The natives are restless - DIESEL Motorsports!

In saying Natives I mean the diesel competitors, anytime they sit around in the winter and wonder who is on top they find time to banter. Who made it to the top, who got noticed more, etc., etc.!

I know DIESEL Motorsports is doing a great job when they want to challenge our programs of who is getting honored for achievement. 

It is real simple with us since we are a sanctioning body, follow the safety rules and guidelines, come to the events, and go down the track multiple times.

In racing you set a record by running twice so you can back up the successful run and you can set a record. Sled pulling run multiple times down the track at events and winning in your class.

We tell people all of the time, before you rebuild read the rules! This is very important, because if you build it and the safety features are not followed you can be DQed for not meeting standards.

We welcome people challenging our programs, it means they are noticing what we are doing on a regular basis. For those who don't agree are the ones or their friends who normally cannot set the records they claim. We welcome all competitors who want to come and compete using the proper rules for a sanctioning body.

What do they say? "Any publicity is better than none", we love the attention!

It makes the goals seem even bigger to achieve winner status at our events. When really it can be quite simple, just compete multiple times.

Doing it the right way is not for everyone and that's okay. There are a lot of people who come to the events who want to be noticed for their achievements.

Our schedule will be released in January as well as the new sponsors for the 2014 season.

Competitors let's compete for diesel . . .

People have asked me several times should we compete at other diesel events that are not DIESEL Motorsports?

My response . . .  absolutely! The more the better I say, we can't be everywhere all of the time.

DIESEL Motorsports is happy the sport is growing and others are putting on diesel events for pulling, racing and dyno. That tells us we are doing our job, expanding the sport's popularity.

I have heard that other promoters are telling competitors not to come to ours but that is nothing but race drama. My advice! Stay out of the drama and go compete for the sake of the sport and your enjoyment.

Real competitors compete for the excitement and thrill for the sport, not to choose sides, make claims, and cause trouble. Leave the business end of it to the owners and just compete, let your numbers do your talking for you.

The more exposure you have at diesel events the easier it is to get sponsors! Period.

Every time a photo of your truck is used in magazines, ads, posters, internet, blogs, etc., then you are getting noticed by the masses. Limit yourself and you limit your chances of obtaining notification and sponsors.

So who is the loser here? Compete everywhere you can and enjoy the sport.

Back to Indy for the PRI Show - how was it?

Many of you could not make it to Indianapolis for the return of the PRI (Performance Race Industry) Show so I will attempt to give my review of the show for us diesel people.

As we departed for the show in the AM it was -4 degrees wind chill and many of us was asking oh why, oh why not Orlando?

But once we got to the show we realized why the show had come back home to race country. Indianapolis has been home to racing since the early 1900s, shops, racers and industry leaders. The show was packed with many people coming into the show. Did not hear final estimates but initial was around 40,000 people.

Yes most of the show is round track business and the gas industry but we saw a lot more diesel people here than the Orlando show. DIESEL Motorsports was on the far corner of the main hall exiting the show and we still had given out over 10,000 decals of our sponsors and DM's before the end of the second day. All of our free give-aways of DM backpacks, water bottles and free hats were gone on the first day.

Now it may have had something to do with the NEW DM girls passing items out but we had a lot of people stopping by the booth viewing our video of the Thunder in Muncie pulls.

Many of our sponsors were in the show and in the main hall! The only difference in the shows is the Convention Center in Orlando was much bigger and everything could fit in the same area. The Convention Center in Indy consists of several rooms so the show was spread out quite a bit. If you didn't get in the main hall it was hard to find you, we had several people say they had a hard time finding us and we were in the main entrance. We walked a long way to find our friends at Premier and to see Jeff Dean's dragster.

We saw many of our diesel friends who were interested in our sponsor's products. A lot of tracks and manufacturers stopped by our booth inquiring about the growing sport of DIESEL Motorsports. The last day was a little lighter in attendance because of a snow storm that moved into the area overnight but it was still busy. We had the DM girls go visit many of our sponsor's booths and pass out decals.

It was a very successful show for DIESEL Motorsports, and yes, we'll be back!

Why do we display & visit trade shows?

