Once again, we’re back at the legendary Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the 2021 edition of the Ultimate Callout Challenge. If you aren’t familiar with this diesel-powered gauntlet, competitors will put themselves, their teams, and their trucks through three days of hell and see who can withstand the abuse and come out on top based on their overall performance.

Day 1 is a test of horsepower and traction. Each truck got a full day of test passes on the quarter-mile race track to see just how fast they can get these diesel machines to go. Some are built for this, some aren’t. One this is for sure though. They are being pushed to their limits. In years past, if you had a mid-five-second truck, you’re coming out on top.

Day 2 is the same trucks with a little bit different wheel and tire combinations for the dyno competition. Strapping these animals to the roller and spinning them up as fast and hard as possible to hopefully crank out more horsepower and torque than the rest of them. Don’t get crazy though because you’ve got to salvage your powerplant until the last and final day of abuse.

Day 3 is the equalizer. The sled pulling portion of this competition is brutal and a very important piece to the scoring. If you’re at the top of the standings overall, the sled pulling can make or break your overall performance based on the points system. We’ll get to those soon but first, let’s look at our day 1 coverage.

Go, Baby, Go!

I expected to see a lot of fast passes leading up to this portion. Some of the Outlaw Diesel Super Series competing trucks entered this event and with their purpose-built race trucks, this portion would be easier than others. Names like Tony Burkhard, Justin Zeigler, Tom “Turba Tom” Burrell, Chris Buhidar, and Wade Minter to name a few.

On day 1, the UCC competitors shared the race track with the Outlaw Diesel Super Series as they were holding the Firepunk Diesel Outlaw Diesel Revenge event at the same time. This meant the track would be as good as it gets for everyone. Each competitor showed up at the lanes with the race tune-up installed and it showed.

Top spots went to the Burkhard’s at Dirty Hooker Diesel team, Justin Zeigler in mObscene, and YouTube’s Turba Tom Borrell in his garage-built fourth-gen Ram. Borrell had a best pass of the day stopping the clocks at 5.336 while Zeigler was just ahead with a 5.30 pass. The competition was tight and it was an ocean of Cummins. That is until the Dirty Hooker Team got their chance at the track.

After making a number of passes, chipping away at their previous elapsed time, Tony’s son Tyler clicked off the fastest pass of the day with a 5.115. This is absolutely screaming and it is even cooler knowing this truck will make a number on the dyno and you know it will be good at the sled pulls on day three.

With only one day in the books, you can see how the standings are laid out above. Day two is on its way and its survival of the fittest. Who can make the biggest number for all of the points but who can survive to live another day? Come back tomorrow to find out!