- Hello and welcome to the 2016 Diesel Power Challenge
presented by XDP.
I'm Brian Lohnes and we are still here
at Bandimere Speedway.
We're gettin' ready to do the eighth-mile trailer tow,
but before we start that,
we got to talk about yesterday.
Neal Torley put in a performance for the ages
in the trailer-towing obstacle course.
Torley tore through the course
in a minute and 11 seconds
and dominated the field,
just as he did during our mileage contest
earlier in the week.
So now we move to the drag strip here at Bandimere,
the place that this is so famous for.
The difference here is
we're going to take a 10000-pound trailer,
hook it to the back of these trucks and individually,
they're going to run down the eighth mile.
Quickest time wins.
Not about speed, it's about elapsed time.
This is the eighth mile trailer tow.
Here comes Ray McClelland.
McClelland has got his Dodge Ram hooked up.
He was our dyno champion, in effect.
We know he's got more horsepower than anybody else.
Can he apply it to the racetrack?
Oh, a great launch for McClelland
as it tries to start but chew the tires.
Oh man, that things really starts
hummin' around at the gear change
and it popped real hard there.
A backfire as he got just past the 330-foot mark
goes 11.344 at 51 miles an hour,
and you can hear the the truck has not refired as of yet.
Ray, that was kind of an adventure out there.
Once it got up on the boost
it started to turn the tire pretty hard
and it was wanderin' around and then it popped.
Walk us through what happened.
- Yeah, I brought it up,
I didn't want to bring it out too hard
because I knew that the tires were
eventually going to spin.
Once it started spinning
I feathered the throttle a little bit
trying to get a boost back down,
then once I started easing back into it
I hit the converter lock and it exploded the boot,
started goin' up in smoke right before that, so
I'm going to do my best to get everything handled
so I can get back in the drag and just
pull through strong on that, but
right now I can't say I'm entirely enthused, so
we're going to get it fixed,
we're going to come in strong.
- [Brian] So here comes Nathan Stacy and his pickup truck.
It's obviously a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado.
Nathan's going to stage the truck,
get it set in that pre-stage at stage beam and then
likely build the boost up.
As we saw with Ray McClelland
these trucks do have a tendency
to be able to spin all four tires.
And of course with all the weight in the back,
the other thing that happens,
you heard Ray mention one thing,
torque converter lockup.
Most of these trucks, if not all of them,
have a manual,
the ability to manually lock the torque converter.
And that's when we tend to see the sway begin.
So Nathan Stacy now,
inching his way towards the pre-stage at stage beam.
Hear the revs coming up a little bit.
(engine revving)
Now he's fully staged.
Sit static, reaction time doesn't matter here.
He rolls into the throttle.
(engine revving)
Now he's feeding the power to it.
And man, that thing is screamin'.
I believe he's let the converter lock for the entire run.
Now it shifts in a higher gear, goes 12:29.1
at 64 miles per hour.
Well Nathan went down 12.29.
Pretty solid run.
The thing wasn't weavin' or bobbin' around
all over the place, went pretty good.
- Yeah, it went down there pretty smooth.
I was pretty happy,
a lot better than the obstacle course, so
we're doin' a little bit better.
- [Brian] Now do you have your torque converter manual lock
or unlock and how did you,
'cause there's different strategies out there,
what'd you do it?
- I got a fleece lockup box,
I hit it in about third,
'cause I didn't want to come out in second with lockup,
just so it doesn't do anything crazy.
But I mean I ain't runnin' any suprises or anything, so...
- [Brian] Cool.
All good man, we'll see where you end up with the,
if we run everybody else through.
Thanks Nate.
- No problem.
- [Brian] So here comes Travis Koller.
Koller coming up in his F-250,
the first of the Ford contingent
we've seen hooked up to the sled so far.
A couple of Chevrolets and Cummins trucks
have attacked it.
And again, it's going to be important,
that first 60 feet is important
but really what's unique here...
(engine revving)
Oh yeah, he got after it.
You saw the axles trying to walk out from under the chassis.
