Fleece Performance Engineering’s annual truck and tractor pull headlines the Labor Day weekend entertainment in smalltown Indiana.
North Salem, Indiana. It’s a town with little more than 500 residents—but on Labor Day weekend you would never know it. Since 1975, North Salem has hosted Old Fashion Days, a 3-day festival that effectively transforms the sleepy, Hendricks County community into a bustling hive of activity. In 2009, Fleece Performance Engineering—a company with deep roots in North Salem—presented a truck and tractor pull. The same event, coined the “Hoosier State Showdown,” survives today, and we were on hand for the 15th annual affair on August 31.
Held just a week after the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza, the Hoosier State Showdown draws many of the same, hard-hitting 2.6 and 3.0 smooth bore trucks that compete at the Scheid show. This year, in between the Light Combo and Hot Farm tractor classes, a Freedom Racing Engines vs. O’Bryant Diesel Service vs. Haisley Machine battle played out in front of a packed grandstand. And thanks to a joint effort between the Indiana Pulling League and the EPIC Pulling Series, the flow of the action was kept smooth and steady. If you’re looking for a well-organized daytime pull with solid track prep and high-caliber competition, this is the event for you.
Lee Stiltz’s Pro Street Chevrolet was recently converted to Cummins power and trust us, his Silverado is a runner. Packing a Freedom Racing Engines’ power plant (Freedom being the engine-building division of Fleece Performance Engineering), complete with Dynomite Diesel Products injectors and a MoTeC stand-alone ECU with custom S&S Diesel Motorsport firmware, you can pretty much always bet on Lee’s “Privileged” HD turning in a top five effort. At the Hoosier State Showdown, S&S Design and Development Calibrator, Andre Dusek, took the wheel in an effort to diagnose (and later fine-tune) a throttle response concern firsthand. Andre would move the sled 317.33 feet—First Place in the 2.6-inch smooth bore turbo class.“Drilling for Dollars,” Mike Christopher’s dent-side Ford is arguably one of the more eye-catching regulars in the Pro Street diesel truck class. Mike’s old Super Cab benefits from an Ingram Enterprise-built common-rail Cummins under the hood. With his first hook (the initial pull of the 2.6 class) totaling 306 feet and change, Mike turned it down. He would return at the end of the class, build 28.5 mph worth of ground speed, and add nearly 10 feet to his previous distance, which was good enough for Third Place.One of the hardest Limited Pro Stock diesel trucks to catch in 2024 has been this one: the “Gambler.” Fresh off of winning the Friday night show at the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza (and tied for First Place in PPL points), the ‘17+ Super Duty did it again at the Hoosier State Showdown. Driven by Adam Kincaid, the Gambler’s 318.75-foot hook put nearly five feet on Second Place. It would also top 30 mph in the ground speed game. The hard-charging Ford packs a common-rail Cummins from O’Bryant Diesel Service, DDP injectors, and one of Hart’s class-dominating 3.0-inch turbos.Prior to showtime, we made the rounds in the pits and, as is sometimes the case, we noticed someone willing to try something different. Breaking rank with the typical Trxus STS and Mud Grapplers you see in DOT tire pulling classes, Tim Tuttle decided to give these a chance up front on his Limited Pro Stock truck (the “Common Cents” Dodge). Made by Kenda, they’re called the Klever M/T2, a second-generation mud terrain. And even though the winning trucks would be adorned with Mud Grapplers at the Hoosier State Showdown, we appreciated seeing Tim’s willingness to give them a shot.While Tim’s front tire choice didn’t net him the win at the Hoosier State Showdown, his ’05 Dodge ended up where you can usually find it—near the front of the pack. Clawing its way through the hard-packed track, Tim’s 307.08-foot hook earned him a Fifth Place finish, with ground speed topping out near 30 mph. A longtime Fleece customer, Tim’s deck-plated common-rail Cummins was assembled by Freedom Racing Engines, and his “Common Cents” third-gen has collected a lot of wins over the past four