Who's making money off the sport of diesel performance?

If you say DIESEL Motorsports you would be incorrect, we give the sponsor's money back to the competitors as purses, the funds from the shows pays the overhead of business operation including over $14,000 a year for insurance. 

Hopefully the brick and motor diesel shops are making some money in order to stay in business and make a living for their families. The diesel shops are the core of keeping our sport alive and kicking since they work on the diesel trucks. More important is they buy our sponsor's products to sell to you!

Our sponsors help keep the sport alive because they do make money off of the parts and products sold to our enthusiasts. But we all know how hard it is to be a manufacturer in the United States while being bombarded by replica products from the Asian countries. The sponsors in turn give monies back to the sport in the way of marketing and advertising dollars.

Problem is if they don't sell their products then they quit supporting the sport. It's all about business so it's up to us to support those who support the sport!

So the bigger people in the industry who are doing well should be supporting our sport by not only buying our sponsors products but giving some of that back to the events or state groups.

It's all a circle of business that keeps the sport alive and increasing in popularity. Nobody begrudges anybody for making a living of providing services or products for our sport, we all have to survive and make a living.

But ask yourselves who is supporting the sport the most - or not at all???

Calling all state pulling groups . . . DIESEL Motorsports!

DIESEL Motorsports started a program about 6 years ago called our affiliate events which included many state diesel clubs and groups. We helped them with safety and class rule structure, help them obtain insurance, market their pull dates, feature them on our social media plus magazine articles and even help them obtain sponsors resulting in cash for their clubs.

Whey would we do this instead of doing it ourselves?

Because we want the sport to grow and we cannot be everywhere at once. We started out doing our own events and at one time we had over 30 events we were managing, we found it stretched us and our staff too thin and we were tired by the end of the season. DIESEL Motorsports evaluated what events we could manage into regional events and turned the rest over to state groups who could put the events on for the fairs or towns.

We thought it would also help the sport grow by helping the state groups with what we know how to do best, promote the sport!

We have helped and supported many state groups in all areas of the country. Yes, some of our budget goes out to help these groups, we do not charge them for the help - only to ask that they display our sponsors at their events along with DIESEL Motorsports.

Many of you may have attended an event where you see our banner or decals but we are not there, that is one of our affiliate groups who are doing it the right way. Keeping the sport safe and promoting the event the correct way for doing business in the industry.

Has any of the other groups or events done this for the sport? Not to our knowledge and we are not looking for recognition but we are looking for more state affiliate events who want to do it the right way.

Contact us if your group or event wants to be part of the growth of the diesel sport?

816-734-5611 or ronk@dieslemotorsports.us

Staying the course . . . DIESEL Motorsports!

I am a BIG believer in letting professionals who are specialized do their work! That is why I have an accountant do our books, a CPA tax lawyer do our tax returns and I take my truck to a certified diesel mechanic when it needs work done to it.

Let people do the work they know how to do and I stick to doing what I know how to do! That is why my partner Gene, work so well together! He let's me do what I do and I rely on him to do what he knows, I'm sure many times you have caught me at events asking a question about the rules or track and I point to Gene!

People like stability, when spending monies with you and DIESEL Motorsports offers a easy organized reliable event for many sponsors and vendors. It may change a little but not much year to year. We keep the rules the same so more trucks can come every year with bigger numbers.

DIESEL Motorsports likes to keep our events family oriented so all age groups can come and enjoy the activities. Yes you can drink at our events, bring in coolers and grills - that is part of our diesel lifestyle, tailgating at the events! We just ask you act responsibly toward others and respect each other's properties.

Hire the professionals who know how to do their jobs!

We even do it at the events if the track prep needs a lot of work or I hire a professional announcer or photographer at the events. DIESEL Motorsports hires about 15-30 people for some of our larger events.

We have been doing the diesel events for about 10 years so we know what we are doing and what you can lose money on during the events. Track, equipment and personnel negotiation is ongoing for us at each location during the year. Doing one event a year is easy, trying doing 5-8 larger events per year.

