East Coast Diesel/Truck Nationals Review! DIESEL Motorsports 2020

What a great show during these turbulent times with a great turnout by young truck enthusiasts from many states on the East Coast. It was a hot day but many enjoyed watching some fantastic trucks racing, pulling, dyno and show-n-shine. People came out to enjoy the show but brought their popups, lawn chairs and coolers to honor social distancing. Both sides of the track over a 1/4 mile long were lined with fans and families watching the trucks race and pull.

The fans looked at over 40 plus trucks in the show-n-shine with SEMA quality vehicles for them to inspect and talk to the owners. The truck owners are putting a lot of pride into these trucks. I couldn't believe the quality of fabrication and building of these trucks, it made it very hard to judge and properly picking the winners. Appreciate Greg Alberalla of WrenchWorkz for helping with the judging of the trucks, took us well over an hour to look at them all.

The dyno run by Ken's Auto had trucks lined up all day long to test their performance additions to their trucks, they want to know how much horsepower and torque was added by their builds. They had over 45 trucks and worked well past the show ending

in order to get everyone in for the day. It was over 95 degrees so the 5 guys they had crawling under those trucks that day well earned their money for running the trucks.

Racing was exciting all day long with some great trucks running in four classes: ET Bracket, 12.0 Index, Heads-up and DIESEL Truck War class. ET Bracket always has a large number of vehicles because everyone wants to test their trucks to see how fast they can go but this class you really don't have to go fast but estimate how consistent your truck can go down the 1/4 mile. 12.0 Index was very popular this year with everyone trying to get as close to 12.0 time in the 1/4 mile on every run down the track. DIESEL Motorsports added a new class that will run at most event this year, DIESEL Truck Wars! It will be 1/8th mile racing running two trucks against each other 2 out of 3 runs, then the same in the final, best 2 out of 3 runs. It makes for a fun test on can the driver consistently win at the lights and can their truck hold together for numbered runs down the track.

Pulling had some high quality trucks run the 300 feet in front of a big crowd. With extreme heat 90 degrees plus wind the track dried out quickly even though we had packed soaked it with 8,000 gallons of water. It had not rained on the mountain for a number of days and the ground soaked up the water quickly so the trucks had a hard surface to pull on for most of the day. Track improvements are already in the mix for next year along with possibly running in the evening in order to avoid the day's heat. The trucks that came are favorites every year and it's not about just the pulling but the entire event with so much to do for the fans and families. Some great distances were recorded on the pulls and the HOT Work Stock top 4 prequalified for the Keystone Nationals in early Spring 2021!

I want to thank the vendors and sponsors who came for the event along with Numidia track personnel and our great DM crew for working through such a hot day. We can not pay them enough and it has to be the love of the sport. Everyone was so thankful for us putting on the event, even though yes people get paid to come in it feels good as two owners to have people thank us for the hard work that goes in to these shows. It has been many years since people have thank Gene and I for putting on the show, we appreciate praises. Yes it took more than just us to make the show happen, insurance company, track owner, local people who help us setup the day before and many more in the community.

Appreciate the vendors who braved the heat all day in order to give the crowds things to look at and buy during down times.

Vendors
Street Diesel Performance
Reiff Diesel
Justgetdirty.com
Garofalo Enterprises
South Jersey Custom Metal Designs
WrenchWorkz








East Coast Diesel National Winners:

Drag Racing
DIESEL Truck Wars – 1/8th
Champion – Evan Moser – 5.808 – 126.87 mph
Runner up – Susan Soga – (B)

Heads-Up – 1/8th
Champion – Evan Moser – 6.065 – 97.36 mph
Runner-up – Andrew Terry – 809.25 – 63.38 mph (R)

12.0 Index ¼ mile
Champion – Joey Lamond – 12.315 – 104.62
Runner-up – Peter Brillis – 12.326 – 109.32

ET Bracket – ¼ mile
Champion – Joey Lamond – 12.0 - 12.20
Runner-up – Cameron Oswald – 15.10 – 16.066

Sled Pulling
2.5/2.6 Class
Stauffer – 326.33
Slingluff – 317.25
Slboda – 315.85
McGowan – 299.36
Zechman – 298.43
Schuman – 291.99
Rarick – 291.83
Hassler – 286.42

HOT Work Stock
Costa – 348.23
Hassler – 322.93
Harter – 322.93
Wagner – 313.20
Wenger – 310.54
Campbell – 298.88
Hawk – 298.18
Bertrum – 288.56
Walton – 278.42
Orwan – 261.33

Work Stock
Fessler – 317.17
Gelsinger – 314.20
Wenger – 313.81
Clark – 310.23
Mardock – 306.59
Stewart – 305.05
Hass – 288.35
Bertrum - 286.48
Vogel – 285.76
Miles – 279.79
Shane – 269.75