Next week DIESEL Motorsports will display at the Performance Race Industry Show (PRI) held in Indianapolis this year December 12-14. Held at the downtown convention center you will find us out of the main hall by the escalators toward the mall, booth #7126.

We could only afford a 10x10 booth but we plan to have a lot going on inside of our booth. We will be playing videos of trucks pulling and racing at events, passing out give-aways/decals and you can pose with the "Girls Gone Diesel"!

Friday you can meet and pose with the DIESEL World Cover Girl for "Girls Gone Diesel", Caitlin Aiken among others from the issue.

Saturday you can meet a special guest from the circuit which is one of our "Girls Gone Diesel" plus a racer, receive a special backpack from DIESEL Motorsports and a water bottle.

All it takes to get in the show is a business card and ID, 9-5 every day.

Why do we do these shows? SEMA, PRI, etc etc.

TO PROMOTE DIESEL AS A SPORT - DIESEL MOTORSPORTS!

We tell open crowds and business people about our sport of diesel truck drag racing, pulling and the diesel truck lifestyle. Educating the masses about our sport will make it grow.

DIESEL Motorsports makes an effort to educate people in the industry about diesel truck racing and pulling. I have had company executives of products you buy and install on your truck ask what is sled pulling? I pull up Youtube on one of our channels and show them, they are shocked that a sport surrounds what I just displayed to them.

We are ALL familiar with our sport but there are many in the automotive industry who has never viewed or heard of our activities.

What happens when we lose one of our own?

This week was a National Holiday for giving thanks for all that we have around us. It was a tough one to feel good about for many of us who knew Danny Toops which was tragically taken from this world in a truck/car wreck on the eve of the holiday.

A lot of us knew him as a fun loving diesel puller who just started his own shop not too long ago and was doing really well with it. I saw him as one of the young people in this sport that will make a mark on this sport. Yes he was competitive just as I am, sometimes a bit too much but that is what made him a leader in the sport. He didn't name his truck the Instigator for nothing, it matched who he was in this world.

I liked Danny a lot because of his positive outlook on work, life, and views of the world. There are a lot of people in DIESEL Motorsports who stand out as leaders and positive people who want to progressively get better for themselves and the sport. I can name immediately 100 such people in our travels who are fun people to be around in this industry and many more if you give me time.

We need to take care of our own as those that can make it to Danny's funeral tomorrow, but remember those that are still here and live with the same drive that this young man had for the sport. In his memory keep the sport alive by embracing those in the sport with the same positive attitude, even if you didn't agree with them before.

Unity and teamwork wins in every sport, division and discontent loses in the end. Take this time to embrace the people that make up our sport and it will grow immensely in the following years, keep a positive attitude toward all that are involved in DIESEL Motorsports.

Losing Danny reminds us all that no one is exempt from catastrophe and we are all here a short time so let's make the best of every day which includes progressively making the sport better for the future.

What's on the outlook for 2014???

2014 - Who would have thought we would be discussing DIESEL Motorsports for this year when this all started in 2001 at the first diesel event - Thunder in Muncie?

The original people involved in that first event are still part of the sport in many ways, some have gone but they are being recognized at each Thunder in Muncie event by being inducted into the "Hall of Fame".

Diesel events will still be attended as the sport continues to grow in rural areas, it is still considered a grass roots motor sport by industry standards. As events get bigger with more attendees and publicity then we will continue to go mainstream.

It is exciting when the big three automakers are now making domestic diesel cars and foreign makers are now putting diesels in their pickup models. Diesel is here but only as clean diesel in the newer models, Europe has been on diesel for over 50 years. In the past the foreign diesels (TDI) have mainly been interested in MPG, however I know our Americans love for vehicles and expect to see some performance variances of these vehicles.

The usual yearly events are still planned for DIESEL Motorsports for 2014. We are starting with our Texas event March 7/8th during Spring Break with 2 days of diesel fun in Denton Texas.

Thunder in Muncie is planned again during June 20/21 weekend with many new activities during the weekend, this is where it all started in 2001!

A special DIESEL Motorsports 1st is the DM Powertour starting in North Indiana on Thursday and ending at the Muncie Dragway on Friday evening. There will also be a DM Powertour for the East Coast Diesel Nationals starting at Mass Diesel in MA and ending up at Bloomsburg, PA Friday evening at the Quaker Steak and Lube. More details coming on both trips.