And Koller with basically a stock turbo in that truck
goes 12.158 at 60 miles an hour.
Very nice run.
Again you saw a little bit of axle hop
there at the beginning when both of those axles were
clawing for traction, but for a,
basically a stock turbo truck, very impressive move.
Well Travis Koller came out of the hole
with some aggression there,
man that thing was chewing pretty good the first 60 feet.
- Yeah that was hoppin' pretty good,
I had to let off a little bit and smooth her out
and get back in it.
- [Brian] Still a really stout run for basically a stock
turbo-charged truck.
The thing, 12 flat, really nothing to complain about.
- No, I'm pretty happy with it,
for it hoppin' as bad as it did.
I wanted to keep it pinched the whole way down but
I didn't want to brake anything.
- [Brian] Well good deal,
you got some more action on the drag strip
a little bit later today, so congrats on the clean run.
- Thank you sir.
- [Brian] So here comes Charlie Keeter from Virginia.
And Keeter, I spoke to him a little while ago,
and he has the right attitude.
He has his spare transmission out,
and he has the tools ready to go,
and we know he is not afraid
of the skinny pedal on the right.
So Keeter can put on a good show for us here.
He's got to get this truck down in the 11-second zone
in the eighth mile to get the top spot
as it stands right now.
Certainly capable of doing it,
one of the most powerful trucks
we have in the dyno and a violently powerful truck as well.
So we'll see what gear it can get done here.
This truck running a much more street-style tire
than the last couple trucks we've seen.
Way less knobby and way more contact-patched.
Course, the good news is that gives you
better chance to grab this.
Bad news is that gives you a better chance to break
every drive line component known to man
underneath the truck.
So Charlie Keeter.
(engine revving)
Keeter going to stand on it and let 'er rip.
Here we go.
The F-250 spooling.
Pre-stage.
Trying to get the boost built.
Now he's inching ahead.
Fully staged now.
Here it comes, Keeter.
The truck kind of lazy comin' out of the hole.
And Keeter lifts out of it.
Did not like the way the thing sounded or felt
as he got up to 60 feet he's just going to kind of motor it.
Be very ginger with the throttle application there and
it appears to be working for David Ferguson
as he comes closer and closer
inching his way towards the starting line.
(engine revving)
That's the sound he was wanting to hear.
The engine's startin' to sound and
make its way towards the happy place, so to speak.
He's now pre-staged.
What's going to happen when he takes his foot off the brake?
And there's Ferguson.
(engine revving)
Man and that thing really roared to life
at 330 and Ferguson goes 11.489 at 73 miles an hour.
Started off a fairly slow 60-foot time but boy,
once he got that load rollin', he was lookin' good.
11.489, 73.
- [Second Announcer] Next competitor on course
going to be Neal Torley.
Already won fuel economy,
he's already won the obstacle course.
What can he do now with this big trailer?
- [Brian] Oh, totally going to walk it off the starting line
and then give it the wood.
(engine revving)
You saw the truck kind of lazy,
just pulled the turbo there past 60 feet
and he pulls through.
And a 12.296 at 69 miles per hour for Neal Torley.
So that puts him
squarely in the middle of the field right now,
as we've run several trucks.
Here comes Kelsey Epp, down from Alberta, Canada.
Kelsey had a strong showing in the
fuel economy portion of the program.
She had a strong showing on the dyno as well.
Kelsey's truck doesn't seem to have any trouble
spooling at all.
(engine revving)
She seems to be pretty happy.
She comes aggressively off the starting line,
little bit of tire spin and a pedal job.
And Kelsey really leans into it.
Oh baby, that thing starts to sway the trailer
very hard on the eighth mile.
That thing is really movin' around.
She goes 11.481 at 73.
Boy, that's either first or second.
Quick time of the day,
11.481 at 73 for Kelsey and
she was happy to drive it down there,
back half of the racetrack.
- [Second Announcer] Diesel Power Challenge officials
allowed the competitors
another run down the racetrack with the trailer
if they wanted it.
