EDITOR’S NOTE
UCC THEN AND NOW
As I write this, it’s early May and I’m just finishing up going through all our videos and images from Rudy’s ODSS Season Opener. Man, was that a great event. Really bummed I had to miss it. But I leave tomorrow morning headed to Indianapolis for Ultimate Callout Challenge, and, well, someone has to stay home and man a desk for the brand from time to time. As I look at what UCC is now I can’t help but think about what it was like the first year when I helped create it and get it off the ground. James Brendle, Brandon Pierce, myself and so many others worked our collective butts off with one goal in mind. We needed to create the most badass event in existence for diesel enthusiasts. It needed to be an event where all the wringers were, the best of the best all battling it out, an event no one could miss, an event where records were broken left and right, an event that would be talked about all year and beyond. And that’s exactly what the first UCC was, an event that soon made everyone’s bucket list.
The first year brought 23 trucks, with an average 1,500 horsepower apiece and the highest being Shawn Baca’s Shredder 2 at 2,474 RWHP. Remember what happened to Shawn’s truck a few weeks before the event? No? Well, it was in an unfortunate wreck and almost didn’t make it out to the event, but he and the Industrial Injection team pulled off a nearmiracle and got a new truck, swapped everything over from the wadded-up Shredder 1, and got it out just in time to win the dyno event as well as drag the sled to a respectable 300 feet—good enough for a sixth-place finish. Lavon Miller ended up winning that year, which no one would have guessed. (That’s sarcasm folks, he was by far the favorite). Lavon and the Firepunk team put down a healthy 2211 RWHP (netting him second place on the dyno), 8.50 in the quarter (enough for first place at the drags), and 360 feet dragging the sled (good for a second-place finish). The Firepunk Ram straight dominated the first-ever UCC. And go figure, they did it again the second year.
The second UCC was truly epic. It was no longer held in Salt Lake but in Indianapolis at the famed Lucas Oil Raceway. The first year saw a few thousand attendees while the second drew over 10,000. There were roughly a dozen vendors at UCC 2016, and more than a hundred at UCC 2017. To say it had grown would be an understatement. Competitors were definitely serious the first year, but stepped up their game substantially for year two. The Firepunk crew brought a second engine to only be used for the dyno. This engine would be a Sigma pump’d sled-pulling motor. When they fired it up in the pits the entire raceway heard it from a hundred yards away or more. I still get goosebumps thinking about how that thing sounded and how violent it was on the dyno. Heck, you could fit a beer can standing straight up in either of the two atmospheric turbos (I know ’cause we tried it). The thing took multiple cans of ether to fire, it was running compression that low and injectors that large (for those who don’t know, that’s something that doesn’t happen unless the engine is hurt, which it wasn’t, or if it is packing some huge horsepower, which it was). And, they swapped it out overnight for a completely different setup designed for the drags and pulls. But Lavon and his team weren’t the only ones that pulled off some epic stuff that year. The Power Driven Diesel crew swapped out their suspension—more like an entire subframe—for the pulls. They were running six cut tires. That’s right, I said six. That’s straight unheard-of. It was truly an epic year.
So what’s in store for 2018’s UCC? I’ve been watching all the racers prepare, and I’m sure it’s going to be yet another epic year. That’s for sure. While you can go to our website, Facebook or Instagram pages to see some of the coverage, check back next month where we’ll have UCC 2018 all broken down. Who did what, how they did it, who broke and why—all the ins and outs of Ultimate Callout Challenge 2018.