years.The newest truck on the Pro Street scene is Evan Rusk’s “Double Or Nothin’” second-gen, and it had a solid showing in North Salem. After spinning out, the distance board read 316.86 feet—less than 6-inches behind the front-runner. Evan’s deep blue Dodge represents yet another top contending 2.6 smooth bore truck and, like several others, it packs a Freedom Racing Engines Cummins, DDP injectors, and a MoTeC stand-alone ECU with S&S firmware. Evan was also kind enough to let us turn our cameras loose on the truck, so stay tuned for a full feature on this beautiful, high caliber build in the months ahead.Hanging out near the 300-foot mark was highly entertaining, especially when Rex Simpson dug his way past us in his Pro Street Super Duty. The Kentucky-based, Cummins-powered ’08-’10 F-250 goes by the name “Night Train” and built a 30-mph head of steam before the Lowery sled began to catch up with it, ultimately traveling a Fourth Place, 315.82-foot distance. A brand-new build for 2024, the truck received a big helping hand from Ellington Diesel & Fab, who wired up the engine’s MoTeC stand-alone ECU with S&S firmware, hit the dyno armed with some Hardway files, installed the engine in the truck, and placed third at its very first hook—all in a matter of days.Kicking off the action at the Hoosier State Showdown were the Light Combo tractors sanctioned by the Indiana Pulling League. Within this category, 6,300-pound Light Super Stocks are allowed, along with 6,800-pound Modifieds and Light Limited Super Stocks. This means that blown Hemi’s and diesels converted to run on alcohol can compete. Luckily for purists, Matt Rausch took home the win aboard his diesel-powered green machine coined “Terrible Thing.” Matt’s ground speed peaked at 30.9 mph, the fastest we saw clocked in the Light Combo class. The old-school, John Deere 4050 traveled 331.23 feet.It was a small field competing in the Hot Farm class, but that didn’t make Brian Cameron’s win aboard the “Fuss ‘N Fight” IH any less impressive. Clocking nearly 32 mph at one point, Brian’s 327.32-foot rout put more than 10 feet on Second Place. The Indiana Pulling League’s Hot Farm category permits a tractor’s maximum competition weight to be 9,500 pounds. Other key rules dictate that intercoolers aren’t allowed, but water injection is—provided it’s injected in the intake manifold only (and not the cylinder head). The turbo is limited to a 3.0-inch inlet but, strangely enough for us in the truck world, a map groove of up to .200-inches is legal.Another dyed-in-the-wool Fleece/Freedom customer is Jordan Kinderman, a veteran puller in the Limited Pro Stock diesel truck class. Eight days prior, Jordan and his third-gen Cummins qualified second (out of 28 trucks) at the Friday running of the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza. Unhappy with his first attempt (a 300.30-foot effort), he turned it down. At the tail end of the 3.0 class, Jordan tried a slightly different line, built 29 mph worth of ground speed, and moved the sled 12 feet further. Unfortunately, there was no catching the “Gambler.”Fleece employee, Paul Ritchardson, campaigns the Limited Pro Stock class Chevrolet known as the “Fancy Hooker.” Just don’t let the emblem on the grille fool you—this Bow Tie is Cummins-powered. Paul’s classic body Silverado benefits from an S&S-fueled, Freedom Racing Engines-built common-rail and, despite essentially being a brand-new truck for 2024 (he has roughly only 10 hooks on the clock), it holds its own in the highly competitive 3.0 field. Here, Paul is in the midst of moving the sled 301 feet and change, good enough for 8th Place at this year’s Hoosier State Showdown.How is this for customer support? Long after the pulls were over and the pits empty, S&S Diesel Motorsport‘s Andre Dusek—who had piloted Lee Stiltz’s 2.6 truck to victory—was punching away on the keyboard. Working with both Lee and Evan Rusk (drivers of the “Privileged” and “Double Or Nothin’” machines mentioned earlier), Andre addressed a few throttle position quirks they were having, and the best way to get a feel for the problem he was there to solve was to strap in behind the wheel. With this level of product support, it’s no wonder these trucks finished first and second.