Charlie Keeter was the first guy in line
and it paid off.
- [Brian] And here comes Charlie to the starting line
in the F-250, and boy,
he doesn't seem to be having a problem
spooling the turbos.
He comes all the way in, he's fully staged,
and off he comes, feeding the power to it,
oh man, look at this thing come alive at 60 feet.
(engine revving)
And Charlie is charging past the 330,
all the way to the eighth mile.
Looks like the quickest run of the day.
It is.
10.699 at 78.27 miles an hour.
Goin' away, the quickest in the eighth mile trailer tow
we have seen in the entire competition.
Vaulting right to the top of the sheet is Charlie.
Wow.
So Ford as Neal Torley comes to the starting line.
This is the truck that won
the fuel economy competition,
that won the trailer-towing obstacle course.
And now Torley, who finished fourth in the dyno,
and was disappointed in his dyno numbers,
going to try to apply more horsepower to the drag strip.
He's got to go quicker than 10.69 to jump into the lead
of this event, and that is a tall order.
Torley bringing the truck ahead.
Finds the pre-stage beam.
Finds the stage beam.
Going to wind the turbos up and here we go.
(engine revving)
And he lets it have it just past 60 feet.
And Neal Torley is on a very clean run.
Lifted it just past a 330 and Torley goes 10.796
at 69,
just a 10th off number one.
That'll put him solidly in the second spot.
One of only two trucks
that made it into the ten-second zone.
Torley 10.796 at 69 puts him number two.
- You know, I had a little slip at the end of the track,
it downshifted on me and bogged it down.
But you know what?
I'm happy overall.
You know what I mean?
I'm glad we got to do it.
- [Brian] So here comes Nathan Stacy in the Silverado.
Stacy taking a optional second swing at this thing.
It was opened up for competitors to take a second hit
and he's doin' it.
And Stacy, a nice clean launch,
and again at 60 feet the Duramax really starts to sing.
You can see he's sprayin' the thing,
the exhaust has cleaned way up,
and Stacy on a beautifully clean run
goes down the racetrack 11.676 at 65 miles an hour.
Definitely hit it with the spray out there
as soon as he got past the 60-foot cone
as the exhaust cleaned up to basically nothing.
- Shot bad on the first one so we're going to go again,
see what happens.
- [Brian] So here comes Travis Koller,
in the F-250 pickup truck.
Koller again taking advantage of the
second attempt that has been given to the competitors by the
Diesel Power Challenge leadership.
Koller ran about 12 seconds flat last time
down the racetrack and it's time to see
if he can better that.
This truck has a stock
variable geometry turbo on it.
(engine revving)
Little bit more aggressive
on the launch this time for Koller.
The thing's lumberin' pretty hard down there,
330 feet to the eighth mile.
He goes 11.653 at 61.
That was a significant pickup for Koller
by almost three or more than three 10ths of a second
from his previous run.
61 miles per hour.
Without the wheel speed for that first 60 feet
it might have even been somewhere in the 50s or the 40s.
- [Second Announcer] Ray McClelland
has decided to take advantage
of the second hookup to pull down the eighth mile.
He is going to try to make a run at Charlie Keeter
and leapfrog him here
in this very difficult and straining event on the truck.
He's fully staged,
he starts to spool the turbo.
You can see the truck come off the starting line.
No wheel spin.
It's very clean.
He's going to feed it the power.
He's going to lock the torque converter and hang on tight.
Weaving back and forth across the lane,
McClelland's on a great one down here and aww,
oh oh oh no.
A pop, and now he is very quiet
and he is very disappointed.
You can see it in his face.
What a great event.
After all was said and done, it was
Charlie Keeter taking home the win,
Ray McClelland runner-up,
and Neal Torley comin' in third.
Tune in next time as we get ready to go
heads-up, quarter-mile drag racing here at Bandimere.
It is going to be fast,
it is going to be fun
and there is not a 10000-pound trailer in sight.
Oh baby, this is going to be awesome.
(electronic music)