Sixth Annual Thoroughbred Diesel Dyno Competition

While we may not know the day or hour of the biblical judgment day, we do know that Judgement Day comes to the world of diesel motorsports once a year. Saturday October 11, 2014 marked Thoroughbred Diesel’s sixth annual Judgement Day dyno competition and open house event. Diesel enthusiasts and competitors descended upon Winchester, Kentucky, with trucks hitting the dyno rollers just after 7 in the morning and finishing at close to 8 p.m. for an exciting day of diesel dyno competition and camaraderie.

The weather was cool and threatened to rain most of the day but the spectator and competitor turnout was still good. A large crowd of people packed into the shop and wandered through manufacturers’ exhibits throughout the day. After staying dry most of the day, rain started to fall just before 5 in the evening, but since the dyno is inside the shop the competition went on without a hitch.

The morning started out busy for the Thoroughbred staff, with attendees lined up to register for the Judgement Day dyno competition.

Jonathan Rhoades and his 6.4-liter Power Stroke Ford took home the win in the Stock class by delivering the most torque but only the third-highest horsepower in the class.

Most dyno competitions lump all the competitors into a single group and award prizes based solely on the highest horsepower of the day. Sometimes the organizers will divide the group by brand and award prizes to the highest horsepower Dodge/Ram, Ford and GM trucks of the day. Judgement Day is handled differently, with separate classes of competition to divide the power levels and make the competition a little fairer for everyone.

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The team at Thoroughbred also wants their competition to include both aspects of the chassis dyno performance measurements, so they add each truck’s horsepower measurement to the torque measurement to come up with the event score and the highest scored truck is declared the winner in each class. Interestingly, the highest horsepower truck isn’t always the winner. More times than not the trucks with the highest torque take home the big prizes.

A total of 60 trucks rolled across Thoroughbred Diesel’s Mustang Chassis Dyno that day. The threescore hopefuls competed in three separate divisions to take home the honor and prize packages awarded to the top three finishers in each division. Lightly modified trucks with stock turbochargers competed in the Stock class. Stock turned out to be the largest class of the day with 33 competitors. The Pro Street class was for trucks running a 2.6 class turbo, and had nine competitors vying for the podium. All other trucks fell into the Unlimited class, where 18 competitors went head to head putting up the biggest numbers of the day by far.

Manufacturers had display booths setup ringing the Thoroughbred parking lot with products on display and representatives to answer questions.

Larry Bailey had the highest horsepower in the Stock class with his Chevy, putting down nearly 600 horsepower to the rear wheels.

Harold Howard was the clear winner in the Pro Street class with both the highest horsepower and torque measurements of the class, taking the win by more than 200 points.

The Stock class featured 14 Chevy and 14 Dodge trucks, along with a lone GMC and four Fords competing for the top prize. Despite the limited numbers, Jonathan Rhoades’ Ford made its way to the top step on the podium posting a combined score of 1599.9. Rhoades was followed by Larry Bailey’s Chevy with a score of 1583.0 and the Dodge of Jarrod Cox rounded out the podium with a score of 1524.4. Rhoades’ Ford was the ninth truck to spin the Mustang chassis dyno rollers and held on to the top spot throughout the day. Bailey’s Chevy was the last truck in the class to run and almost knocked Rhoades off the top spot, falling just 17 points short of taking the Stock class win.

The 2.6 class was largely a Dodge affair with seven Dodge trucks, two Fords and no entries representing GM and the Duramax engine in the class. The Dodges ran away with the class, claiming the top six spots on the results page, including an impressive win by Harold Howard scoring nearly 2,000 points. John Hurter took second, scoring almost 1,800 points. Third place went to Rodney Toler with nearly 1,600 points.

It’s an odd sight to catch an industrial building “rolling coal,” but the dyno cell at Thoroughbred is equipped with exhaust outlets to accommodate virtually any diesel truck exhaust configuration.

Eighteen trucks put the power to the rollers in the Unlimited Class with four and a half Fords, one Chevy and 12 Dodges competing in the class. Chris Hatzman dropped nearly 2,000 lb-ft of torque on the Mustang chassis dyno, taking the class win with more than 2,800 points in his Cummins-powered Ford. Hatzman blew the head gasket in the process and was unable to make additional pulls, but his score was high enough for the win nonetheless.

The second place Dodge of Jerry Adkins was the highest horsepower truck of the event and actually broke the 1,000-horsepower barrier (a first for the Thoroughbred chassis dyno) on one of his runs but turned it down to officially accept his run of 997.7 horsepower. That run yielded a higher torque measurement and a higher overall score. Third place went to Patrick Cummins in his Ford truck (ironic, right?). Cummins made more than 950 horsepower on his best run of the night.

One of the activities that drew a huge crowd inside the shop was the infamous “hairy chest” contest—we don’t think the three young ladies who judged the contest knew what they were in for.

Some of the diesel fans got real enthusiastic on the side street with impromptu burnout contests. The owner of this Dodge was literally letting it all hang out, wagging his tail end across the road.

In addition to the action on the dyno, attendees were also able to visit vendor booths set up throughout the parking lot. Some of the top performance diesel product manufacturers had reps on hand to answer questions and show off their latest and greatest products. Representatives were on hand from AirDog, ARP, ATS, BD Diesel, Diamond Eye, DIS, Duramax Tuner/Cummins Tuner, Edge Products, FASS, Fleece Performance Engineering, Flo~Pro, Industrial Injection, MBRP, S&B Intakes, South Bend Clutch and Superchips.

The Thoroughbred crew set up a scavenger hunt where attendees could collect decals from each vendor to earn a drawing entry for a $250 Thoroughbred Diesel gift card. We witnessed some vendors having the attendees perform a challenge such as dancing to earn their decal. The hunt was fun for both the vendors and attendees. In addition to the scavenger hunt drawing, Thoroughbred hosted a raffle for more than $20,000 worth of prizes that were handed out throughout the day, including tuners, exhaust systems, gauges and other performance parts.

A temporary snack bar was set up to keep the crowd well fed throughout the day. In the morning, hot coffee and cocoa was a crowd pleaser, as were the donuts, while the afternoon and evening crowd gravitated toward the BBQ pulled pork as well as burgers and polish sausages fresh off the grill. Thoroughbred’s hospitality also extended to music and various games played throughout the day to keep spectators involved with the event. Staff members handed out goodies like hats, T-shirts and other promotional items throughout the day.

As in years past, the crew from Thoroughbred Diesel put on a great event—they kept the action on the dyno moving at a good pace, averaging nearly five trucks per hour on the dyno. If you were not able to make it out for the event, check out the photos on the next few pages to get an idea of what you missed. The crew at Thoroughbred Diesel has already set the date for the next Judgement Day: October 3, 2015. If you’re in the area or willing to drive to Kentucky to see how your truck stacks up against the competition, or if you just want to see some cool diesel horsepower on display, mark your calendars and we’ll see you there. Just be sure to tell them that your friends from Diesel World sent you. DW