On the final day of Diesel Power Challenge 2017 Presented by XDP
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00:00 Welcome to the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge presented by XDP.
00:12 After a grueling week, our competitors are setting themselves up for one more event,
00:15 and it could be the most punishing of all.
00:17 It's going to be truck pull time, and you can see behind me our competitors making those
00:21 last minute adjustments here in the staging lanes ahead of the drag strip to get their
00:24 rigs ready to hook to that pro-level pulling sled and really give it the business.
00:28 It is going to be hardcore pulling, and this could be the deciding factor on who walks
00:32 away with the honors at the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge presented by XDP.
00:37 We've drag raced at Bandimere, we've trailer tow obstacle coursed at Bandimere, and now
00:41 we're hooking them to the sled also at Bandimere Speedway.
00:46 While the equipment grooms the pulling course, let's check in with KJ Jones at this morning's
00:49 fuel stop.
00:50 Hey, this is KJ.
00:51 We're at day five.
00:52 Final day of Diesel Power Challenge 2017.
00:53 Presented by XDP.
00:59 We're the CAT certified scales here in Denver, and what we're going to do is roll all of
01:05 our trucks across the scales.
01:06 They're full of fuel.
01:07 We've fueled up before this.
01:08 They're full of fuel.
01:09 Go across scales and get weight.
01:11 Take that measurement, and it's not a matter of calculating it for any type of points value,
01:16 but we just want the data.
01:17 And speaking of data, Brian, why don't you tell everybody how they did on the fuel economy
01:21 test.
01:22 Thanks, KJ.
01:23 On day two of the Diesel Power Challenge presented by XDP, we conducted our fuel economy test
01:29 on the Dyno rollers at ATS Diesel Performance.
01:31 The way it works is pretty simple.
01:33 Each truck is backed onto the rollers.
01:35 We then fill that truck up with a certified pump that we have in the Dyno cell, and then
01:38 we send the truck on a simulated 20 plus minute drive.
01:42 There are hills and braking zones and acceleration zones in there.
01:45 At the end of the drive, we then fill the truck up again, calculate how much fuel was
01:48 used, and that determines the scores on our fuel economy challenge.
01:52 It puts our drivers on display, and it puts their ability to modulate that throttle pedal
01:56 and their own truck's efficiency on full show.
01:59 So one of the things that sets the Diesel Power Challenge presented by XDP apart from
02:05 other contests involving diesel trucks is this fuel economy element.
02:09 It doesn't seem like the most exciting thing in the world, but what it does is it clearly
02:13 showcases the fact that these trucks can make incredible power, well over 1,000 at the wheels.
02:17 They can make incredible torque, over 2,000 at the wheels for some of these vehicles.
02:22 But they can also go down the road with amazing efficiency and get through there and be commuter
02:26 vehicles and be driven and work every day.
02:28 Many of the trucks in this competition are just that, daily drivers and work trucks.
02:32 Unfortunately, not all of them finished the contest unscathed.
02:36 McCoy Black unfortunately had problems to not make the fuel economy challenge.
02:42 Sean Duran had a good fuel economy challenge, but then had troubles on the drag strip.
02:47 Tim John, now this is a big one.
02:49 He had trouble on the drag strip and is actually coming into the sled pulling part of the event
02:53 with a tow hook on the front of the truck.
02:55 When we look at the fuel consumption and drivability test, Charlie Keeter was the winner, 0.21
03:00 gallons consumed.
03:01 Sean Duran was number two, just behind him, 0.23 gallons consumed.
03:04 Mike Buckelman, number three at 0.24 gallons.
03:09 So Tim John and his crew are in an all out thrash right now to get this truck fixed before
03:14 we start the sled pulling competition.
03:16 They are clearly working on the transmission and they have very little time to get this
03:19 thing sorted out before he's going to have to hook it to a sled.
03:22 The guy is in great shape right now.
03:24 He's a contender to win this whole thing, but if he does not hook to the sled, his hopes
03:28 will be dashed.
03:36 So Rich Strueb will be our first puller here.
03:38 He's got the Duramax Power GMC Dually, one of two Dualys in the field.
03:42 Now what may have hurt him in some other competitions, meaning the massive weight of this truck,
03:46 may actually be working in his favor here in the sled pull.
