#27: Tony Burkhard – Dirty Hooker Diesel

As the owner of a shop called Dirty Hooker Diesel, you can safely assume that Tony Burkhard is more than likely an experienced sled puller. The veteran sled puller has been pulling with gassers since 1992 and moved into diesel sled pulling about 15 years ago in 2003. Not only has he been pulling, he has been doing it very successfully.

While Burkhard and his DHD crew are still finalizing the details and working on their UCC setup and plan they told us that they plan to compete with a regular cab long bed 2006 Chevrolet 2500 HD that will for sure use a 6.6-liter Duramax diesel engine backed by an Allison automatic transmission.

They will build the engine and transmission in-house along with the truck. The team is still finalizing the turbocharger configuration or configurations that they will use for the competition. Same goes for the fuel system details, but they are confident it will be using Exergy Performance pumps and injectors to help their Duramax make tons of power.

Dating back to 2006 Burkhard has finished in 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in the TTPA championship points each year including a 6-year consecutive championship run from 2006-2011. But he will be a rookie this year at the 2018 Ultimate Callout Challenge.

With the help and support of his Dirty Hooker Diesel shop employees and support and sponsorship from Danville Performance and Exergy Performance Burkhard is confident that they can bring a competitive rig to their first UCC event. With more than 25-years of pulling experience and a solid background in Duramax and Allison diesel performance, many expect Burkhard to be able to adapt quickly to the UCC format and perform well with his Chevy on the dyno and pull track.

But the drag race will certainly be a challenge for the UCC rookie; fortunately, the UCC format is more forgiving than traditional head-to-head drag racing so he has a chance to perform well there too.

The 2018 UCC rookie class is shaping up to be a stout group that could feasibly include the 2018 UCC Champion and we look forward to seeing the rookies mix it up with the UCC veterans to see who will come out on top this year.

#28: Chris Buhidar- Truck Source Diesel

Chris Buhidar may be a rookie to Ultimate Callout Challenge competition but he is a veteran racer and diesel performance wizard of the highest order. Buhidar and his Truck Source Diesel team have been working together since 2005 in their 10,000 square foot shop in San Antonio, Texas working on all make and models of diesel trucks.

The 6,380-pound Ford was the first Super Duty truck with factory frame and factory rear suspension to run a 9.0-second pass and was also the first to dip into the 8s with an 8.97-second pass. 2017 was a great year for Buhidar and his team as they won seven of the eight NHRDA events they competed in taking the championship despite missing two events.

They have successfully campaigned their Cummins-powered 2000 Ford F-350 for the last several years winning 2015, 2016 and 2017 NHRDA Super Street National Championships as well as the 2016 World Championship.

Rather than stick with the 7.3-liter Power Stroke engine that the 2000 Ford was delivered with they swapped it out with a 5.9-liter Cummins engine from a 2006 Dodge Ram. The Cummins currently receives its compressed intake charge from a set of triple Engineered Turbos in a compound arrangement with a pair of S477s for atmospheric turbos and an S475 on the manifold.

That setup will likely be upgraded to a larger set of Engineered Turbos to flow even more air before the UCC rolls around in May. A Precision Turbo air-to-water intercooler is used to keep the intake charge temperatures in check while the truck is making big power.

To keep up with all that airflow, Buhidar relies on a custom lift pump system the team developed with a FuelLab pump that sends the fuel up to a pair of S&S Diesel Motorsport 12mm CP3 high-pressure pumps. The high-pressure fuel is then delivered to a set of S&S 450-percent over injectors that will likely be replaced by an even larger set before the UCC to keep up with the planned additional airflow.

While he has not had an accurate measurement on torque he has dynoed the truck to the tune of 1,650 HP with his current configuration and estimates that torque would probably be around 2,200 to 2,400 but he expects more of both with his new UCC turbo and fuel setup. To squeeze a little more oomph out of the Cummins Buhidar has been spraying it with around 80-100 HP worth of nitrous oxide, but the volume of laughing gas is likely to be increased in May.

The stout Cummins is backed by a 4R100 Ford transmission that was given a top-shelf performance build by the crew at Brian’s Truck Shop to handle all the power and stress that the Cummins dishes out. From the transmission power travels to the transfer case where it is split and sent to the front and rear axles to put the power to the ground and send the big heavy Ford flying down the track.

In addition to support from his shop Truck Source Diesel; Buhidar and his team also receive sponsorship and support from Brian’s Truck Shop, Engineered Turbo, One Up Off-Road, Parks Engine Service, S&S Diesel and SoCal Diesel for their drag race efforts as well as their rookie season in UCC competition. It will be great to see the seasoned racer and his Cummins lined up to compete against the biggest and meanest trucks in the diesel world.