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You can’t talk UCC without mentioning Derek Rose of DNR Customs. Another huge name in both the Ultimate Callout Challenge and diesel motorsports in general, Rose hasn’t shied away from the spotlight when it comes to breaking records and burning rubber.
Rose walked away from UCC 2019 as the champion, marking his dark blue 2006 regular cab Dodge 2500 as one of the fastest and most recognizable diesel race trucks in the country. His performance at this year’s UCC was fantastic, but it left him just short of the coveted No. 1 spot, with a second-place finish overall behind Justin Zeigler.
A 283.82 ft. sled pull put Rose in fifth place in the event, while a 2,621.1-horsepower dyno pull slid him nicely in second place on dyno day, behind Zeigler and just slightly ahead of Chris Patterson. But to Rose, track times are the real testament of power when it comes to diesel performance.
“Track times are real, the dyno is just a game,” Rose says. “My main goal is to shift focus to the track and do the best I can there.”
That he did. Rose blew everyone out of the water with an insanely fast 4.737-second eighth-mile time, which was .2 seconds faster than the rest of the competition. Keen eyes will note that this time beats the former 4WD world record of 4.801. What’s even more insane is that Rose actually beat this record two months ago in May – by a lot.
During the Outlaw Diesel Super Series opener, Rose was setting record after record running his Pro Street truck up against Pro Mod competition. After breaking the 4WD record multiple times, his final pass achieved an incredible 4.44-seconds at 171.77 mph.
His performances at both UCC and the ODSS opener may have looked easy, but the results only came after a heap of time spent through the winter working on and tuning the 6.7L common rail Cummins engine under the hood.
“There’s a lot of great companies and parts inside this thing,” he told us. “As far as the fuel system goes, we got a ton of dynamite diesel stuff in here — injectors, pumps, etc. Wagler Performance Competition does the cylinder head, which a lot of guys in the industry utilize. I’ve had the same D&J front cover since 2017, and I’ve wanted to change it but it works fine. We really don’t even need three pumps anymore because the fuel supply has gotten so much better over the years, but it’s there. And I’ve had the same dry sump pump from Aviaid since 2017 as well.”
The engine also features Diamond Pistons, Trend Performance pushrods, Fleece Performance bridges, stock rockers, and a stock, factory-balanced 6.7L Cummins crank. What sets Rose’s Pro Street truck aside from many of the others at UCC is his triple-turbo setup that stands out for a multitude of reasons.
“We run a Forced Induction 107mm GT55 platform in the manifold and that’s our everyday drag setup where we’re clipping 3,000 horse all day long, and we haven’t even started leaning on it and opening the wastegate or anything,” he says. “Then, we’ve got two of their 91/100s that go in front just for the dyno, other than that we take them off.”
Aside from some small programming issues that led to some nitrous solenoids not working, Rose and the team at DNR customs had a successful weekend at UCC. Looking ahead, Rose has plans to test the truck’s limits further at no-prep and local events.
“I’m not sure if we’re going to keep going after say a 4.30s run because that’s faster than it’s meant to go and you have to look at it safety-wise,” he admits. “But, I do want to work on the front half of the truck and keep making it better.”
Diesel of the Week is sponsored by AMSOIL. If you have an engine you’d like to highlight in this series, please email Engine Builder Editor Greg Jones at [email protected]
