Ultimate Callout Challenge Champ

Congratulations to Ken Bruner and his Capital Diesel Performance team for taking home the 5-foot tall 1st place trophy at the Ultimate Callout Challenge this past weekend. The Santa Rosa, California-based mechanical engineer took home the coveted award by collecting the most points at the 3-day multi-discipline event.

The Cummins 6.7L-powered RAM pulled the sled 317.81 feet, more than a foot farther than the closest competitor. The extra distance was accomplished by making the rear suspension has rigid as possible along with a squirt of nitrous or two.

Ken’s bigger wins came with the dyno pull and 1/8-mile drag race. His Freedom Racing Engine put down a whopping 2,832 horsepower, second only to Chris Patterson’s 3,000 horsepower run. The bright orange RAM hit the number thanks to copious amounts of nitrous ramped delivered at various boost levels beginning at 3,200 RPM. Massive 6AN lines fed the Mega Jets, nearly the size of garden hose nozzles. At peak horsepower (4,200 RPM) nitrous was cut off to save the engine. 

As if 2,832 horsepower wasn’t impressive enough, Ken sped down the Brownsburg, Indiana, 1/8th mile track in a lightning-quick 5.29 seconds, beating YouTube star Greg Alberalla by 0.23 seconds. Again, nitrous was Ken’s best friend. Well, that and his 5-point safety harness, Hans device and parachute. “Although we didn’t inject as much nitrous as we did on the dyno, says Ken, “it’s still enough to make you feel like you’re attached to a rocket!” 

But of all the electronics packed into the cockpit, it was the two Banks iDash DataMonsters that helped Ken improve between each run. “Prior to the iDashes,” recalls Ken, “I had a cell phone taped by my roll cage as a data logger. I look back and laugh. That seems so silly now. I love going back to the pits after each run and reviewing the data. Sometimes we play it back right on the iDash and other times we export the data to datalogviewer.com and graph it. We kept a really close eye on the pressure ratios between the compound turbos. I really don’t know how we got by without the iDashes,” Ken says with a chuckle.