2007 Top Truck Challenge - Muck, Sweat & Gears

Miller's Sonoma

What it is and how it works: Basically, it's the same convoluted, miserable quarter-mile course as last year. It's filled with mud holes, steep hills, tight turns, and various off-camber sections. Why mess with perfection? A 10-minute time limit means there's no time for lollygagging or sightseeing. Sure, speed is important, but so is obeying the scores of cones we use to mark the course. Hitting or squashing them results in a two-second penalty per cone.

"Tight for a truck this size, but it was fun anyway."
-Al Rhodes

"I wish we would've changed the hydraulic ram, but we didn't."
-Justin Langford

"We thought about it hard, and we communicated well."
-Donald Hadden

"That was awesome, we had a blast. That mud is a little deeper than I thought it was, obviously."
-Jeff Fink

Fink's TJ: With semi-straightened framerails and a new supercharger fitting, he hit the course with a vengeance. No windshield wipers meant he couldn't see after blasting through the first mudhole. Had to back up in the second mudhole to get another run.

George's Bronco: Unwound the 420ci V-8 engine and blew through the course to earn the second fastest time. Only killed one cone.

Hadden's S-10: Ran much of the course in front-wheel drive. Codriver operated the twin-stick transfer case and the transmission shifter while the driver steered and operated the throttle. This allowed them to execute fast "burns" and other maneuvers in an effort to speed up their time.

Johnson's K3500: A failing torque converter in the TH400 forced the driver to attempt the course in Reverse. After a short time, the team chose to end their run.

Langford's Bronco: Entered competition with a semi-repaired hydraulic ram. Took some time to maneuver the tall truck around the low-hanging branch at the beginning of the course and had to make a few three-point turns due to the damaged ram and the wide turning radius of the rig.

McGilton's K1500: Driver made the massive rig look much smaller than it is. Fast run, but killed five cones.

Miller's Sonoma: Open diffs slowed the rig down in the ruts. Deviated from the course at the second mud hole and was DQ'd at that point.

Rhodes' D-100: Slow, calculated, drama-less run that netted a middle-of-the-pack finish.

Thorson's TJ: Fastest run of the event. Rear steer on the 2.5-ton Rockwell definitely helped in the tight turns. Penalized for hitting two cones.

Wells' M135A: Slowest run of the rigs that completed the course. Articulating chassis helped the large rig easily crawl through the ruts at the beginning of the course.

Langford's Bronco