Keeping it real . . . DIESEL Motorsports!

Going into the Holidays we want to thank all of the diesel enthusiasts who attended and competed in the events this past year! It's been a tough year with ups and downs for many people.

At least we feel DIESEL Motorsports gave you small relief away from work where you can have fun with your family surrounding diesel trucks. We will try and make this next year even more fun by adding more programs that provide entertainment value that fits the diesel lifestyle.

We started with adding the NRA (National Rifle Association) this last year as a sponsor and will be expanding that avenue of interest. Outdoor sports mixes well with DIESEL Motorsports enthusiasts so you will find more displays showcasing this mixture.

Family core values forms the commitment our diesel enthusiasts put into our sport and it shows the hard work and pride in the trucks that are in the shows.

Even the attendee's trucks showcase our shows with great looking examples of diesel trucks. The individuality really shows in these trucks by each person customizing their truck their way!

DIESEL Motorsports strives to attract "DIESEL ONLY" attendees and enthusiasts to the shows, this takes a large part of our budget in marketing and advertising. Reaching the right people makes the show special because each show geographically produces new trucks in the parking lot/pit area. That's why we mix them together!

Why is DIESEL Motorsports unique - it's a lifestyle we display at each show! NO one else is doing this! We keep it real at each event - period.

Sticking to our plan . . .DIESEL Motorsports!

Provide a safe, true sanctioning body for diesel pickups to compete in a family environment where competitors are highlighted and compensated for their efforts - number one!

Number two - place combined events into areas where trucks are abundant and we can draw crowds to watch the competition. Plus keep the rules the same as to not favor a local shop or manufacturer so all competitors can have a chance to win.

Number three - help our sponsors sell and display their products at the events, with local diesel shops, and WDs that are friendly to the diesel market.

. . . and number four, continue to take our sport into mainstream America, right now we are only reaching 2% of the diesel owned pickups in the US.

DIESEL Motorsports has been persistent in this direction and it has paid off by holding good solid events where diesel people attend and compete together.

No gimmicks, just providing the same sport for over five years. The extra that we provide is the marketing in order to get people to the event and finding new diesel enthusiasts. That is where we get creative and use all of our contacts to benefit the sport.

Someone is always trying to copy what we do well and we take that as a compliment. Persistence does pay off when staying the course and we do ask for input from sponsors every year.  We still know after many years what is going to work best for what we are trying to accomplish and we tend to stick to what works.

Guarantee, if it is different or new, it will be about diesels and DIESEL Motorsports!

So what's the fallout of this week??? EPA week!

Were companies hurt? Is our diesel sport dead? What are we going to do? What's the industry going to do?

All good questions I was asked this week!

Of course companies will be hurt in sales and profitability, can they re-group in order to continue on with new products or direction? Companies with the drive to continue will survive this hiccup in business and figure out a way to change their products or services. Get smart, learn from this setback and start immediately on products strictly for diesel racing and pulling. Learn from our gasser performance part companies and how they cope with the regulations.

Our sport is not that easily killed, over 80% of our competition vehicles are pre-2007 which is not effected by this weeks activities. Most are trailered to the events for the upper classes and if the two street classes tuneup/detune when they get to the event their competition is completely legal. What this is forcing the sport to do is come to the events where it is legal to compete using the components our diesel shops are selling.

Now the trailering trucks used to get to the track may be affected by not being able to get fuel efficient components for their new trucks so their fuel costs are higher. And the diesel shops who heavily support the events by getting new business by running their trucks at the events will be affected by the loss of business but again they will have to rely on maintenance work instead of performance for a short while until the companies re-tool new products that are deemed legal or acceptable.

I imagine the winter months will still be filled with trucks wanting rebuilds for the next season, upgrades in equipment that is legal, and alternative means to what has been cutoff.

We Americans especially the independent rural crowd is pretty creative when told that it cannot be done! I have seen it for many years, nothing will hold down the masses when they want something.
Will it be a little harder to get the equipment or harness the technology, sure it will, but they will still get it done.

The diesel industry will continue to build with a slight slow down because the need for it is still there. I imagine this move by the government will further drive the price of used trucks even higher while the sale of new trucks will fall tremendously.

