Diesel Tractor Pulls

Today. This ain't your granddaddy's tractor pull.

We'll see how big power is made at the diesel drag national

then for speed.

How about 0 to 60 in 2.3 seconds.

We're off to Vegas for some speedway racing

and this desert racing team is all about family

that plus bone crushing trail riding in Tucson right now on off road action,

they're big, they're loud and these days they cost a fortune to fill up.

I'm talking about diesel trucks, but even at five bucks a gallon, the Diesel Hot Rod Association rolls on.

We're off to Indianapolis Raceway Park for their sled pulling nationals

known as Thunder in Muncie. This year the Diesel Hot Rod Association moved the event 60 miles south to Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Diesel trucks. Biggest event featured three classes of sled pulling.

Everybody's pulling for distance down the track. When I mash that pedal, it just explodes under your foot, man. It is awesome.

It's intense, like

wide open throttle going as slow

as

possible. Telling that big thing,

that big thing is the sled which can weigh up to 36,000 pounds.

It's quite a unique feeling. You don't get to feel it when you're pulling a trailer, it's bad.

Wheel speed, smoke power, it's intense. You got to run right on the edge to compete

to pull four times the truck's weight. It's no secret what's needed. Lots of torque, lots of power. There's just nothing like the feeling. The twisting action of the torque taken up to about 4500 RPM. S you're letting the clutch out.

The turbo is just starting to scream

because the load is being put on it. You just can't beat it. There's so much torque in these monsters that it could even crack the windshield

in this grudge match. The sled usually wins.

Breaking is part of pulling, I guess, just like ruins racing.

We've had some bad rides over the years. Some of them are ugly.

Most of you join in the front cha

uh pulling one of the wheels. So

pulling it off to the side there,

let's just let it all hang out. If

it breaks, it breaks, you take it back to the shop and you fix it

with more than 20 wins. The big bad sled doesn't intimidate Van Hazley and his rock hard ram

would be the ultimate

or

of all of

us.

I mean, there's nothing else like it competing in the modified class. His machine is far from street legal.

This truck is good for nothing but a 15 2nd thrill ride. That's all it's good for this particular truck you see started to life as a white Dooley. Once it lived its life on the street, then we took it off the street, welded it up, chopped it up and made what you see today, what you see now produces massive amounts of diesel power.

We make a right out around 14, 1500 horse torque is about 1800 ft pounds because of the competitiveness of this sport, we keep the hoods closed on these particular trucks,

But in this particular venue, we'll pop the hoods

and this here is a 360 cubic inch

cummins Power plant twin turbo.

Sure apologize for not being clean guys. That's something that doesn't get seen too often.

What does get seen is diesel's trademark black smoke. There's nothing like the smell of bird dies.

This particular stack here is not for show people wonder why we put a six inch stack,

but you've got to exit this smoke. This smoke is gonna go 90 ft

smoke is back pressure. So the quicker we can get this out of the turbo charger and exit the vehicle, it's very important this smokes

and you know, when you're building power, when that smoke goes 90 ft straight up, you know, you're gonna have a good run.

Haisley had the smoke going but fell short and finished in second place.

This colossal event also featured pavement drags, a burnout contest and a couple of Hoosiers who figured out a way to beat the heat.

Midwest ingenuity. Was also on display at the show and shine.

Some women like jewelry, some women like malls, but I just love diesel

catching the eye of the judges was Jared Gregson GMC.

I like to show my truck. I'm proud of it.

And lo and behold, I won and didn't know what to say.

Now,

I know it's crazy and it makes absolutely no sense. But do you know what many consider a highlight of ad hr a event to be?

Here you go

r

flying smoke, shooting nasty smelling burnout contest. Got this crowd into a frenzy.

Now, what the judges are looking for here is the combination of the black engine smoke escaping out the fact

and the white smoke from the burning rubber.

Obviously, this guy right here seem to have the right combination

now, just so, you know, the grand prize was 300 bucks barely enough to pay for one burnt out tire

next on off road action, check out Vegas speedway and the cast of characters that make this one cool must see event.

Plus we'll meet the young couple who found love crashing into hay bales at 80 miles an hour. Stay tuned.

Think about this. Your bike has a rubber band, front suspension, no shocks. It can't turn right and it has no brakes.

