Sometimes the best way to find out if an idea will work is to try it.

This is exactly what Wayne Jesel, and his brother Danny, decided to do a few years ago. Together they had successfully drag raced in NHRA Modified and Competition eliminator, and followed up this success with a highly successful valve train manufacturing company.

They decided to give the Bonneville Salt Flats a try.

Wayne JeselSometimes the best way to find out if an idea will work is to try it.

This is exactly what Wayne Jesel, and his brother Danny, decided to do a few years ago. Together they had successfully drag raced in NHRA Modified and Competition eliminator, and followed up this success with a highly successful valve train manufacturing company.

They decided to give the Bonneville Salt Flats a try.

“Well we always wanted to do it,” said Wayne Jesel. “Back in the 1970s we had planned on going with our old drag race car but never made it because we got too involved with business.”

There comes a time when reality speaks clearly and points out one isn’t getting any younger. Wayne’s better do it now moment came in 2007.

“I figured we better get it done while it was still on our bucket list and we're still around before we kick the bucket,” admitted Jesel. “We've been going out there for about six years now and we've been fortunate enough to set seven records with the truck and we're going to go back next year and try for one more.”

The Jesels’ truck isn’t your average shop truck. Their vehicle is a Pro Stock Truck-style vehicle which has run in multiple Bonneville divisions and is on record as being the fastest pick-up truck of all time, by a bunch.  

In fact, according to noted drag racing historian Bret Kepner, the Jesel pick-up’s average speed is only ten mph slower than the average set by the fastest truck of all time. Carl Heap's 1943 International K7 semi-tractor powered by a quad-turbocharged, twin supercharged 1472-inch, V16 Detroit Diesel is officially the fastest truck in the world. Jesel's Dodge holds seven class records (simultaneously) in both the Blown and Naturally-Aspirated Modified Pick-up divisions.

“We've run what they call a Modified Pick-up Truck Class and it was naturally aspirated so we hold the record in A, B AND C and the only difference is in the engine sizes,” explained Jesel. “Then we run our Turbo Engine Classes which is the Blown Modified Pick-up Truck Class and we hold the B, C, D and E record in those classes. The slowest record we have is 219 and the fastest record is 262.”

Why a truck?

“Well when we first wanted to go out there we just looked at what classes that we could run, that we could run several classes and just go around 200-plus mph. Nothing earth-shattering to try to go 300 or whatever. We had a lot of NASCAR Dodge engines left over from the Busch Grand National days and we did our research on what records there where, what the class records where and just seemed like.

“It’s not like we wanted to pick something easy but nobody really seemed to have ever given the trucks a full effort like they do with a Bonneville special purpose built truck to go to Bonneville. We looked at all the different body styles that there were, we thought about a Chevrolet at first because you could run a big block or a small block because one of their trucks came with it.

“Then we looked at a Dodge and we felt that the Dodge was superior because of the aerodynamics package of the SRT 10. We didn't have to run a Viper engine but we could run the truck body like it came from the factory with the Viper engine in it. So we had all the SRT 10 package on it and it was a much better aerodynamic package than anything else that was out there.

The Jesel Brothers have both been over 200 miles per hour in the truck. Just two years ago, they put NHRA Pro Stock ace Jason Line behind the wheel. Each year they bring in a new driver.

Wayne admits he loved driving in the early going but this has changed.

“Yeah, especially as far as my wife is concerned,” he said with a smile.  

The whole purpose for the brothers to go to Bonneville was their overwhelming desire to unleash the need for speed.

So is this natural for a drag racer to want to go somewhere like Bonneville where you can really unleash the speed?

“I think so because there is so much drag racing heritage at Bonneville,” Jesel explained. “Even going back to Wally Parks running his '57 Plymouth out there. There is a lot of drag racing technology out there. We go there, Reher-Morrison has cars out there, Panella does engines for cars, so there’s a lot of drag race heritage. Mike Cook is one of the key players at Bonneville and he's the son of Doug Cook from Stone, Woods and Cook years ago.

“There's just a lot of drag heritage and a lot of drag racers seem to have interest in going and how even Jason Line got hooked up with us last year when we put him in the 200-mph club. So there's a lot of drag race technology there, there's a lot of old drag racers there, a lot of manufactures from California that have been around forever started out there between Bonneville and El Mirage. I think a lot of drag racers are interested in going.”

And for the Jesels, it’s this interest which keeps them coming back year after year. 

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.