Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/472327
56 | Overdrive | March 2015 Custom Rigs ing for more than a year prepping two of his Peterbilts for the racing circuit. He'll be racing a 359, and his buddy, Ricky Proffitt, will be racing a 379. His 15-truck Jupiter Enterprises has been in operation since 1972 when his dad started the company. The fleet specializes in hauling coal from Kentucky to South Carolina. Jupiter's trucks are still in produc- tion, but Boles' goal is to introduce them this month at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky., where he hopes to drum up support for sponsorship. "We've been working on these things night and day for the last year, and I hope we're going to be No. 1 and No. 2," Boles says. Boles' and Morgan's do-it-yourself approach isn't the only avenue to par- Call me Turbo | Small fleet owner and truck operator Allen Boles says his friends call him "Turbo" – a name he hopes to bring to the ChampTruck circuit. Boles will have on his Jupiter Motorsports team a Peterbilt 359 that Boles will drive and a Peterbilt 379. The 359 will be black with a green frame, and the 379 black with a red frame. Boles received a ton of help from Carolina Cat and International when build- ing his trucks. Pictured above is Boles' 359 in its former role as a drag racer, the 359 under construc- tion in Boles' shop (lower right) and the truck in its new form as a ChampTruck racer (above right). The ChampTruck races are modeled on the popular Truck Race Organization races in Europe. Those at- tract an average of 70,000 spectators at each event, with some pulling as many as 175,000. Over two days, ChampTruck competitors will race in five to six heat races. Each will last 35 minutes, and drivers earn points in each race according to where they finish. Weekend victors, as well as the season's champion team, will be based on points, says series creator John Condren. Condren and his partners bill the race events as full weekends with a fair-like atmosphere of vendors, rides and kids' areas. Be- tween the truck race heats, supporting series like stock cars and formula cars will square off. ChampTruck spectators can pay $20 for all-day ac- cess or $30 for full weekend access. Children 15 and under get in free. All 10 races in the 2015 season will be held on road course tracks, which include left and right turns and hills, unlike NASCAR's flat oval tracks. This puts spectators closer to the action and makes the racing more excit- ing, Condren says. "You're not going to be sitting in the nosebleed section at an oval track," he says. "You're going to get a close view of trucks going around the course. The trucks will speed up, slow down, take right turns and left turns, go up and down hills – a lot more action than wide-open throttle around an oval track." Condren expects a dozen trucks to show up to the first event next month in New Jer- sey, and ChampTruck's target is to have 15 trucks racing by the season's end. In the 2016 season, he expects 25 to 30 trucks to compete, and they plan to cap the number at about 30 so the track won't be over- crowded, Condren says. How the races work