Hot Tractors
1st – Steve Beckly
2nd – Adam House
3rd – Cole Forrester
4th – Adam House
5th – Eddie Ocker

Show-N-Shine (over 40 entries)
Best of Show – Brian Wagner
Best Dodge – Brian Durf
Best Ford – Jason Fry
Best Dmax – Rio Bomba
Best Vintage/Rat Rod – Hunter Zimmerman

Dyno Numbers
1st Dodge : Justin Burke, 06 Dodge 2500. 1606 HP / 2299 TQ
1st Chevy: Ryan Klingel, 03 GMC Sierra. 625 HP / 999 TQ
1st Ford : Bobby Bertrum, 17 Ford F-350. 547 HP/ 1241 TQ

Thunder in the Bunker - 1st event since Covid Lockdown!

Thunder in the Bunker

Bunkerhill Dragway, Indiana

Friday June 26 & Saturday June 27

After a long period of inactivity with any kind of motorsports we were quite ready and excited to get back to the state where the original “diesel only” event was held back in 2001! The original show was started by Eric McBride (Diesel Hot Rod Association) and Larry “Gene” Mohney (DHRA/National Association of Diesel Motorsports) and it was known as Thunder in Muncie. For years the event was held in two different locations, Friday night at the Muncie Dragway and Saturday at the Gaston Lion’s Club Park. Eric McBride was inducted in to the DIESEL Motorsports "Hall of Fame" during the weekend for lifetime achievement.

This year DIESEL Motorsports moved the event to another location so all activities could be in one location. Bunkerhill Dragway is only about 30 miles from the original location on Highway 31 just north of Indianapolis. One of the original dragstrips in Indiana (1956) and used to be home of NHRA Division III. Currently a private owned IHRA track with lots of history behind it and DIESEL Motorsports plans to put a bunch more in front of it.

The drag strip at Bunkerhill Dragway is currently 1/8 mile but has plenty of hook left in it according to our racers who were running low 6s with their trucks. Well maintained with paved return and pit roads with plenty of greenways to park trucks, trailers and semis. Bunkerhill Dragway even had a checkered flag painted on the pavement at the Winner’s Circle.

We had plenty of space for the vendors by their new restaurant/concessions with full clubhouse and bar. What a great place to hold an event where we can do so many functions with room to spread out. Having an air conditioned clubhouse where people can get out of the heat for a relaxing lunch or drink is a great option plus we had additional food trucks/vendors outside.

Friday night was open drag racing with lots of vehicles running down the 1/8^th mile track while people watched the show from the wide-open spaces along the track. I saw many families with kids sitting around their lawn chairs enjoying the show with their families and friends. It was good to see people getting out after being shut up for so many months. A good size crowd watched a large assortment of vehicles racing along with even semis!

 

Trucks were running in the 6 and 7 second range for the 1/8^th mile which is pretty good for those heavy pickup trucks.

Saturday started out good with a delayed opening because of the early rain. Forecast did not look good but after being closed down for so many months the track and DIESEL Motorsports wanted to get the event in for the day. We got about 3 rounds of racing down the track when a round of storms just popped up on the radar and dropped over 3 inches of rain on the facility. The four days of prepping the pulling track by local Zach Howard and ZZ  Diesel was soon a large mud puddle. We had pulling trucks already there and was expecting a large crowd for it, but all was not lost. There was a benefit pull just 15 minutes away on Sunday for a little girl, they raised over $6000 for her, we announced they could go there to pull the next day for a good cause.

Yes, everything was cut short because of the rain and storms (lasted all day and night) but that is the outdoor event business. It gave us a good base to work on for next year with some improvements like Friday evening cash prizes along with dirt drags plus more activities inside the clubhouse such as local music/bands and awards.

Sunday was a rainout date, but most went home after the rain and only a few trucks showed up, not enough to open the track and more storms were coming. The track and Diesel Motorsports decided to cut our losses and come back to battle another day with Mother Nature!

It was great to get out and just see old and new people, to converse with everyone and watch the trucks compete. The concern over Covid was mildly discussed among people and people took personal responsibility by social distancing around each other on a large viewing area at the track. Many brought lawn chairs and sat with family members, the grandstands had a few people in them but apart from each other. DIESEL Motorsports provided free masks, hand sanitizer and antibiotic wipes at the DM sponsor tent!

Not what we had planned for the first event after the Covid lockdown but it sure felt good to host an event again!

Now on to the next event which is July 18^th at Numidia Dragway in Pennsylvania – the East Coast Diesel Nationals! 

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