We've had Cummins before
08:09 that have been dropped down two cylinders
08:10 that have raced on the final day,
08:11 so if it's not too hurting, you got a head gasket,
08:15 that you can get swapped out, man.
08:16 We really hope you can come back tomorrow.
08:17 - Yeah, we're hoping so, for sure.
08:19 - All right, man, good luck.
08:20 - Thank you.
08:21 - All right, thanks.
08:22 - Diesel Power Challenge 2017.
08:24 We swapped an axle shaft in 12 minutes
08:25 on this thing right here.
08:27 Hell yeah, man, it's go time.
08:28 - So here we go.
08:31 It's the first pair of trucks
08:33 for our quarter mile drag race,
08:34 and what a pair it is.
08:35 Rich Strube, the giant Duramax-powered Dually,
08:39 and of course, Charlie Keeter,
08:40 the three-turbo-equipped six-liter Ford.
08:43 Keeter is gonna start inching that truck in,
08:44 spooling those turbos up,
08:46 getting the thing on boost,
08:47 and get ready to come rocketing off the starting line.
08:50 Strube is gonna do the same thing on his truck,
08:52 only a single turbo on that Duramax engine.
08:55 He is at a disadvantage in weight
08:56 and a disadvantage in horsepower,
08:58 two places you don't wanna be behind on a drag strip.
09:01 Let's see what the Dually can do here.
09:02 Both trucks up on the torque converters.
09:04 They gotta be getting hot.
09:06 Strube finally stages, and off they go.
09:08 Very clean launches for both guys,
09:10 and Charlie Keeter was trailing
09:11 until he sprayed the nitrous.
09:12 Look at that thing just rocking away
09:14 in the middle part of the racetrack.
09:15 Charlie Keeter is gonna hold Rich Strube at bay
09:18 as they go past 1,000 feet in the stripe.
09:20 12.64, 105 for Keeter.
09:23 Strube, very respectable, especially after the thrash,
09:26 but that one was all Charlie Keeter.
09:28 - Man, were you watching that front left tire?
09:35 That axle shaft looked like it was straining
09:37 under every bit of torque,
09:38 and I was expecting it to pop, but it held together.
09:41 Those guys, like you said earlier,
09:42 they changed the axle shaft in 12 minutes flat.
09:45 Truck's back in the competition,
09:46 but again, GM, that's a weak point in this competition,
09:49 so we'll see what they do.
09:50 Follow that truck for the rest of the day.
09:52 - So now we have Levi Kretsch and Tim Jahn
09:54 coming to the starting line, the two trucks in pre-stage.
09:56 Jahn, the newcomer to the sport of drag racing.
09:59 Let's see what he can do here as the tree comes down.
10:01 Man, a big hole shot advantage for Tim Jahn,
10:03 and he has got his hands full.
10:05 The truck is darting back and forth.
10:06 He's still gonna grip the wheel
10:07 as he's trying to stay ahead of Levi Kretsch.
10:10 Kretsch starts to make a big move on him at mid-course,
10:12 and they get down to the finish line.
10:14 Wow, hole shot win for Jahn.
10:16 11.74, 122.
10:18 Kretsch was quicker by .400s,
10:19 and you can see the disappointment in that man's eyes
10:22 as man, Tim Jahn, got away with one.
10:24 - Frankly, the guy started drag racing a half hour ago,
10:28 and he already has a hole shot victory to his credit.
10:30 That's pretty slick.
10:30 - Hey, you know what?
10:31 Beginner's luck.
10:32 You never know here at Disempowered Challenge
10:33 because anything can happen.
10:36 So Kevin Jacob and Mike Muckleman come up right now.
10:39 Mike in the lane nearest to camera,
10:42 and Kevin in the blue Ram on the far side of the racetrack.
10:45 So there you go, they're in.
10:47 Someone's gotta lead first,
10:49 and Kevin Jacob did a better job
10:51 getting the truck off the starting line.
10:52 Muckleman's seem to stumble a little bit.
10:55 Mike has a whole lot more truck under him now,
10:59 but I don't know if he's gonna have enough racetrack.
11:01 This one's gonna be very tight at the stripe.
11:03 Not as tight as I thought.
11:04 There you go, 14.062 at 97 for Jacob.
11:07 Muckleman goes 14.796 at 105.
11:10 So Patrick Whitcomb earned the buy-in round one,
11:15 and as you can see right now, that is a big deal.
11:17 This truck made over 1,000 horsepower on the dyno.
11:20 It has now been reduced to about six dude power
11:22 as it is coming to the starting line.
11:24 - I got a little exhaust leak,
11:25 blew a gasket out, trying to get that fixed.
11:28 Luckily, we got a buy,
11:29 so we're just gonna break the beams here
11:31 'cause the McCoy's down,
11:32 so we'll try to get it fixed and race the next race.
11:35 - And the second round looks like this.
11:39 Charlie Keeter will take on Kevin Jacob,
11:41 and then Patrick Whitcomb and the big dually
11:43 will take on Tim Bjorn and his single rear wheel truck.
11:46 We have round two action coming at us.
11:51 It's Charlie Keeter coming up in the six liter truck
11:54 and Kevin Jacob.
11:55 Jacob having trouble spooling his truck, it sounds like.
11:59 Keeter still looking for free stage.