I have constantly been told by workers and industries a diesel truck out pulls gas trucks with better MPG. Until the big three come up with a battery powered or Algae fueled truck to compete at the same cost this want will not be replaced easily.

The want of the many fueled by the few!

What is legal in DIESEL Motorsports???

If you listen to the EPA nothing past 2007.5 where the OEM equipment is altered in anyway. If you ask your state authorities who conducts the state inspection for your vehicle, it is different in each state!

California tries to regulate the rest of the country with their CARB regulations but only a few states recognize those standards. Agriculture used to be big business in CA, well since the state is almost bankrupt not many businesses are staying in that state. Why? Because of the harsh regulations and taxes, most manufacturing have moved to tax friendly states with fewer regulations on production.

The recent effort by the EPA to strangle the diesel performance business comes from many sources including some in our own industry. The EPA is like any government agency, they justify their existence by finding problems to fix, when there are not any they pass new regulations to make sure there are problems.

Everyone knows the issue with the new diesel trucks with their DPFs. Creative American ingenuity stepped in to fix what they messed up, now those trucks get twice the MPG. Those improvements led to performance which is America's love of power and their vehicle.

Performance parts for your vehicle goes back before our time and yes they were all developed by outside businesses and individuals, not by OEM manufacturers. The gas market is flooded with performance parts that are not EPA approved for the street, walk through SEMA or upcoming PRI show. The aisles are full of them, all correctly marked and sold for the racing industry only!

Do a lot of them end up on street licensed vehicles? You better believe it, that is what they make their living on just like the diesel performance parts. Why do they not get noticed? Because you can't tell the difference in the operation of the vehicle as it goes down the street. Diesels with more power smoke and our enthusiasts went the extra mile by making them smoke more!

If the diesel trucks performed normally with out smoke it would be real hard to notice the changes under the hood. Most states do not even have emission checks during inspection and some do not even have inspection on vehicles newer than 3-5 years old.

So why the big attack on our rights to add performance parts to our personal vehicles?

$$$$$Money, it always comes back to that answer. Big three automakers do not want you to change their vehicles, they want the maintenance to come to them not local businesses. The government does not want you to change their emission designed vehicle (job existence) plus they get more tax revenue with more fillups from the pumps.

The years of individuals altering their vehicles so they run faster, outperform and make noise goes way beyond our crowd of enthusiasts. The gasser crowd has been doing it for many years. Most dealers I talk to admit that once they sell their vehicle the individual customer can do what they want with their purchase since they own it.

Is it legal? Most likely not, but when has that stopped our automotive enthusiasts? We diesel enthusiasts just needed to be smarter about it, we got sloppy! I can't tell you how many times I advised a company to name their performance kit something else besides DPF delete kit and mark it for racing only. Very few listened and made it apparent as to what they were doing. We need to learn from the gasser performance manufacturers, they know how to sell legally their performance parts.

What's legal? Depends on which party you talk to because there are a lot of grey areas . . . and remember, it doesn't have to make sense it's just the law.

DID the EPA catch up with us???

How many of you have blown smoke on the streets so other vehicle owners could see it? How many of you have asked for the dump smoke tune at shops?

Did the industry get turned in by it's own competing manufacturers? or aftermarket associations? 

Why didn't anyone see this coming? Why didn't they do anything about it? Why couldn't we protect our lifestyle and a sport we love so much?

It's a lot of questions that I'm afraid will never get answered in public, just behind closed doors by a few who do know the answers!

This industry is so splintered by groups with their own agendas for business they didn't care who they would hurt. When in fact, they were hurting the industry as a whole. Everytime a negative comment is made about someone else's product, service and business it's divides the diesel community to where no one wanted to work together to stop what just happened.

The EPA(fox) was let into the henhouse by many during the past few years in order for their company to look good so they would not be scrutinized. To blame one company is narrow minded, there has been many in the industry.

DIESEL Motorsports started a no smoke street policy over four years ago by stating bring it to the track instead and got little response. We have promoted two or three fast diesel dragsters that are smokeless only to be met with resistance and personal claims. 

