With mother nature not playing nice, the first national event that wasn’t rained out was the NHRDA (National Hot Rod Diesel Association) Spring Diesel Nationals at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway.

There has been a lot of anticipation for this seasons kick off with many huge names building new vehicles or totally revamping their rigs. As we got a little closer to the date, race teams started posting videos of engines on dyno’s, trucks doing burnouts, and a few test and tune vidoes showed up of people working on getting their new rides headed straight down the line. There was just a lot of anticipation, for drag racers and sled pullers.

It seemed that Industrial Injection released at least one new photo of each of their many sponsored pullers either getting new parts or doing a burnout in the parking lot. We were excited to see how this new season was going to kick off! Due to some earlier weather, the day was shared with the West Coast Outlaw Pro Mod Association. These guys run the quarter mile in 5 to 6 seconds regularly.

You can bet that in-between rounds for the NHRDA, the Outlaw Pro Mod Association was putting on quite a show. So much in fact, that every time they were running, the tv feed for the NHRDA would crash because all the available bandwith was being used up by spectators taking photos, uploading videos, etc. The combination of the two organizations made for a great day of drag racing but to top the day off with sled pulling at the new sled track made for an even more fun event.

One familiar face that has been missing in recent years was Jim Calhoun who was forced to retire due to some health issues a few years back. He’s the man who has won more NHRDA championships and races than anyone in the organizations history and he came back this year to pick up right where he left off. Round after round Calhoun lined up and took home the win. For the final round, it was Calhoun (number 4 qualifier) who lined up against good friend Steve Priece (number 2 qualifier). Calhoun cut an .087 light to Price’s .107 to take home the victory in the sportsman class. Regardless of how much time has passed since we saw the man from Kent, Washington, he still ended up on top!

For Super Diesel, the class was packed full of trucks. People came out in droves to play in the 11.90 index class. As luck would have it, the final round pitted Pat Liskey, owner of Big Twin Diesel up against Ryan Dubois, employed by Big Twin Diesel. While those of us in the pits wondered if Debois would have a job if he took home the win, racing is racing and we knew this was sure to be a good matchup. Dubois cut a .089 light and just put it on his boss Liskey who must have been asleep with a .710 reaction time. This is Dubois’ first championship and a great way for him to start the 2014 season, even though it might be a long drive back home to Idaho.

Wade Minter, the man who has been on top of it all the last few years with his trucks, was a man on a mission. Minter’s team brought out their ‘06 Chevy triple turbocharged Duramax that they finished late last year leaving the two-time raining championship truck, Road Rage back home in Maypearl, Texas. The Minter group played their hand perfectly, winning each round decisively and were up against the number 1 qualifier Ryan Millican in his ’07 Dodge for the final. Knowing that Millican wasn’t someone to be messed with, Minter had everything set on kill. It was truly a Texas run of go big or go home. Minter cut a .157 light but ran a 9.370 at 145.52 miles per hour. This was almost three tenths quicker than the national record and certainly beat Millican’s 10.391. Unfortunately, because Minter’s run was the last of the day, he couldn’t back up the run for a new national record. He would have to just hang his hat on the Super Street Championship.

With the investment Bully Dog has made over the years in drag racing, it is no wonder why Jarid “The Iron Man” Vollmer and his red and black Bully Dog powered Dodge have been the National Pro Street Champion for the past two years. Continually evolving and trying to raise the bar, Vollmer and the entire crew at Bully Dog completely tore the truck down over the winter. There are a few more “goodies” under the hood and an entirely new transmission setup behind the engine. As with any major change like that, working out the bugs can be somewhat painful. Luckily for Vollmer, he was able to make every pass, even if they weren’t the prettiest, which is more than could be said about his final round competitor Payton Hugie, who couldn’t make the call. We would certainly look for Vollmer and the entire Bully Dog crew to be working out the bugs here quickly and getting the truck dialed in to become the three time national champion.

Continuing with the paint, the Pro Stock trucks were experiencing their own issues. Leading up to the final round, both Ryan Millican driving the MBRP Dirty Max Pro Stock truck and Rick Fletes’ driving his ’73 Nova experienced major mechanical failures. Millican was able to stage his truck and took the win home (didn’t make a pass, just broke the lights).

To our surprise, many of the rigs that were hyped to be in attendance did not show for the season opener. We will certainly be keeping a close eye on them to see if they are experiencing an issue or if this is a strategic play to see where everyone is, before they make their official debut. Only time will tell.

On the dirt however, the new rigs were in attendance and there was a decent amount of participants in both classes. This is a good sign as traditionally, the 3.0 class isn’t a heavily contested class. As we mentioned earlier, the Auto Club Famoso Raceway just built a whole new sled pulling facility and it looked great. Seeing this type of investment from a track shows that they are as serious as the organization is about growing the sport!

First up was the 2.6 class of pullers. Most of the pullers were packed in around the 280 to 285 foot mark, but it was Garrett Parlette from Washington State that just put the right combinations of parts together over the winter to lay down a 315.4 foot pull. That was 26 feet further than Richard Weylin who was in second place. Parlette certainly has everything dialed in at the beginning of the season, which is a good sign for him and a bad sign for his competition back in Washington.

The final class up was the 3.0 class. There was a lot of pressure on the Industrial Injection team as they had been posting photos and talking up their big puller, Tom Hansen for the past few months. Going into the pull with basically a completely new setup usually doesn’t pan out well for pullers. It isn’t like drag racing where you have round after round to dial in your setup. It is just a matter of hooking up and seeing what you have. Well, Hansen had more than anyone else as he took home the victory over local favorite Tom Colesanti by a little more than 3 feet! Hansen pulled 252.8 feet compared to Colesanti’s 249.5. A very close battle and an exciting night of sled pulling for sure.

With the season officially underway, we are excited to see what all happens and where the cards lay as people start figuring out what works and what doesn’t! Stay tuned.