Another Year, Another $10,000 Build Budget

Building anything in 2025 has proven to be an expensive endeavor, but building a race truck this year has got to be one of the most costly endeavors a person can start. Or is it? The Poor Diesel Challenge, the brainchild of a few good old boys with a few dollars and a dream, set out to prove that racing doesn’t need to be expensive. It just needs to be fun. Unlike last year, the PDC cracked its gates wide open for 2025. No invite-only list, no insider shuffle. Anyone could throw their hat in, so long as they had the guts and the budget discipline to make it happen. What rolled into the staging area at Heartland Homemade Ice Cream was a mix of mad science, backyard ingenuity, and “I can’t believe that passed tech” optimism.

The rules were the same as in 2024, but the crowd had changed. They were rowdier this time around. The events kicked off with a 50-mile street drive, because if you can’t survive a cruise to get ice cream, you have no business on the strip. On the way, trucks were clocked for fuel efficiency (yes, they measured MPG at a diesel event, and no, nobody was happy about it). Then it was onto the drag strip for 1/8-mile sprints, a dyno session with combined horsepower and torque for bragging rights, a show-’n-shine to see who actually washed their truck, and a new twist: the burnout contest was scrapped in favor of a Le Mans-style start. Forty feet of sprint, fumble with the keys, fire it up, and haul back to the line. It was ridiculous, maybe a little dangerous, but most importantly, it was the perfect start to an already odd event series, and we were here for it.

When the smoke cleared and the spreadsheets stopped shaking, here’s how this year stacked up:

1st – Jon Hager brought the trophy home with a 2006 F-250 6.0 Power Stroke (swapped with a 2004 engine) that proved you can still win with a platform most people love to hate. He came in hot with 330/150 Warren injectors, a SoCal T4 kit, a VS Racing S476, a Blessed Performance regulated return, and a 6.7 intercooler piped to an ice tank. Fuel economy? 2.755 gallons. Dyno? 734 horsepower and 1,251 ft-lbs of torque! He even nailed the fastest Le Mans start. Jon went over budget by a hair but was still the man to beat.

2nd – Mark Banister turned heads with a 1972 Chevy Suburban crew cab sitting on a 2006 LBZ chassis swap and complete with a GT45 turbo, Dan’s 200% over injectors, dual fuel pumps, and a SunCoast converter. His fuel economy was a wild 1.612 gallons, and the truck looked like it came from a custom shop, not a $10k budget build.

3rd – Ron “MF” Maple returned with his ’96-ish Dodge Ram 2500 P-pump 24-valve, 13 mm pump, 6×16 injectors, Stainless Diesel S475, and a healthy shot of nitrous. Same truck as last year, same bad attitude, and another incredible performance across the board.

Then there was the Poorest of the Poor Award, which went to Rob Getz, and rightfully so. This man drove over 2,000 miles from Canada in a 6.0 Power Stroke running on seven cylinders. He blew it up on the dyno, pulled a glow plug in the pits, restarted it with the plug still out, then screwed it back in with the engine running. You don’t get that kind of commitment from someone who is worried about resale value.

A few other builds worth a double-take include Shelby Sandlin’s 2009 F-250 6.4 that was resurrected from a blown-motor 2WD beater into a big single-swapped 4×4 monster. Josh Swartzendruber’s 1973 Dodge D300 service truck on a 1997 2nd-gen Cummins chassis was also noteworthy, as it was complete with a hand-built interior, custom wheels, and fabrication work that looked far too nice to have been done under a $10k budget cap.

What makes the Poor Diesel Challenge special isn’t magic. It’s more than just the numbers or even the trucks. It’s the complete disregard for what “should” be possible. Every competitor knows they’re not just racing; they’re showing the world how far you can stretch a dollar, a dream, and a diesel. In 2025, that meant ice cream runs at full boost, a 6.0 Power Stroke taking the win, and a field of builders proving that ingenuity still beats a blank check.

While the fun for 2025 may be over, the Poor Diesel Challenge fun is just beginning. While the sun sets on this year, competitors and potential contenders are already looking forward to 2026, cranking up the chaos and showing the world that you can, in fact, race with a shoestring budget and a dream.