We see a lot of familiar faces at diesel competition events, mostly because the guys and gals that compete are closely tied to the community and show up at as many events as possible year to year. Because of this, there’s a few big names that have built up a following over the years for their various feats and exploits.
One of those is none other than the Dirty Hooker Diesel team, headed by Tony Burkhard. Tony, with his son and driver Tyler, pulled off a great weekend at the 2022 Ultimate Callout Challenge a few weeks ago. After more than respectable efforts in all three areas – drag racing, dyno day and sled pulling – the team stood upon the podium at the end of the weekend with a solid third-place finish overall, not far behind the likes of second-place Derek Rose and first-place Justin Zeigler.
Once again, the team competed with Last Minute Hooker, their ’06 Silverado that’s become rather storied over the years at UCC. Most notably, from its explosion and subsequent fire that occurred on a dyno pull during the 2019 competition because of a loose turbocharger exhaust wheel. Remarkably, the team was able to drop in a new engine and repair the truck enough to compete in the sled-pulling event the next day.
This year, there weren’t any major mishaps, and the truck performed admirably. Like before, the team is running a billet-aluminum block from LSM Systems Engineering. The 460 cid Duramax engine has gone largely unchanged from years past, but still boasts several key parts that keep it running smoothly. On dyno day, the truck was able to produce 2,486.9 horsepower for a 5th place finish.