Not a problem. If you're a speedway guy

could

get injured,

you never know what's going to happen. What you know, bites this quick and somebody makes a mistake or is not concentrating on their line and where they're running

and gathering their speed up in momentum. You know, anything, anything can go.

It's good stuff.

Speedway racing is by far the most exciting two wheel sport

in motorcycle. You've never seen it before.

Watch

out.

Oh,

no.

Motorcycles are 500 cc

strobe singles on

Methanol with

no

breaks.

They race in a series of heat semis and mains all culminating

with the

winner being crowned on the night. So it's very exciting, colorful, fast paced, unpredictable racing.

The hardest thing about speedway is, is everything you got in about 30 seconds to 40 seconds for a race. No gearbox, straight drive, drop the clutch and go. No, no shifting, no time to shift gears.

You're just locked together, your elbows are touching and you're just hoping the guy doesn't make a mistake. So you go right over the top of him

because if the guy in front of you makes a mistake, both of you guys are gonna be down faster than you can blink. No blinking here as the top racers came out for this one off event that did

action or personality.

Oh, they're gnarly guys. And

the only thing more colorful than the racing is the racers themselves.

Guys like flying Mike for

46 years old, two time national champion wearing the mullet

and, uh, all the way down to the new guys, young guns like Billy Genero who came back special from England for this event

and is All Balls.

You guys wouldn't understand how, how hard it is over there. There's, there's no slow guys over there. Every race you can always get beat by, by one person over here. You know, who's gonna beat you. You know, who's not going to beat you

over there. It's just,

you know, you never know who's gonna win and who's gonna lose all the guys slot in there. Somewhere in between that, you know, from the experienced

national champions to the red hot rookie. I'm uh 16 just coming up racing speedway bikes right now.

First year professional coming up doing some good things and we're just trying to keep it rolling, win some races. You know, there's not many young guys here doing it and we're trying to keep the sport alive, you know,

it's fun. We have no breaks, you know, we're going fast, flicking it sideways and

trying to keep it real

decked out in the gold

lame and keeping it real was the race starter, Jerry King who's been working speedway for 30 years.

I really

enjoy it.

It's

been a fun thing for me and

I wouldn't change it in any way shape or form.

I love motorcycles.

My folks wouldn't let me have a motorcycle. So I joined the highway patrol. I got a motorcycle and a gun. No

charge.

The Vegas track was bigger than the bull rings. These guys usually battle on which meant a change in race strategy

tonight. Probably no letting off.

Um

Yes, let off, let the tire and the rear tire hook up, catch up.

But in that case, uh it's a lot easier to ride on the gas.

A lot of concentration on the gates and the starts, the starts mean a lot of speedway.

Um, you get under way, like I said, in 2.3 seconds from 0 to 60

the takeoff is everything and the highly concentration in the first corner to make sure that you make the right move and not the wrong one. So you're not end up in somebody else's bike or on the ground.

This track may have been larger than normal

that didn't mean they weren't slapping some metal that's pretty tight. Sometimes we'd be 23 inches away, rubbing in the corner, throwing elbows, knees, you know,

it just

depends on how comfortable you are riding with the guy next to you.

Oh,

it's super tight. You really got to hang on. Your bus has got to be prone to it. You need to definitely do a lot of practicing. These are some of the hardest motorcycles in the world.

You just really got to hang on.

Holding on in this.

The

main event was Billy

Deniro who pulled off the Euro speedway special to get by Scott Brandt for the win, Eddie Castro Dukey

Amoin and Andy Northrop filled out the top five scorecard at the inaugural great American speedway. Shoot out.

This is my life. This is what I do for a living. So

I wasn't, you know,

I was expecting, you know, to get top three and, you know, it went in just a bonus. So,

you know, I went out there track was kind of bad at the beginning and then at

the end of the race, at the end of the night, you know,

it was pretty good. So

did the big swoop around the outside and

one every time you race like Scott Grant and uh

Eddie Cash or they, they're the top guys over here. So,

you know, it's always, they're always gonna give you, you know, a tough race out there. And

I just, you know, I've been on a high lately racing and,

you know, just keep going,

you know, guys ask me all the time, what my idea of a perfect date is.

Well, we're about to meet a girl who thinks it's spending time with her man

with a plastic mat strapped to her rear riding shotgun.

