ULTIMATE CALLOUT CHALLENGE 2019

FIRE AND FIERCE COMPETITION IN DIESEL’S MOST EXTREME EVENT

FIRE AND FIERCE COMPETITION IN DIESEL’S MOST EXTREME EVENT

The Ultimate Callout Challenge is not easy. Not only must you drag race, dyno, and sled pull, but you have to beat nearly two dozen other maniacs with vehicles set to kill. With fires and engine explosions up this year, everyone pushed their equipment to the limits. Hold on folks, and get ready for the Ultimate Callout Challenge 2019!

The Pits

Before the event starts, we like to walk around the pits and see what kind of strategies the teams have cooked up. Many of the trucks entered were technically the same vehicles as previous years but had drastically changed. Tony Burkhard brought a new much lighter “Last Minute Hooker” GM, which had also been switched over from an Allison 1000 transmission to a Rossler Turbo 400. Rudy’s Diesel took a huge weight cut and slammed its truck to the ground— so much so that turning really wasn’t an option! Chris Buhidar and Wade Minter’s hard-charging trucks remained largely unchanged. There were also new entrants for 2019 such as Kodi Koch’s wild two-wheel drive that aimed to dominate the drag races and dyno events.

While the Ford and GM crowd made a resurgence this year, the Cummins-powered contingent was as strong as always. Last year’s winning truck owned by Lavon Miller was sold to Josh Scruggs, who was looking for a repeat win with himself at the helm. Todd Welch and Power Driven Diesel had made some big power in testing and had done some lightening as well. The Armor Inc. / Dynomite Diesel Products entry had done perhaps the most prep out of any team, making multiple dyno runs at 2,000 rwhp to get the truck reliable. Trevor Peterson (known as T-pain) and Schawn Baca were there representing Industrial Injection, and Derek Rose, Justin Andres, and the mechanical truck of Cory Witteveen were also on hand to make waves.

Drag Racing

In past years, the drag-racing portion was time-only but not

DIESEL WORLD

The Ultimate Callout Challenge is undoubtedly a huge endeavor. Tony Burkhard from Dirty Hooker Diesel and Eric Merchant from Merchant Automotive both pitted under the same huge tent, and they brought enough spare parts and tools to start a diesel shop at the raceway!

Cummins powerplants like the Freedom Racing Engines deckplate engine in Justin Andres’ entry (which was the old Fleece Performance truck) were a blueprint for the top contenders. Triple turbos, triple fuelers, and nitrous were a recipe for well over 2,000 hp at the wheels.

 Innovation reigns at UCC. We’re still slightly mystified at how the dual-shock, dual-angle, cantilever suspension works on the Donovan Harris/dynomite Diesel Products entry, but it gets the job done.

The level of workmanship on some of the UCC trucks is second to none. New safety innovations and a myriad of lightweight parts have become a permanent part of UCC.

There were at least three competitors running lockup TH400 transmissions at UCC for 2019, which is something we’re not used to seeing. Apparently, the 4,500-horsepower unlimited radial cars have finally caught up to diesels on torque, which makes these three-speeds a viable option.