EMcBride
Hoosier Stormtrooper
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- Apr 27, 2006
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STILL THE CHAMPION
Talley Aiming for Second Points Title in Three Years
By DHRAonline.com staff
The way Earl Talley sees it, he may not be the defending national champion of the Diesel Hot Rod Association’s Flowmaster ET Bracket class.
But he won’t say he’s not the defending champion, either.
Either way, he figures he has a chance to prove his point later this month at the Texas Diesel Nationals.
That’s where this year’s national champion will be decided where Talley said he figures it should be:
On the track. In a playoff format.
“I’m excited,” Talley, the DHRA’s 2005 Street Diesel champion, told DHRAonline.com recently. “I want to get there. I can’t wait.”
Talley, a 39-year-old driver from Bowling Green, Ky., will be among those competing for DHRA Diesel Power Additives Drag Racing Series season championships at the DHRA’s Texas Diesel Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas, on October 13-14.
The Texas Diesel Nationals will feature the champion and runner-up from the DHRA’s East and West Coast series in a two-race run-off to decide the national champion for 2007 in three classes – AirWerks Pro Street, Valvoline Blue Quick Diesel and Flowmaster ET Bracket.
The East Coast champion in each class will face the West Coast runner-up in each class in one semifinal, with the West Coast champion and East Coast champion squaring off in the other semifinal.
Talley, who won the Flowmaster ET East series, will get a bye into the championship round, where he will face the winner of a semifinal race between Flowmaster ET West winner Al Bigelow versus East runner-up K.J. Kitchens.
“I had a good truck,” said Talley, who competes in a 2003 Dodge Ram. “Dennis (Perry) at TS Performance built me a good truck this year. Last year, we kind of struggled a little bit with it. We had consistency issues, but we got it all straightened out. The truck’s been real good and consistent all year long. In bracket racing, that’s pretty much what it takes.
“This year, it worked real good. He set the truck up a little better, which always makes it hum. I had a real good truck this year, more than anything.”
Kitchens is a teammate of Talley’s on the Bowling Green, Ky.-based TS Performance team. His teammate’s success has Talley in an unusual situation.
If Kitchens wins his semifinal, the way Talley sees it, there’s almost no way he can lose.
“I’ll be happy if either one of us wins the world championship and I’d be happy if either of us are the runner-up,” Talley said.
Of course, Talley said, he’d be a little happier if he’s the champion.
“I told him I’m rooting for him to beat the other guy, but if me and him have to face off in the finals, I’m going to try to cut his throat,” Talley said with a laugh. “He’s a complete stranger when we roll up. But that would be cool. That would top off our season.
“It’s going to be a barrel of fun. I’m in the finals anyway. Worst-case scenario, I get beat in the finals. Best-case scenario, I’ll be in the finals with him and get crowned World Champ again.”
This season marked a strikingly successful return for Talley to the DHRA’s points competition.
Talley, after winning the DHRA’s 2005 Street Diesel season title, raced several DHRA events in 2006, but opted not to compete for the points title. The season, as it turned out, was a struggle at times, he said.
“Not real bad (in 2006), but we did have some consistency issues,” Talley said. “The truck had a little bit of a problem on her engine. It wasn’t stalling, but it was kind of flat taking off. I couldn’t make the truck react like I wanted to.”
Talley said he and the TS Performance team worked on the truck throughout the winter. By spring, he said they were confident they had a strong truck for the season.
“We worked on it quite a bit,” Talley said. “Of course, we’ve got other projects going on. Mine’s more of a daily driver truck .We did address the issues and got it straightened out.
“As soon as the track opened up and we did a few passes, we knew if we had it fixed or not.”
As it turned out, they did. Talley won two races and finished second in another, and he said either he or Kitchens won every event they entered.
The result was a tight race for the East title, which Talley won by 10 points.
“We were 60 points ahead going to Atlanta (the East’s final race of the season),” Talley said. “He got beat in the first round had to buy back in, and we wound up meeting in the finals. He got 50 points for finals and wound up 10 points behind for the year.
“If he hadn’t lost that first round, we’d had to have a runoff. That’s how close we were.”
As a result of the East title, Talley has a chance for a second national title in just his third season racing diesel pickups.
Talley, who has been drag racing since the late 1980s, was a fixture around Bowling Green drag racing when – in 2005 – Craig Colburn of TS Performance approached him about racing a diesel truck.
“Dennis at TS Performance wanted someone who knew how to bracket race to run the street truck at the bracket program,” Talley said. “Craig asked me if I’d be willing to try driving. I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ I went down and was going to do some driving for him to try to win him some rounds. We wound up winning the world championship.
“Next thing you know, now I’m a diesel drag racer.”
And now, he has a chance for a second title in three years – or, as he thinks of it, to defend the title he never actually defended.
“It’d be pretty cool,” he said, adding with a laugh, “Technically, I didn’t run last year, so technically, I’m still undefeated World Champ. Someone actually won in 2006, but I didn’t contend against him. We could go butt heads, head to head. And he could say he got 06, but he didn’t knock me out of it, because I didn’t contend against him.
“If I could win it again this year, it’d be pretty cool.”
