Every day we’re surrounded by some type of vehicle that runs on diesel. You could be driving next to an eighteen wheeler on the freeway, box truck on a city street, or a freight train on the tracks hauling cargo. In the racing world we’re used to seeing something diesel powered hauling a car to the track, but for some racers, diesel is for getting there, and for racing.

The National Hot Rod Diesel Association (NHRDA) is a sanctioning body that boasts diesel powered drag racing. They’re set up much like the NHRA with divisions and national events. Their organization provides several classes for people to compete in, and the gnarliest of them all is the Top Diesel class. Top Diesel is a class of coal rolling insanity that is ‘run what you brung and hope that you brung enough.’

Recently the NHRDA held their World Finals race at the iconic Texas Motorplex in Ennis Texas. At this race they would crown their six world champions and give racers bragging rights for the winter months. You know when there is hardware like this on the line teams are going to show up with their stuff set on kill.

One of the teams that came to Texas and try their hand at becoming a world champion was the crew from Hypermax Engineering. Hypermax is known for their Ford diesel performance products that range from “mild to wild”.  They also make parts for another big performance diesel market, pulling trucks and tractors. The dragster that Hypermax came to Ennis with sports three of their turbos, pushes triple digit boost, and makes an estimated 3,000 horsepower.

At the World Finals Hypermax resets both ends of the Top Diesel record with a sky-blackening run of 6.69-seconds at 216 MPH. In the finals they backed the record up with a 6.79 at 212 MPH.  This power was put down by one of Hypermax’s DT466 Engines. 

You can see by the video provided by the NHRDA, Hypermax driver Marty Thacker, a veteran Top Alcohol Dragster ace on the NHRA trail, had his hands more than full with this monster. When the green light drops all of that pavement-shredding torque pushes the dragster around, but Marty reels her in to get the win and back up the record. Its not that often outside of a Top Fuel dragster that you see a big tire dragster boogie around like this!