03:49 You see him, he's going to spool things up, he's going to very gingerly take it out of
03:52 the hole.
03:53 Does not want to build up too much wheel speed early, and now he's really going to get after
03:56 it.
03:57 So here we go, Rich Strueb, 9,000 plus pounds of GMC and it is digging along pretty good.
04:01 Looks like he's down there locking, maybe unlocking the torque converter, trying to
04:04 keep some momentum going.
04:06 A very solid opening pull for Rich Strueb.
04:09 Let's find out if he's satisfied with what he was able to do there.
04:11 A distance of 273 feet.
04:14 Very very happy.
04:15 Perfect wheel speed, we had the perfect spot in the track.
04:17 I'm very very pleased with that.
04:20 Almost zero wheel hop, you know, we spooled up nice, everything was perfect.
04:23 So here comes Kevin Jacobs, the 2005 Dodge Ram, as he's getting the thing tensioned up
04:28 a little bit.
04:29 You can see it kind of bucking and working against him a little bit there in the starting
04:32 line.
04:33 He finally starts to roll his foot into the pedal.
04:35 Now he's making some wheel speed.
04:37 That's the look he wants to see.
04:38 The big thing here is going to be managing the revs and the wheel speed.
04:40 And oh, trouble again.
04:42 Looks like he tried to shift the thing, the truck, the revs came down.
04:45 But underneath the turbos and that was it for Jacob.
04:47 A distance of 154 feet and he is certainly not happy with what he sees here.
04:52 Started off good.
04:53 She got underneath the chargers and pretty much just lost all power and didn't quite
04:58 do what we wanted it to do.
04:59 So she didn't quite end up how I wanted it but it is what it is.
05:04 And so it is time for Tim Yon to hook up to the sled.
05:07 We can see him giving the thing the throttle.
05:09 Man, it starts to chuck dirt and rocks and all kinds of stuff all over the place.
05:13 That is making some big steam in the middle part of the track.
05:15 Oh, look at him hang on to the steering wheel in there.
05:18 A full pull for Tim Yon.
05:20 We got to figure out what the distance is.
05:22 And unbelievable.
05:23 Oh, it did not come without a price.
05:25 Look at this.
05:26 He's trying to find a gear to get this thing to move and they may have finished off whatever
05:28 was left of that transmission.
05:29 Looks like it appears to be a full pull for Tim Yon.
05:30 We're going 300 feet with the sled and he's well past 300 feet.
05:31 So a full pull right now.
05:32 We're going to get a verification on what the exact distance was.
05:33 We're going to check something real quick.
05:46 We'll be back.
05:51 I knew we had a hurt transmission going into it.
05:53 So we'll check it out.
05:55 How do you feel about your pull?
05:57 Um, felt good.
05:58 Tim Yon with a fantastic pull.
05:59 That was 309.6.
06:00 Dragging the sled almost 80 miles an hour.
06:01 70 some odd miles an hour.
06:02 And everything is great.
06:03 That was just an awesome pull and we'll get ready for more.
06:16 So here he comes again.
06:17 The man with the shades, Levi Kretsch, gets ready to hook his Ram truck up and put it
06:20 to maximum effort here.
06:24 As he begins to spool the turbos up, he has ditched the glasses at this point.
06:27 He is serious now.
06:29 Coming off the starting line, it's going to be interesting to see how he manages the
06:31 revs going down the racetrack as he's coming.
06:34 Especially this one likes to rev it.
06:36 Uh oh.
06:37 Kretsch is shifting the truck going down through.
06:38 It looks like he may have, sounds like he may have hit neutral there.
06:39 Yanks the thing back into gear but he's lost so much momentum.
06:43 Oh, he comes to kind of a crunching stop out there.
06:46 Don't see anything coming out of the bottom of the truck but that is certainly not the
06:49 hook that he wanted.
06:50 Oh, that was a wild run, wasn't it?
06:54 We brought the chargers up to about 15 PSI, second gear, slowly let out of it, got into
07:00 it and boy I tell you what, it wrapped right out the 5000 right there.
07:04 Looked down, tried to bring it up into drive, we had overdrive off, hit third, went a little
07:09 too far, hit neutral and boom, neutral.
