An added attraction to the Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings season finale at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, a host of two- and four-wheel-drive diesel-powered machines squared off in a heads-up, no-prep shootout for cold, hard cash last weekend. While the No Prep Kings stars may have delivered the show, it was one of the 405’s own that brought the fireworks.

Oklahoma City native Tony Rizzi and his twin-turbocharged, Duramax-powered 1937 Chevy are no stranger to no-prep racing, most notably having competed at Outlaw Armageddon, right in his OKC backyard. While outgunned by the much lighter, gasoline and alcohol-burning machines at that event, in the diesel racing arena, his sinister-looking pickup is a serious threat. And at Ennis, it turned out the only individual capable of standing in his way was himself.

In the opening round of eliminations in the 2WD (two-wheel-drive) class at Ennis, Rizzi was paired up alongside the colorful RAM pickup of Mike Skinner; Rizzi began building boost against the transbrake, but the staging process between he and Skinner lengthened the time he spent on the ‘brake, which anyone that’s ever used a torquer converter in a racing environment knows can become bad news if you’re not careful. And it turned into bad news.

Trailing a cloud of black smoke in its wake, Rizzi launched, drifted out of the groove, and pedaled the big 3,400-pound pickup. It’s at that point you can visibly see the transmission fluid, overheated in the converter, as it backs up through and overwhelms the catch can and spews out onto the racetrack. 

And, on to the hot exhaust.

Rizzi’s determination is worth admiring, because despite the red-hot situation he found himself in, he continued to mash on and off the throttle to the finish line to ensure victory. The old Chevy crossed the stripe a full-on inferno, and Rizzi quickly got on the binders after securing the round win, spinning the truck to a stop in its own fluid. Not one to throw in the towel, he and his team cleaned up the mess ands turned the truck around, later defeating Rick Fletes in the final round and earning the $2,500 that went along with it.