The family-friendly truck and tractor pull that has gradually become the end-of-year bash many pullers (and fans) look forward to most.
Arguably no other truck and tractor pull in the diesel industry has the name recognition “Diesels In Dark Corners” does. The family-friendly affair takes place in White Plains, Georgia, roughly 80 miles southeast of Atlanta, and has gradually become the end-of-year bash many pullers (and fans) look forward to most. The two-day event draws more than 100 competitors, the majority of which represent the heaviest hitters from states like Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Illinois. These pullers have repeatedly penciled in the Diesels In Dark Corners event as their last hurrah for the year, before they break the seal on their engines or ignite other winter projects.
Ryan Merritt, whose father and uncles started the Liberty Truck & Tractor Pull in 1997, has been instrumental in growing the Diesels In Dark Corners event into what it is today. The early November truck and tractor pull, which operates under the Liberty Truck & Tractor Pull association’s umbrella, attracts as many as 5,000 spectators. And when the 13th annual DIDC commences this Friday, $50,000 in payouts will be on the line. Truck classes include the Pro Street, Limited Pro Stock, Pro Stock, Super Stock, and 4.1 Hot Street Semi’s, with Pro Farm tractors getting in on the action as well. If you’re in the area, make your way to 4230 Liberty Church Road on November 3rd. The red dirt flies at 6 pm.
In the meantime, enjoy this taste of what you can expect to see at what is fast-becoming the can’t-miss event of the year.
For more than a decade now, Ryan Merritt and his team have been trying to bring pulling back to Georgia, a state where tractor pulling was big in the 70s and 80s but somehow died out in the 90s. According to the success they’ve seen with Diesels In Dark Corners so far, we’d say they’ve done it. After all, more than 100 trucks and tractors show up here each November—along with 4,000 to 5,000 spectators on average. According to Ryan, approximately 95-percent of the strongest-running 2.6, 3.0, Pro Stock and Super Stock trucks in the country (most of which hail from up north) are hauled down to Diesels In Dark Corners to compete, a point of personal pride for him. “It makes you feel good that they wait to pull their engines apart until after our event.”Although the action takes place on a single lane at DIDC, thanks to the quality of the track equipment and its operators very little downtime exists between hooks. Ryan and his team have gone out of their way to ensure this is the case. “The competition gets better and better every year, so we’re upping our game, too,” he tells us. “’We’ve invested in top-notch equipment to keep the action rolling.” For 2023, they’ve teamed up with Ted Ferguson (equipment operator at A. Crano Excavating in Ohio) and Jeff Burton (Project Engineer at Gradall Industries, also in Ohio) to further minimize time between hooks.One Pro Street class (2.6-inch smooth bore) driver who’s anything but a stranger to the winner’s circle is Doug Monroe. He’s been coming to Diesels In Dark Corners since 2017, and his ‘05 Dodge has placed second twice, and won it all twice, too. Doug’s repeat appearances in White Plains, Georgia aren’t anything new. In fact, most competitors are repeat participants. As you read this, Doug and dozens of other pullers are on the road, in route to Diesels In Dark Corners. Others are loading up and will be doing the same in the next 24 hours.The “Hill Brothers” Dodge has been making the 900-mile trek from Missouri to Georgia every year for a while now. Back in 2019, with Austin White in the driver seat the menacing silver second-gen took the Saturday night win in the Limited Pro Stock class. Keep an eye on this machine at this years’ Diesels In Dark Corners, as it’s the 2022 DIDC belt holder and also fresh off a 3.0 smooth bore championship in the Epic Pulling Series (not to mention a PPL championship in 2022). A nasty, O’Bryant Diesel-built common-rail Cummins hums away under its hood.Cory Frank is another “regular” down in Georgia. But in a class where the Duramax appears to be dying a slow death (i.e. Limited Pro Stock), Cory continues to campaign and inflict plenty of damage aboard his. The Exergy-backed Chevrolet coined “Causin’ Trouble” earned a win at the 2021 affair, along with the highly sought DIDC belt, which he brought back home to Ohio. You may have also seen this truck running cuts and competing in Pro Stock (3.6-inch smooth bore) at the same venue. Cory and his team are about as die-hard as it comes in the world of truck pulling.Diesels In Dark Corners has been filled with ups and downs over the years for Nathan Vegh and his father, Ferenc. Their highly recognizable, Pro Stock ’16 F-350 (“Jumping Jack Flash”) has finished in Second Place on two occasions, but also lost an engine 100 feet into the first hook of the weekend on another. It’s also gone from being a Hypermax-built, P-pumped 7.3L to a Hypermax-developed 6.7L Power Stroke in recent times—along with sporadically bumping up to the Super Stock class on occasion. Like so many other drivers—and despite the mixed bag the event has dealt him over the years—Diesels In Dark Corners remains one of Nathan’s favorite places to pull.No high-caliber sled pull would be complete without the biggest, baddest trucks in the land showing up to compete. At Diesels In Dark Corners, the 7,500-pound Super Stock Diesel Trucks put on what is arguably the most captivating show in all of motorsports. How does 6,000 rpm, 4,000 hp, and boost pressure that registers well into triple-digits sound? The Scheid Diesel second-gen campaigned by the Ingrams is shown here. With Brady Ingram behind the wheel at the 2022 affair, he and the venerable ’96 Dodge earned the big win.Along with the Grade A truck and tractor pulling, Diesels In Dark Corners hosts a show ‘n shine. It’s organized and run by Chelsey and Dane Grayson, a wife and husband duo who are also avid diesel truck enthusiasts, and it enjoys a solid turnout that seems to grow with each passing year. You’ll notice Chelsey’s photography (CLG Photography) throughout this article. On Saturday afternoon (Day 2), the show ‘n shine winners are announced and then paraded across the clay right before the pulls kick off for the evening.If you want to please a crowd at the truck pulls, give them some tire-carrying semi’s. Diesels In Dark Corners delivers on this front thanks to its Hot Street Semi class, a category that requires a single turbo with a compressor wheel inducer measuring no larger than 4.1 inches (factory map width enhancement groove permitted). Other rules dictate a 20,000-pound maximum, DOT-approved tires (with a maximum width of 10-inches), the allowance of water injection, and that no Sigma or billet pumps can be run. According to Ryan Merritt, they’re hoping to have 10 or more trucks in the Street Semi field this year, with a couple making the trip from as far away as Missouri and Wisconsin.DIDC has a way of attracting some of the bigger names in tractor pulling as well. Beginning in 2018, the Pro Farm category was added to the docket. It calls for a 470 ci displacement maximum, a 3-inch turbo inlet (with a 0.250-inch allowable map groove), 24.5×32-inch cut or uncut tires, and a maximum hitch height of 20 inches. Other rules make OEM intake and exhaust manifolds, cylinder heads, rear ends, and chassis’ mandatory, while P-pumps are limited to either the P7100 or P3000 variety (no 8600 series units). Intercoolers (air-to-air or air-to-water) are prohibited, but the class does permit the use of water injection. Like the truck classes, the wheels-up tractor action can be seen both nights.
