Diesels On The Mountain

Persistence pays off. At last year's Diesels on the Mountain, ATS president Clint Cannon misfired on the sled pull. While he came with a high-caliber load and aimed high, his Boogie Max Chevy fell just short of his intended mark, losing out to Mike Skinner and Brad Ingram in the Super Street class.

This year, though, Cannon came a gunnin' and hit the bull's-eye, skinning Skinner's Dodge dualie by only a foot (348 versus 347 feet). The amazing part wasn't merely the close shave that he won by, but the fact that he was running in the Street Diesel class. So this year's ride, an '06 Chevy 3500, is actually his daily driver as well. Even so, he came not only loaded for bear, but also just about any other predator you'd care to name. Except for Skinner, nobody else even came close to going the distance that Cannon nailed.

It almost didn't happen, though. Just a couple of days before the event, the truck was still in pieces. It had been burning excessive amounts of oil, which turned out to be a relatively simple fix once he discovered that a pinched hose was clogging the crankcase breather.

After receiving hearty congrats from onlookers for his achievement, Cannon related the relative ease of the run. "I just set the ATS Co-Pilot to lock up the torque converter, and hammered the throttle," he told us. He kept his foot on the brake while the boost levels climbed, and once the ATS E-Power sensed the correct numbers on the fuel power, "You can't hold it back," Cannon laughs.

But it's not as easy as he makes it sound, even on a well-groomed track. "You have to watch for the dips-you can actually steer the sled around them." Considering the tonnage of the sled, that's sorta like the tail wagging the dog, only in reverse.

And one more thing: "You have to make sure to disengage the converter near the end of the run to get those few extra feet-otherwise the turbo will huff." Which tells Cannon the engine is bogging down, so he lets the revs come up to keep the turbo spinning in the thin, mountain air.

But it wasn't all Cannon's firepower dominating the day, as Dustin Glover kicked up the dust for 292 feet in the Work Stock class. Nicole Ley was the leading lady in the Super Stock Four-Wheel-Drive group at 290 feet, and Ron Greene ran hard for 315 feet in the Modified Four-Wheel-Drive category.

And for an exhibition of raw power, Scott Vorhees' heavily customized Ram, boasting 1,800 horses rampaging through giant tractor-size tires, plowed a row some 354 feet long in the Pro Mod class.

Mile-High Drag Race
Not to be outdone by the sled pull, the dragsters smoked the quarter-mile track at Bandimere Speedway. On one pass, the Scheid Diesel rail scorched the pavement with a pass of 7.363 seconds at 189.90 mph. Other hot shoes of the day included Justin Ewing, with an e.t. of 15.6 seconds at 85.73 mph on Saturday. And on Sunday, David Zaccagnini had an even quicker e.t. of 14.88 seconds at 76.16 mph.