In the end, it was the seasoned racers who were able to lay down the quickest passes. Kevin Meredith drove the TS Performance Dodge Ram to a wicked-fast 10.06 e.t. at 139 mph, squeezing several stages of nitrous oxide into the Cummins diesel powerplant during the run. Unfortunately, a subsequent rod knock kept Kevin's ride from laying down any other hot passes. The real heroes of the competition, though, were Todd Sherwood, Ted Munsell, and Josh Clark. These guys rolled their show trucks right up to the starting line, tweaked their driving style, and adjusted their airbag suspensions until they could get their trucks going straight and quick down the track. Todd took First Place in the competition with his '93 Chevy 454SS truck, which if you have a keen eye is an ex-Sport Truck cover truck from about 10 years ago. The 454 is long gone, and it now flexes an LS6 big-block robbed from his dad's Chevelle. Traction problems limited him to a best of 13.28 at 110 mph, but his truck scored enough show points to grab First Place. Ted brought out one of the cleanest second-gen. Chevy C10s we've ever seen. You literally could have eaten off of the chromed-out big-block. Although his truck wasn't on 'bags like Todd's truck, he still had more power than grip to get the truck running like it should. Still, he turned a 14.81 e.t. that was good enough for Second Place. And Josh Clark nabbed Third Place with the most unlikely of rides, a shaved and 'bagged Dodge Dakota. Josh had experience at the strip already and used it to his advantage when it came time to bang through the gears of the truck's five-speed. The diesel drag trucks were right behind the leaders, with Earl Talley's Dodge Ram 4x4 grabbing the fourth spot with a blistering 12.88 e.t. at 102 mph. Earl's truck ran hard, but the mild modifications, although tasteful and well executed, didn't win him enough points to run up front.
Keep your eyes tuned to the mag and our website, Sporttruck.com, for information on the next event. We promise it will be bigger, better, and have even more kick-ass prizes for the winners. Also, check out our coverage of this event on the web. You'll see photos that didn't make it into the mag, as well as video of many of the trucks running down the track and killer footage from inside the cockpit of several trucks. Here's a look at those who stepped up to the plate to give it their all in The Challenge.
The Top 4 Prizes
1ST: $500 cash, a $500 Banks Engineering gift certificate, a set of four Interco tires, a Sport Truck Challenge winner's jacket, and a one-off pinstriped sign from Get Stroked.
2ND: $500 Banks Engineering gift certificate
3RD: $150 JBM gift certificate
4TH: $100 Stillen gift certificate
This TrailBlazer SS was so loud that we assumed it was all noise and no power. Boy, were we wrong. Martin Cox built the SS for his wife to drive, and she indeed hauls groceries with the SUV. Martin prefers to yank the 22s off the back of it, toss on some slicks, and abuse the 402-cid small-block to the tune of 11-second e.t.s. On Sunday, Martin ran a pass he says set the record for any LS-powered SS, an 11.07 at 125.3 mph. | 
David Stewart was a no-show on Sunday, but since he was the only other mini-truck signed up with us, we thought we'd give him some love. Did the hangover get ya, Dave? | 
The "Iceman" Richard Hoffman motored all the way from Jersey to run his blown '04 Ford Ranger at the show. After winning the burnout contest with a legendary one-wheel peel, Iceman went back to the pits to swap the good tire on the driver side of the truck with the bald tire on the passenger side. He missed the judging portion of The Challenge when the truck slipped off the jack and pinned his bicep between the tire and rear fender of the truck. He manned up and came back Sunday morning to race, though, and we let him back into competition anyway. The Ranger went 16.2 at 86 mph. |
Josh Clark scored enough points for Third Place in The Challenge after battling a nasty wheelhop condition with is airbagged Dakota. During practice, the hop got so bad in the burnout box that it dropped the tailgate of his truck open. He raced the rest of the weekend without it and went 16.81 seconds at 84 mph. | 
This was probably the coolest spectacle all weekend. Seeing Kelley Hawthorne flog his cherry '57 Chevy 3100 Stepside at the track gave us goosebumps. It put an exclamation on the weekend and reinforced our belief that trucks are meant to be driven and not just shown off for trophies. Kelley went as quick as 15.49 at 89 mph on whitewalls, yo! | 
We were sure more supercharged Ford Lightnings would show up to pound the Chevys, but Bill Steenbergen's '00 model was the lone warrior in the SVT camp. The Ford mill featured a smaller blower pulley and ported intake and went as quick as 13.4 seconds at 102 mph. Unfortunately for Bill, the truck was mostly stock and didn't earn enough show points to put him in contention for a top spot. |