Talley Aiming for Second Points Title in Three Years
By DHRAonline.com staff
The way Earl Talley sees it, he may not be the defending national champion of the Diesel Hot Rod Association’s Flowmaster ET Bracket class.
But he won’t say he’s not the defending champion, either.
Either way, he figures he has a chance to prove his point later this month at the Texas Diesel Nationals.
That’s where this year’s national champion will be decided where Talley said he figures it should be:
On the track. In a playoff format.
“I’m excited,” Talley, the DHRA’s 2005 Street Diesel champion, told DHRAonline.com recently. “I want to get there. I can’t wait.”
Talley, a 39-year-old driver from Bowling Green, Ky., will be among those competing for DHRA Diesel Power Additives Drag Racing Series season championships at the DHRA’s Texas Diesel Nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas, on October 13-14.
The Texas Diesel Nationals will feature the champion and runner-up from the DHRA’s East and West Coast series in a two-race run-off to decide the national champion for 2007 in three classes – AirWerks Pro Street, Valvoline Blue Quick Diesel and Flowmaster ET Bracket.
The East Coast champion in each class will face the West Coast runner-up in each class in one semifinal, with the West Coast champion and East Coast champion squaring off in the other semifinal.
Talley, who won the Flowmaster ET East series, will get a bye into the championship round, where he will face the winner of a semifinal race between Flowmaster ET West winner Al Bigelow versus East runner-up K.J. Kitchens.
“I had a good truck,” said Talley, who competes in a 2003 Dodge Ram. “Dennis (Perry) at TS Performance built me a good truck this year. Last year, we kind of struggled a little bit with it. We had consistency issues, but we got it all straightened out. The truck’s been real good and consistent all year long. In bracket racing, that’s pretty much what it takes.
“This year, it worked real good. He set the truck up a little better, which always makes it hum. I had a real good truck this year, more than anything.”
Kitchens is a teammate of Talley’s on the Bowling Green, Ky.-based TS Performance team. His teammate’s success has Talley in an unusual situation.
If Kitchens wins his semifinal, the way Talley sees it, there’s almost no way he can lose.
“I’ll be happy if either one of us wins the world championship and I’d be happy if either of us are the runner-up,” Talley said.
Of course, Talley said, he’d be a little happier if he’s the champion.
“I told him I’m rooting for him to beat the other guy, but if me and him have to face off in the finals, I’m going to try to cut his throat,” Talley said with a laugh. “He’s a complete stranger when we roll up. But that would be cool. That would top off our season.
“It’s going to be a barrel of fun. I’m in the finals anyway. Worst-case scenario, I get beat in the finals. Best-case scenario, I’ll be in the finals with him and get crowned World Champ again.”
This season marked a strikingly successful return for Talley to the DHRA’s points competition.
Talley, after winning the DHRA’s 2005 Street Diesel season title, raced several DHRA events in 2006, but opted not to compete for the points title. The season, as it turned out, was a struggle at times, he said.
“Not real bad (in 2006), but we did have some consistency issues,” Talley said. “The truck had a little bit of a problem on her engine. It wasn’t stalling, but it was kind of flat taking off. I couldn’t make the truck react like I wanted to.”
Talley said he and the TS Performance team worked on the truck throughout the winter. By spring, he said they were confident they had a strong truck for the season.
“We worked on it quite a bit,” Talley said. “Of course, we’ve got other projects going on. Mine’s more of a daily driver truck .We did address the issues and got it straightened out.
“As soon as the track opened up and we did a few passes, we knew if we had it fixed or not.”
As it turned out, they did. Talley won two races and finished second in another, and he said either he or Kitchens won every event they entered.
The result was a tight race for the East title, which Talley won by 10 points.
“We were 60 points ahead going to Atlanta (the East’s final race of the season),” Talley said. “He got beat in the first round had to buy back in, and we wound up meeting in the finals. He got 50 points for finals and wound up 10 points behind for the year.
“If he hadn’t lost that first round, we’d had to have a runoff. That’s how close we were.”
As a result of the East title, Talley has a chance for a second national title in just his third season racing diesel pickups.
Talley, who has been drag racing since the late 1980s, was a fixture around Bowling Green drag racing when – in 2005 – Craig Colburn of TS Performance approached him about racing a diesel truck.
“Dennis at TS Performance wanted someone who knew how to bracket race to run the street truck at the bracket program,” Talley said. “Craig asked me if I’d be willing to try driving. I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ I went down and was going to do some driving for him to try to win him some rounds. We wound up winning the world championship.
“Next thing you know, now I’m a diesel drag racer.”
And now, he has a chance for a second title in three years – or, as he thinks of it, to defend the title he never actually defended.
“It’d be pretty cool,” he said, adding with a laugh, “Technically, I didn’t run last year, so technically, I’m still undefeated World Champ. Someone actually won in 2006, but I didn’t contend against him. We could go butt heads, head to head. And he could say he got 06, but he didn’t knock me out of it, because I didn’t contend against him.
“If I could win it again this year, it’d be pretty cool.”
op: KJ shouldnt be taken lightly, he might be trying to unhorse the former champ out of fear for his new boss (we all know whos truck hes driving), those two together are a very dangerous pair.
