You gotta love Canadians. Besides being known for their warm hospitality to foreign visitors, they also have a thing for diesels. After all, how else could they tackle those endless prairies, the tar sands, and long snowbound winters? Oil-burners are a way of life for hearty Canucks.
So the massive turnout of trucks and spectators should come as no surprise at this year's Annual August Blackout. Hosted by NADP (North American Diesel Performance) for the fifth year running, the event was bigger than ever, with as many as 6,000 spectators in attendance for each of the two days.
Held at the Castrol Raceway south of Edmonton, Alberta, in mid-August, it boasted not only tire-shredding action on the dragstrip, but also kicking up dirt clods in the sled-pull competition. Add to that some slick show trucks, jet-powered dragsters, smoky burnouts, dyno pulls, cool performance parts, and an after party at the world-famous West Edmonton Mall-and you've got an event that gives the name of the city's famous hockey team a whole new meaning. Diesel enthusiasts "in the know" recognize that Edmonton Oilers refers to something other than just hitting a puck with a stick.
But we're not above using some hockey slang to describe how all the action went down. After a few face-offs, several rigs made breakaway moves to put the biscuit in the basket. (Read: they hauled butt down the dragstrip.) Just scan the scorecard in the sidebar to see who came out on top.
For pure, no-holds-barred speed, you can't compete with a jet-powered dragster. Even though the two that showed up were purely for exhibition purposes, it was hard not to feel a quiver inside as those turbines spooled up with a ferocious whine and fired off some howitzer-sized throttle checks. The bangs from the exhaust were deafening, and were so hot they toasted a trash can and slightly braised the arm of a track worker. The quickest run we saw was 6.45 seconds at 246 mph.
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