#29: Chase Fleece – Fleece Performance And Engineering

Fleece Performance Engineering of Brownsburg, Indiana is a name that is synonymous with diesel performance having built major event and championship winning trucks for several customers throughout the years in both drag racing and sled pulling. The shop and its team are led by brothers Chase and Brayden Fleece and once again Chase Fleece will slip behind the wheel for the 2018 Ultimate Callout Challenge.

In 2017, the team decided to field an entry for themselves with Chase Fleece serving as the driver of record in what would be a “home game” for the team with the race track just a few miles away from their shop. Unfortunately, a broken transmission sprag on the first pass with ace drag racer Ryan Milliken behind the wheel doomed their chances for an overall win in the competition.

With Fleece taking it easy on the truck knowing they did not have a chance at the overall, he still put down 1,855 HP and 2,576 lb-ft of torque to take 5th place in the dyno competition. Then Jordan Kinderman drove the truck in honor of his mom Kay in the sled pulls finishing in 7th place giving Fleece 15th place overall despite scoring points in only two of the three competitions.

While Fleece’s name does not appear in the record books he has competed in the UCC since the beginning winning the 2016 sled pull competition by nearly 13-feet in the Ryan Milliken entry.

The Fleece Performance team is determined to redeem themselves and put their truck at the top of the leaderboard in the 2018 Ultimate Callout Challenge and they certainly have the skill, determination, and experience to win it all. A 7.0-liter 427ci Competition Cummins built by their Freedom Racing Engines division is the powerhouse found under the hood of Fleece’s 2006 Dodge Ram.

Airflow into and out of the big Cummins is currently handled by a trio of Forced Inductions turbos with a massive 102mm GT55 on the manifold and a pair of 88mm GT5018 turbos sucking air in from the atmosphere. To keep up with all of that airflow they turned to Dynomite Diesel Products for a set of their 800% over Super Mental injectors.

A trio of FPE 13mm PowerFlo CP3 high-pressure pumps delivers massive quantities of diesel to the injectors while four stages of nitrous oxide are along for the ride for additional power on demand. Fleece also uses a Snow Performance water-meth kit to help keep everything in check. As impressive as the engine combination sounds the Fleece team is looking at upgrading to deliver even more power in 2018.

To tailor their truck to each aspect of the UCC competition the Cummins will be backed by a SunCoast/FPE collaboration 48RE-based 4-speed automatic transmission with many custom touches for the drag race and dyno competition. Then the team will swap out the auto for a manual NV4500 based manual transmission modified by ProFab for three-speed operation with a Haisley Machine four-disc pulling clutch.

he 6-man road crew for the team’s UCC effort has more than 50 years of combined experience at Fleece Performance Engineering alone and they look to turn their experience, determination and home-field advantage into podium finish at the 2018 Ultimate Callout Challenge. We look forward to seeing what they will bring to the table this year and what the truck will do when the rubber hits the track, rollers, and dirt May 4th-6th 2018 at the third annual Ultimate Callout Challenge!

#30: Derek Rose – DNR Customs

Derek Rose and his bright-blue, center-drive regular cab Dodge have been very successful in Ultimate Callout Challenge competitions since the original event in 2016. While he has been on the podium in four of the six total individual events contested over the two years of UCC competition, an event win has been elusive.

At the inaugural UCC in Salt Lake City, Utah Rose and his Casco, Michigan team finished in 5th place on the dyno with an incredible run of nearly 2,050 HP and almost 2,800 lb-ft of torque before finishing in 3rd place on the drag strip with a 9.4-second pass down the 1,320. He finished 2016 with an 8th place pull of 277 feet and an overall finish of 5th place but he knew there was more to be gained from his truck.

In 2017 Rose and the DNR Customs team came to Indy as a force to be reckoned with and the engine that came to be affectionately known as the #billetbitch under the hood. The experimental engine featured a billet block and one-off 12-valve billet head set up to use a common rail fuel system.

On the drag strip, Rose scrambled for traction on the cold evening spinning the tires virtually every time he left the line but still managed to finish in second place with a 9.1-second 1/4-mile pass down the famous Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis drag strip. When the truck was strapped down to the dyno it laid down the highest number so far that day as the first to break the 2,000 HP barrier while ultimately finishing in third place behind Baca and Miller.

Knowing that with a good finish in the sled pull competition he would take the overall win he pushed the truck as hard as he could. As he passed the 310-foot mark the engine let go in a ball of flames leaving Rose with a 3rd place finish and second overall for the event. If the engine had held together for only 16.5 more feet Rose would have been crowned the 2017 UCC Champion, but as it was he was the only competitor to be on the podium for each of the three events.

Vowing to do better in the 2018 UCC Rose and his team has decided that it will be best to get back to basics with their engine rather than pursuing a rebuild of the one-off billet engine. They have dubbed the new Freedom Racing Engines 6.7-liter Cummins the #basicbitch and hope to finally reach the top step of the podium with the 2018 setup.

Both past engines have used a triple turbo array with a combination of BD Diesel turbos and he plans to run a similar (likely larger) setup for 2018 but has not ironed out the details yet. For fuel delivery to keep up with the triple turbos and land him solidly in the 2,000+ HP club once again Rose will be turning to S&S Diesel Motorsport for injectors and high-pressure CP3 pumps.

When asked what size he would be running Rose simply replied with the hashtag #allthefuel, so we can safely assume he will have large injectors and pumps capable of delivering a ton of fuel! As in the past, the Cummins engine will be backed by a BD Diesel Trackmaster 48RE transmission that is built to the hilt to handle the monster, Cummins.

Of course Rose and his wife Nicole receive help and support from friends and family as well as their shop DNR Customs. They also receive sponsorship and support from BD Diesel, Diamond Pistons, Fleece Performance, Franks Transmission, Freedom Racing Engines, Hardway Performance, S&S Diesel Motorsport, Trend Performance and Vibrant Performance to compete in the UCC as well as other competitions and events throughout the year.

After his heart-wrenching 2017 finish Rose looks to come back strong in 2018. With the team’s lay it all on the line/never give up attitude it is highly possible that they will be finishing one step higher on the overall podium to take the 2018 Ultimate Callout Challenge Championship.