I would have to say as a general rule our top classes in competition for pulling and drag racing the trucks are trailered to the event. Those vehicles are exempt from the EPA rules because of racing/exhibition vehicles. Only one street class in pulling and  drag racing are street legal vehicles. That's a pretty small number to hassle about emissions.

Realize the EPA is the government who controls the big three automakers by regulations, in turn the big three want sanctions in place to comply. Many years ago the big three saw the many different after market companies making products for their vehicles and decided the monies were too big and why didn't they get a piece of it.

Now most dealerships offer many of the same aftermarket products you used to find only at your custom truck shops or part stores. Why? Because they get the money for it now instead of small businesses. 

I guess the amount of diesel performance products that were available for the big three automaker's trucks at local shops and not at dealers looked too good. They eventually found a way to knock them out - by regulations!

Let's claim cleaner air even though the fuel mileage is half, wait now, we are in a fuel crunch let's up the required mpg. 

Has anyone ever seen the cartoon about the rope swing designed by the government - exactly!

It was started many years ago by not allowing small businesses to succeed, individuals to come up with their great new inventions or ideas that would help their fellow man. Do you realize how long and how much it takes to get a patent filed and awarded today? Only to be taken by another company and given to China to duplicate with no repercussions.

Okay I ranted way too long about why this all happened and how wrong it is! 

Did the EPA catch up with us - no - it was handed to them!

Together we stand, divided we fall . . .

Winter is the time to re-build . . . DIESEL Motorsports!

Yes, like most of you Winter is the time for us to re-build our programs, evaluate what to focus on for the new year and work on the next year's promotions.

This time of the year is traditional for re-building your truck for the new year. Start tearing down the motor, drivetrain and plan for new upgraded parts for the re-build.

This is also the perfect time to investigate new technology that has been developed for our diesel industry. There is a lot of new items for all areas of rebuilding your drag or pulling truck! Check out our sponsor's products, they all have been developing improved and new parts for the diesel market.

Who wants to be on the cutting edge of technology, of course everyone does, but it does take a unique person with drive to figure out how to use the newest gadgets or parts. How to make them work with your existing components is a challenge not for the faint of heart.

A challenge is always new energy that keeps most of those that win or want to win to harness that drive  to excel in the next season. Is it easy, no way!

If it was easy then everyone would be doing it! So have fun and enjoy the challenge, I know I do every year! How to out smart, out do and out engineer your competition.

SEMA week coming to the end - DIESEL Motorsports!

Well the week of SEMA is coming to an end and I have to tell you it has been a very productive week! Seeing and spending time with current sponsors is always a plus while conducting new business at the show.

The Show was down just a bit from current years because of the economy and the East Coast storm stranded many flyiers. But the crowd picked up yesterday and it was fun to see the many different new products for our trucks.

Met many new sponsors for DIESEL Motorsports, straightened some wrongs out,  said some things that needed to be said and made some new friends of diesels during the meetings. Always a lot to get accomplished in such a short week. 

The positive side is many of our new sponsors along with current are looking forward to an exciting 2013 season of diesel drag racing, sled pulling, dyno and show-n-shine.

The trucks are wild out here in Vegas but many have the California look which is different than our Midwest diesel root trucks. A lot of bling-bling  and some short on performance but they do look good for photos.

It is always a relief to get to the end of the week because you are exhausted walking the distances and talking during the entire day but it is worth coming here to conduct business for DIESEL Motorsports.

SEMA is a great venue for our diesel crowd!

Yes the show is full of gasser products but the number of diesel vendors are growing every year. The show has more diesel trucks tricked out than ever before plus some odd performance vehicles with diesels in them.

It can be expensive but if you plan ahead you can find deals that combine air/hotel which are quite affordable.

There were lots of new products to see this year and some very interesting products that local owned diesel shops can make some extra money. We are always looking for new products and services that can help the small business.

It can be a bit of a challenge to find items because of the size of the show but if you do your homework and look up companies to see it cuts down on your time.

It's always held on the first week of November and it's always warm in Las Vegas when the rest of the country is getting cooler.