We try different venues during the events if it pertains to the diesel lifestyle, like this year we will be hosting a antique tractor show during Thunder in Muncie on Saturday. It relates who comes to that event and brings in more people.

Our direction is to build the diesel marketplace by supporting the local diesel shops with a online shop locator and sponsors can ask local shops to display under their sponsorship. It takes all of us working together to make it a mainstream sport. That was our goal in the beginning was to grow it and make it mainstream in the automotive world of motor sports.

Do we make everything big and flashy so we can get noticed? Not really because it is a rural sport and we are conservative when it comes to doing business the right way with people in the industry.

We stay the course and build on a solid foundation of years of experience.

Calling all street trucks - yes you can win!

At many Diesel Motorsports events we have large and powerful diesel trucks that compete for the big cash prizes for the classes. They get paid more because their trucks take more to maintain and operate during the competition. Yes they provide a show for the fans in the crowd! However, we need your street truck to compete in order for the sport to continue to grow.

Street trucks driven by the fans not only buys our sponsor's products but they represent what the diesel lifestyle is all about!

Does everyone want to be the biggest baddest diesel truck on the street? Yes, they do and it's easier to talk about it and make claims instead of competing and proving what the truck can do!

Does this stop many from competing? Oh yeah it does! But consider what you have in the truck and as long you are proud of what you have done does it really matter to anyone else?

A few years back myself and the editor of a prominent magazine was judging the Show-N-Shine and one entry was a very old truck with a different color on every body panel, the diesel engine out of another make and a mis-match interior. This person was so proud of what he accomplished with his vehicle, he explained everything he added and every bolt he turned to make this truck run and operate. He did not win the Show-N-Shine but we gave him a runner-up spot because of his enthusiasm for his vehicle.

It was obvious he did not have the funds to turnout a top notch diesel truck but it didn't matter to him or his friends surrounding him. It's about what you have done to your truck with your personal touch or customization. Then bring it to an event and discuss with those around you what you have done and how much fun you have had building your truck.

I bought an older 12V Dodge to build up in a series of articles in Performance Business/Shop magazine so the shops can better understand what our diesel trucks are about and how they can sell or service our trucks. Yes being in charge of the Association many people have laughed or made fun of my old truck during the build-up (still in progress)! But it is mine and I'm quite proud of what I have done to the truck which matches my personality.

Will it win races or be first in pulling? I highly doubt it but I would not hesitate to throw it in the competition just to have fun.

Will it break something? Most likely since it is an older truck but it was going to break anyway - sometime! That's the fun part, it is running it just enough so you know it will not break and have fun competing.

We need the street trucks to continue to compete so the sport will continue to grow! Try it this next season - you may be surprised! I have had many who told me they never competed before and our racing or pulling coaches told them how to compete. Some ended up winning and taking home cash monies to further build their truck. We even had young ladies take home the $$$ against all of the guy's trucks!

So next time you come to an event DIESEL Motorsports welcomes all street trucks and we want as many as the registration can sign for the day or night. See ya at the track!

Sled Pulling rules discussion from PRI Show!

As some of you know we had a sled pulling rules discussion during the PRI Show on Saturday morning. A few pullers and diesel shops attended who were interested in pulling. We first heard from our panel which consisted of some long time pullers and younger pullers, all of them own diesel shops who work on customer's pulling trucks.

Some other organizations are going to smooth bore turbos which are no big deal since they are already legal within our rules and according to the experts on the panels actually rob your truck's engine of 40-200 hp at the wheels depending on who you ask. Turbos should not be a problem unless you want to spend more dollars on a higher price turbo.

However, they did point out if you go to smooth bore turbo then you would not have to worry about breaking your rear-end gears because of the lower horsepower.

The major expense is going to not just a fixed rear drivetrain but the gearing for the trucks. Cost estimates were from $20,000 low end to $40,000 if you have a shop do it for you. This is some serious money for the pulling hobbyist who just likes to pull for fun.