Sidecars are nuts and they're a bunch of freaking mountain men. I don't know where we come up with these guys, but uh we keep producing a new group of sidecar racers and not even the speedway riders will race side cars. So it is pretty crazy.

Hey, uh, Brad take another look.

Brandy mcelroy looks like the California girl next door except she likes to put on leathers and drag her butt in the dirt.

The

99 cent store had a couple of bloody butts and learn a lesson to keep up a good

car

I buy behind

Joe Jones was letting on if a bloody, but was the reason he didn't want his fiance to ride monkey style,

you know, she wanted to do it. And I said, no way. And it took her about, you know, two months of, uh, you know, talking me into it finally said, let's go to the practice track and roll with it,

turned some good lap times and

went ahead and gone racing.

They've been racing together now for three years, submitting a cosmic connection. Only true love and a torn tush can form.

We definitely have to work hand

and,

and be like, totally connected with each other. I mean, the connection there is just absolutely perfect

and

she's very, very talented. She does her job, well,

she gets in tight spots and basically just lets us go out there and win races

when it comes to marriage. Some guys pop the big question on a beach somewhere, but Joe Jones ain't one of those guys. I just came out of turn four wasn't thinking crossed over the infield plowed into the landing ramp.

We got a little dazed and then, uh, you know, I asked her the question, you know, at least that way if she said no, I could have told her I hit my head too. Hard.

Joe and Brandy weren't the only couple to make this side car love connection.

We actually met about 18 years ago, but we've never been single at the same time. And then all of a sudden she came back and was watching me race speedway

and then she said, if I bought a side hack, would you drive it?

And of course I would. And then that kind of sparked a new romance. And next thing we know we went and got a house and moved way out in the mountains and build our bike and

out here

rolling around

these love teams are doing more than rolling around in Vegas. Brandy and Joe won their heat race and Mark and Jackie took the win in the main event which impressed former speedway champ turn promoter, Brad Brad Oxley.

There's a couple of gals out there, not my

gal

been a couple of guys do have their gals out there and actually two of the very best teams and the winning team tonight

was uh with a gal as the monkey.

So it's great to see the gals out there. I'm scared to death for them every single week, but they seem to get through it

with all that said. We know what questions on your mind. Does Jackie or doesn't she? I have a mud flap

on my,

I would rather have that than in

the

dirt

that my friends are words to live by

when off road action returns.

They call this a alley because

it is

a,

a

class racing is where all of the trucks in your class have the same major components.

It helps to keep everyone on a level playing field.

And for Steve

and his

sons, their playing field is some of the nastiest terrain anywhere

featuring buggies to trophy trucks. The best in the Desert Series has something for every racer for Steve stats. He wanted a class that tested his racing chops.

The pro truck class

is a spec class. In other words, it's, it's, everybody has to run the same and it makes us different from some of the other classes. What people refer to as a driver's class, a long time motorcycle desert racer, the decision to switch to four wheels wasn't difficult.

The difference being when you crash on the, in the truck,

you just fix the truck, you don't have to fix yourself. Usually

rolling 100 miles an hour through the roughest terrain. This country has stats is just loving it.

There's definite danger there.

You have nightmares sometimes about the cliffs

and, uh, big rocks and stuff that you shouldn't get. That was not as bad, huh?

Yeah,

that's part of the adrenaline rush too. You know, it's part of the fun

off road legend. Ivan Stewart created the pro truck series with the racer's wallet in mind.

You know, a lot of the classes, the guy with the most money can win, like in a lot of motorsports, the guy who can just outspend somebody else in this class. It comes down to driving

just because it's spec doesn't make it lame.

We have about 24 inches of travel in the rear, 21 inches of travel in the front pro trucks ride like a Cadillac. They're fun

to race because you can race a 400 mile race and at the end you're not even that tired because they, they ride so well. The choice for us is a Ford 351. There's only certain things we can do to it. We're running about 420 to 440 horsepower. We run a three speed automatic. You working real hard

engine does take a beating.

We're running at 6000 RPM. They, they do have a rev limiter in this class. We can't go over 6000 RPM and it's 2nd and 3rd all day

serving as his co driver are his sons, Alex and Ryan

not pulling on us at all.

Well, that's a family sport. I just feel that if they can get as much enjoyment

out of this as I have over the years, I don't think I'd change a thing. He's given us this great opportunity to be involved in a sport like this. Not, not many kids our age come out here and be involved in this. So it's

really, really thankful for that.