07:12 Brought it back down into gear and it was too late.
07:16 But all that matters is we got a healthy truck, we're still going.
07:19 Awesome.
07:20 Didn't break a thing.
07:21 Didn't break a thing, man.
07:22 The entire competition, that's all that matters to me.
07:24 Congratulations.
07:25 Thank you, sir.
07:26 You bet.
07:27 Sixth leader, Charlie Keeter, Diesel Power Challenge 2016 champion.
07:28 Trying to repeat right now, he's been doing very well in the competition.
07:29 He's a little concerned about this, well he's a lot concerned about this sled pull because
07:30 there's some tough trucks here.
07:31 He says he's going to give it all he's got, put a lot of nitrous to it and try to drag
07:32 it 300 feet.
07:33 Well, you heard KJ say it himself, he's going to put a lot of nitrous to it and he's going
07:34 to try to drag the sled 300 feet.
07:35 Charlie Keeter has never been one to go easy on the sled.
07:36 He's never been one to go easy on the sled.
07:37 He's never been one to go easy on the sled.
07:38 He's never been one to go easy on the sled.
07:39 Charlie Keeter has never been one to go easy on this truck and boy it has certainly proven
07:56 its weight in gold.
07:57 He is in good shape again this year as he comes off the starting line, very gently,
08:02 building some wheel speed, building some wheel speed and here comes the spray and here comes
08:06 the fuel.
08:07 Keeter laces the thing.
08:08 Man, he is beat on this truck.
08:09 The dashboard is about to fall out of it and Keeter still hanging with it.
08:13 Looks like the truck is about to split into two.
08:16 Finally grinds to a halt way past the end of the course.
08:18 He is freaking out in there.
08:20 Six liter Charlie Keeter never says die.
08:24 Clearly a run that was in a lot of trouble.
08:26 Never had the turbos up where they needed to be but he is, there's nitrous on board
08:30 so Charlie just tagged a lot of nitrous through that six liter and literally willed it past
08:36 the 300 foot mark.
08:37 I was going to wait for a distance but the guy, he knows what he has to do and when he
08:41 has to do it and you just saw it happen.
08:42 That was amazing.
08:43 I don't know what that was you little boss.
08:44 That's doing what you needed to do when you needed to do it man.
08:45 Tell me, how's everything going on in there?
08:46 Is he alright?
08:47 Not going to jump out is he?
08:48 I thought the truck was going to break in half man.
09:02 Let's take a ride with Charlie Keeter on this run.
09:04 You can see him very easy out of the hole.
09:07 Gets ready to shift the truck.
09:08 Once he shifts the truck he reaches down for his nitrous button and here's where the real
09:12 fun begins.
09:13 Hits the button and watch how violent this thing starts to get as the truck starts digging
09:17 in.
09:18 He's bouncing all over the place.
09:19 Here comes a dashboard trying to fly out of the thing.
09:21 He lifts and here's the rebel yell we've come to know for Keeter.
09:25 And Charlie Keeter with a bunch of noise and stuff going on in the background.
09:28 K.J. Jones listens to his radio and delivers the news.
09:31 350 feet of official distance he is way, way in the lead.
09:36 So up next is Mike Bunkelman.
09:38 He has got a tough act to follow after Charlie Keeter just put on a show out there.
09:42 Bunkelman the single turbocharger truck is at a disadvantage out here.
09:45 That is no shot at his rig.
09:48 But as he's set up right now this is not really a truck that's designed to go sled pulling
09:52 at altitude.
09:53 He's doing a pretty good job of it.
09:54 Got the thing out of the hole.
09:55 The revs came up and it looks like he shifted the truck and once he shifted it the motor
09:59 lugged down, he lost the spool in the turbos and that was all she wrote for Mike Bunkelman
10:04 as the truck grinds to a halt at 242 feet.
10:07 Came out of the hole second gear.
10:09 Came out perfect.
10:10 Lit up nice.
10:11 Hit four grand.
10:12 Locked the torque converter in.
10:14 Went back up to four grand.
10:15 Hit third gear.
10:16 Lost complete boost.
10:17 Tried to unlock the torque converter to keep it going.
10:23 Wasn't happening.
10:24 Figured you know we're done.
10:27 Happens.