It was a consensus of the panel that the new rule moves will lessen the number of trucks competing and more trucks will go up for sale. The diesel shops said they are already seeing less rebuilds for the winter teardown season.

This is a concern for Diesel Motorsports since we are trying to increase the numbers for competition instead of less numbers. The ruleset for Diesel Motorsports has always been liberal in order to allow as many trucks as possible and many state groups use our rules for theirs under our affiliate program.

As the meeting wound down it was pretty much decided to keep the ruleset as they are except allowing the new rules under larger regional events since most of the panel felt only a small amount of trucks will be making the $30-50,000 upgrade during the winter months.

Most felt they will leave their trucks as is and compete in local sate groups and come to a few regional events to compete. By doing this the number of trucks should be larger at local events and smaller at some regional events for those organizations.

DIESEL Motorsports will allow all trucks to compete at the Regional events and have classes for all trucks attending. A discussion about opening up the Work Stock class more with a standard wheel size was talked about for some time. The diesel shops wants an effort to encourage street trucks to compete to replace some of the higher end trucks who have decided to sell.

Very interesting how the diesel truck pulling market has changed year to year with a consensus of too much change in such a small amount of time. The tractor pulling leagues tend to keep changes to every three years because of the costs affiliated with changes thus keeping their numbers steady for competition.

More to come during the season and a report of what people are doing with their trucks!

PRI Show in Indy - what's happening there???

Performance Race Industry Show in Indianapolis December 10-12 - next week! At the Indianapolis Convention Center downtown, admission is free if you are in the industry as a manufacturer, diesel or auto shop or a competitor as a racer or puller in our series.

Just call Rachael at the PRI registration office and tell her you are a DIESEL Motorsports race team, she will register you directly - 949 - 373-9224 West Coast time!

It is that easy! The show is full of performance parts for your trucks and engines. Also featured is some of the best tooling machines and accessories in the country. Rows after rows of exciting items to look at for our diesel trucks.

In my eyes a much better show than SEMA for our competitors and diesel shops because it is performance only.

Come by our booth at #1830 for some photos of the DM Girls along with decals, sway and free giveaways. Download our Diesel Motorsports application for your smart phone and scratch off for free prizes.

Also there has been BIG discussions surrounding pulling rules for 2016!

DIESEL Motorsports is having a panel discussion with Midwest pullers and shop owners regarding the rules.

Saturday Room 202 at 10am, DIESEL Motorsports will host a panel discussion with four pullers and shop owners and managers in the industry. We want to hear their thoughts regarding the ever constantly changing pulling rules (DIESEL Motorsports has changed little over 9 years).

It should be interesting to hear what two older pullers and two younger pullers have to say about the sport of pulling.

Bios can be found on the event page for next Saturday - https://www.facebook.com/events/444109375776666/

Hope to see everyone there!

SEMA was a success! Great time for truck owners with many options!

Just got back from SEMA over the weekend! As always it was a great time meeting and talking with existing sponsors selling their products to national and international customers. Plus meeting new manufacturers and sponsors during the week along with new products for our diesel trucks.

New products such as BDS's new adjustable traction bar and Quiet Ride's sound proof mats for our diesel trucks including hood and firewall plus cab sound proofing kits.

Many items that are unique for our truck market makes the trip worth it and connecting those companies with our diesel shops. Like a heated windshield wiper system for those in cold and icy markets, easy installation for most people. A new machined Dmax head from Edelbrock that is built for performance that is very reasonable.

Heavy duty brake pads and rotors from Hawk that are made in the US will give normal brake systems more stopping power when you need it.

There are many items that are new and exciting plus the unusual diesel vehicles. It is now a year away so put in for some vacation next year the first week in November every year.

Just as good is the PRI Show in Indianapolis December 10-12th, make sure to come by our booth #1830 DIESEL Motorsports!