Plenty of truck drivers watch drag racing. Not so many truck drivers actually race at drag strips. For one father and son, they both asked, “Why not?” By the time they were finished, they had a bonafide record holder on their hands.
Wayne Talkington is one of the stars of the Lucas Oil Drag Truck team. He says he always knew he would do something unique. He remembers the time when he and his father were trying to figure out how to finance a racer.
“Everyone had a race car. My dad said, “Hey, let’s be different. Let’s build a truck. So we did.” Talkington said that he and his father always had access to trucks and semi truck parts. They just decided to put some together in a working model Kenworth and kept going.
His 1963 Kenworth semi features an A892 Detroit powerplant with twin turbos, a supercharger, and a nitrous system. It pulls 4200 hp and can reach speeds of up to 115 mph before the gears wind out through the quarter mile.
Whatever they came up with worked. Talkington’s race crew have taken the Kenworth to a 5 Time Diesel Drag Champion title, and they just keep getting better.
So here’s Wayne talking about his monster creation, and then driving it. Enjoy, truck drivers!