East Coast Diesel Nationals on July 19th gets bigger every year and the purses for 2014 will be the biggest in the industry for all competitors. This show highlights the best trucks in the NE and East coast of the US, it will be the 6th year for this event.

The Rocky Mountain Diesel Shootout will be back August 15th and more for the weekend is planned which is hosted by Industrial Injection. Watch for more info to come.

Some newer events will be announced as we get the contracts confirmed and they will be all over the US, like a drag race at Spokane Raceway on August 2/3 and Bash On the Bayou in March.  More details to come!

And don't ignore the over 50 affiliate events all over the country, many new ones have joined the DIESEL Motorsports mix. We encourage all clubs to join our affiliate program where DM helps with marketing and advertising the events for them.

It will be a busy year for DIESEL Motorsports and your support is needed in order for the sport to grow and reach mainstream status.

SEMA 2013 Report

I have been very busy so that's why I have not posted lately. We ended the year along with getting ready for SEMA 2013 and now PRI Show in Indianapolis.

SEMA 2013 was very well attended along with the AAPEX Show, it was up in booth space and attendees over last year. DIESEL Motorsports held it's yearly Board Meeting which included dinner this year for the sponsors and special guests. Over 25 attended the meeting with some great conversations and times. The last year was discussed as well as the next year with positive direction and  ideas for the forthcoming years.

DIESEL Motorsports announced the same events as last year along with a few new ones that will be released after the first of the year with a full schedule.

The general question we got after Edge/SuperChips declared bankruptcy a couple of months ago was "how is the diesel performance market going to fair under current conditions by the EPA"?

I'm not going to sugar coat it for those who asked, it has affected the industry in some bad ways and in some good ways. Anytime manufacturers are shut down or controlled by the government of what they can produce is going to result in loss of sales and jobs across the country.


Having said that we all must learn to live within the guidelines of the many, we went through this same environment in the 80s with Catalytic converters. For those who were here in the business (me included) can remember what the companies had to do to comply in order to sell parts.

Same thing but years later, companies learn how to change with the market, government controls and keep producing products that can sell. It helps to remain positive and keep moving forward at all times within the guidelines set forth by the industry.

The bad is the bolt-on part on of diesel performance business is hurting and so are the companies who sold those products. It just got harder to get the products and sell them at a competitive price.

The good part of our diesel business is diesel enthusiasts are keeping or buying older diesel trucks that do not fall under the EPA/DPF guidelines and the maintenance end of the business is sky-rocketing with every diesel shop I talk to up to today! People are keeping their older trucks and buying older trucks in order to get what they want and make modifications.

Also those who are buying new trucks are finding the shops are recommending legal ways to add performance with the DPF in place. Those who know diesels at the shops were adding performance to them before the bolt-on parts 5 years or before. There is always air intake, exhaust, turbo, injectors, engine modifications such as pistons, rods, bolts, dampeners, cams, etc, that can add to the engine's performance legally.

While many of the diesel part manufacturers were not displaying at SEMA many of the mainstream companies who make parts for our industry was displaying and selling their products.

Yes there were many diesel trucks displayed outside of the building and some inside but the companies were keeping their booths simple and selling parts out of them.

We did see some new parts being announced and displayed at SEMA for our diesel marketplace and some new items for the diesel garages that are prevalent in the Mid-West States.

Overall the atmosphere was upbeat and positive regarding the diesel performance industry and there are a lot of diesel pickup sled pulls in the Mid-West during the Summer months along with diesel events now appearing everywhere in the country.

The sport continues to grow and I don't see it going away, this year was just a small hiccup in the business marketplace that will be addressed correctly in order to continue.

Next up is the PRI Show (Performance Race Industry Show) in Indianapolis Dec 12-14. DIESEL Motorsports will have a booth there in the outer circle of displays near the escalators. We will be show video of sled pulls and racing along with giving out some literature, decals and give-aways.

DIESEL Motorsports will also be featuring some of DIESEL World's "Girls Gone Diesel" at the booth so stop by and see us.