Not everyone in the family is a fan of desert racing.

Yeah, mom. Uh, she's, she's not too excited about it. She's not as excited about it as we are. She doesn't like her, uh,

young pups out there in the truck. She thinks it's a little dangerous.

We send her to Disneyland and then we, and we go race for the stats men. It's their blood bonds that help make them a success on the course.

Roger. That,

that's all we're getting right dad

because he's my dad. You know, we know how each other think first of all the time, there's times where you get going on a good road and you'll just, you'll laugh about stuff that happened previous in the race. Come

on, baby, you're the

man. You're the

man.

It's just, it's cool. It's a good connection and it just brings us closer together as a family as well. It's good to have your dad as, as enthusiastic about this as you are

probably actually more enthusiastic. It's probably over the top, but it's good. That's, that's what you need to run a

successful program in

Florida

on this day. They suffered a rare DNF, but that's not enough to dampen the enthusiasm of the stats family

when you hit the truck going along in some of these dirt roads and you're doing 100 miles an hour and you're hitting some rollers. It's definitely an ad

adrenaline sport and I think that's what keeps you coming back.

Welcome back to off road action.

One of our main goals on this show is to take you to some of the sickest trails in the US.

So, right now we're headed to Cactus Country and Tucson annual trail days.

The

Arizona Desert is known for some of the most intense trails in the country.

This whole area out here is a four wheelers Mecca

1.5 hours north of Tucson sits an off road classic.

Good morning.

Where are we going?

Axel

Alley is one of the most extreme trails out here. And it's also one of the most well known. It's very hard on vehicles and very hard on drivers.

They call it axle alley because of a lot of breakage of axles. Very gnarly trail,

dry river bed between two mountains. The trail is only three quarters of a mile long

for most. The punishment is endless.

How far is it? Three quarters of a mile. You're out here all day. It's pretty gnarly. As soon as it's rolling, you

puck this thing hard,

bring it up.

The

train is very, very rocky. It's brittle.

There's a lot of ledges and a lot of big boulders. It takes some skill to get up on them.

Skill will only get you so far.

It,

it too short to do that one on my own.

And these are all about wheelbase. The more wheelbase you have, the easier it is to get up these falls.

The ideal wheel base is somewhere between 100 and three and 100 and 10 on this trail

any longer than that, you get hung up on turns

any shorter than that. You can't make the climbs as a trail leader, Michael Kenen is an expert on these rocks.

Just fly up.

Typically you want to try to crawl it real slow. There is, there is a couple of spots on the trail where you really have to put your foot in it,

but typically you really wanna not have tire spin and try to crawl it.

Yeah.

Pro next season, Michael used lessons learned on axel alley to design his competition buggy.

This is a custom built rock buggy, took us, uh, two months to build and as far as money goes somewhere between 30

$50,000 the driving style for Arizona is unique to the area. It's 80% slow crawling and 20% put your foot in it and hold on

that 20% of the time. Put our foot in it. I have a, uh, 3.4 L

Toyota motor with a Super charger.

It's pushing 300 horsepower

and about 360 ft pounds of torque.

Got a lot of bang for your buck on it

out here. It needs to be tough enough to withstand the brutality of the rocks.

The suspension travel is 14 inches in the front and 17 in the rear. We need that much travel because a lot of the stuff out here is, uh, big boulders and big crevices that you're going through. And if you don't have a tire hitting the ground with traction, you don't have any way to get up. It. All of our links are quarter inch wall tubing. They have to be very strong. The skid plate under there is a quarter inch, everything on the bottom half of the drive train is extremely strong for these hard hits on these uh boulders that we drive over

pro rock crawling may mean fame and fortune for Michael, but he'll come back to the Arizona desert.

It's a lot of fun coming out here and playing. It's uh there's nothing, nothing else in the world better to do. Get on the rocks and see if all your hard work paid off, which it does

another iconic trail. We're happy to bring you here on off road action.

We hope you like the show. But remember another way to enjoy off road action is to get in a four by four and hit the trails yourself.

I'm MEREDITH

Weiss. Keeping it off road

next week. On off road action. She's a regular mom during the week, but on the weekend, she's a mud mom

will meet this gear head girl who loves to hurt herself down a mud course at wide open throttle.