10:28 It's a pretty good charger truck.
10:29 High altitude.
10:30 Nothing you can really do about it.
10:31 It didn't break anything right?
10:32 Truck's still together.
10:33 Gonna be able to drive it home if we really wanted to.
10:34 So that's a plus.
10:37 So the final truck that can challenge Charlie Keeter on the pulling course belongs to Patrick
10:41 Whitcomb.
10:42 The big 2008 Ford F-350 dives in off the starting line, digs in off the starting line and off
10:47 he goes.
10:48 Mid track momentum may be hampered by the less aggressive tire he runs and the truck
10:52 rolls to a stop at the top end once the sled digs in.
10:55 You can see the red flag being waved.
10:56 A distance of 280 feet for Pat Whitcomb.
10:59 It was hard getting traction for me.
11:01 I was trying to pedal it out a little bit.
11:02 I was hoping for a little bit better run but did what we could.
11:07 Charlie Keeter went 350 feet to win the sled pulling contest.
11:10 Tim John went 309 feet to come in second while lunging a transmission.
11:14 And Patrick Whitcomb came in third 280 feet of distance out of his 2008 F-350 dually.
11:21 That was the last contest we have and it's time to go to the awards.
11:24 Alright, Diesel Power Challenge 2017 presented by XTP is a wrap.
11:31 Give yourselves a big round of applause because from the start of DPC on Sunday to right now
11:38 you guys and you ladies put on one hell of a show.
11:42 We're going to hand out some hardware as they say.
11:48 The third place finisher is Tim John.
11:56 Tim John's driving ability may have earned him a third place finish but his truck earned
11:59 him the Driver's Choice Awards.
12:01 All the competitors voted and his rig was the one they all wanted to hop in and drive
12:05 back home.
12:07 Second place finisher, Patrick Whitcomb.
12:13 It's certainly not easy to compete with a dually at the Diesel Power Challenge.
12:16 We've seen many guys come in over the years and struggle but not Patrick Whitcomb.
12:20 The ace driver with a great truck came in second.
12:24 Last year Charlie Keeter approached me during our meet and greet and he asked about these
12:30 big banners and he said well how do I get to take one of those home?
12:34 What do I have to do to take one home?
12:35 And I said you gotta win.
12:37 He once again takes one home because he is your Diesel Power Challenge 2017 champion.
12:42 Charlie Keeter is one of the most intense competitors in Diesel Power Challenge history
12:46 and now one of the winningest.
12:47 He is only the second man in the 11 year history of this event to win it twice in a row.
12:52 And there you have it.
12:53 The numbers tell the whole story.
12:54 Charlie Keeter the 2017 Diesel Power Challenge champ.
12:58 542 points and Patrick Whitcomb chased him right to the end with 463.6.
13:04 It was an incredible competition and a great crop of trucks to represent the diesel world
13:08 in 2017.
13:09 Yeah we came back with a proven set up from last year and it worked out really good throughout
13:17 the entire week.
13:18 Kept the truck together and performed pretty good across the board the entire week.
13:23 The fuel economy went well for us.
13:27 We were able to get first place in the fuel economy.
13:31 Second event was the dyno.
13:32 We knew we weren't going to win the dyno but we came in fourth.
13:37 Still pretty decent numbers.
13:39 Put us in good position going into day three.
13:41 Eighth mile trailer tow.
13:43 Had Patrick really killed that.
13:45 We knew we wouldn't be able to compete with that so we were shooting for second place
13:49 in that event.
13:50 The drag racing was next.
13:53 That's what we do with the truck most of the time.
13:55 We were able to win that event and then the trailer obstacle course that afternoon.
14:00 That's a walk in the park really.
14:02 The sled pull today was pretty much a wing and a prayer basically.
14:08 It was a lot of nitrous and luckily it went down through there like it was supposed to.
14:14 Feels pretty good.
14:15 Pretty good.
14:16 Obviously it's the second time somebody's done it but to be able to do it with the caliber
14:21 of truck we have, I mean it's pretty awesome.
14:24 Shout out to Diesel Power magazine for putting this on.
14:27 It's a great event.
14:28 Great people.
14:29 The crew.
14:30 You know everybody.
14:31 It's good time, good people.
14:34 That's what it's all about.