12:01 You can see Keeter has those stacks in the hood
12:03 so he doesn't smoke out the lights.
12:04 Little diesel truck racer trick.
12:06 Here we go.
12:07 - Well, I'll tell you what, Kevin Jacob,
12:10 the smaller single turbo on there,
12:12 it actually lit quicker,
12:13 but it is gonna be Charlie Keeter
12:15 with just a whole bunch more horsepower and torque
12:17 driving away from him at the top end
12:18 as Keeter goes 11.79 at 105.
12:21 The best run that Jacob's made today, 12.34, 112.
12:24 So this is, yeah, this is gonna be interesting, Sean.
12:31 We look over, we see Patrick Whitcomb being pushed up.
12:34 All right, so Tim sits there looking over
12:37 at Patrick Whitcomb.
12:38 Patrick idling, Tim's gonna pull up the stage
12:52 and again, we're expecting Patrick
12:54 to do exactly what he did,
12:55 take the tree and hope for a red light.
12:59 And Tim Yon, smart move on Tim's part.
13:02 We didn't know which way this was gonna cut.
13:03 Was he gonna go for lane choice
13:04 and really wall up the truck?
13:06 He's decided not to because we told him
13:08 you're gonna have to come right back around.
13:09 - So the strategy here,
13:10 and obviously there's a ton of strategy going on,
13:12 because of the wait time that we imposed
13:14 the five minute limit for them
13:15 to fix the exhaust manifold on that 450.
13:17 So Yon is going now because of the hot lap situation.
13:22 So he's going to race hot.
13:23 So rather than get a full ET and have lane choice,
13:26 he's decided, you know,
13:27 I'm just gonna baby it down the line,
13:28 get whatever lane I get,
13:29 but at least the truck will be ready to race
13:30 and won't be over, won't be heat soaked.
13:32 - And Tim, if Tim is able to win this thing,
13:35 he will come up to this particular competition very strong.
13:39 Remember, he was a top three finisher on the dyno.
13:41 He did well in the trailer tow,
13:43 and it's gonna be a kind of an interesting,
13:45 almost Cinderella story
13:45 if the guy can basically win the first drag race
13:47 he's ever entered.
13:49 - So it's gonna be an all Ford final round
13:51 with experienced veteran Charlie Keeter
13:53 on one side of the drag strip
13:54 and on the other side, the new guy,
13:56 a guy who before today had never drag raced.
13:59 Tim Jahn is gonna be in the biggest final round of his life.
14:01 Let's see how it shakes out.
14:03 - Up against the Champa last year.
14:08 So we'll see what happens.
14:11 He is a drag strip guy.
14:12 - And away we go.
14:20 It is Keeter with a six liter truck.
14:22 And it is Jahn with a 6.4 rig.
14:27 Jahn is pre-stage.
14:29 Keeter has not found that pre-stage beam yet.
14:31 He begins to creep the truck ahead.
14:32 He's in.
14:34 He's all the way in.
14:34 Now it's Jahn's turn.
14:36 This is it, baby, for the points.
14:39 And Jahn just dropped a full shot on Charlie Keeter,
14:42 and then he had to pedal it.
14:43 Oh, man.
14:44 Tim Jahn gave himself a big fighting chance there,
14:47 a puncher's chance, if you will,
14:48 but Charlie Keeter will coast his way to victory.
14:51 10.95, four at 121.33.
14:54 And Tim Jahn made that a fight,
14:56 at least for the first 330 feet.
14:58 So after a great day of quarter mile drag racing
15:01 at Bandamere Speedway,
15:02 it was Charlie Keeter that took 'em all down.
15:05 10.95, four, 121 in the final round.
15:08 Tim Jahn had a good showing until he got to the final
15:10 and he broke his truck.
15:11 19.45, four at only 47 miles an hour.
15:14 And Kevin Jacob finished third, 12.34, five at 112.61.
15:19 Well, Sean Holman, Charlie Keeter is our winner
15:21 of the drag race portion of the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge
15:24 presented by XDP.
15:26 And once again, the six liter reigns supreme.
15:28 - Yeah, you know, for all those haters out there,
15:30 you know, this six liter is a hell of an example
15:32 of what you can do with that engine
15:33 when you know what you're doing.
15:34 I mean, you know, Keeter has been competitive
15:37 all event long.
15:38 Obviously he won the event last year
15:40 and, you know, he didn't get off the line first
15:42 by any means, but he absolutely blew through
15:44 his, I'd trust, 121 miles an hour in that last race.
15:47 - A typical day in the drag strip
15:49 here at Diesel Power Challenge.
15:50 We saw some quick runs, we saw some carnage,
15:52 and at the end of the day, we saw a great final round.
15:54 We're not done here at Bandamere Speedway,
15:55 but we are done for this episode
15:57 of the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge presented by XDP.
16:01 Stick with us next time.
16:02 We've got a lot more hardcore action
16:03 from this beautiful drag strip in Colorado.
16:05 Next time on the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge
16:11 presented by XDP, we'll take you
16:12 to the trailer towing obstacle course,
16:14 a place where driver ability
16:16 and truck functionality come together
16:18 in one of the most nefarious and difficult tests
16:20 we've ever designed.
16:21 (upbeat music)
16:24 (engines revving)
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17:04 (engines revving)
17:06 (horn honking)