BEANS BLACKOUT
BEANS DIESEL PERFORMANCE TENNESSEE EVENT
n October 14, 2017, diesel performance fanatics from near and far descended upon the small town of Woodbury, Tennessee for what has become one of if not the largest events in Cannon County just a few miles south of Nashville—the Beans Diesel Performance Blackout in the Country. This marked the 11th annual event for Beans Diesel Performance and the team led by shop owner Ryan Bean and his crew. The large event drew nearly 3,000 attendees from as far away as western Canada as well as from all over southeastern states like Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas, and even a few from Washington State on the West Coast.
As in years past, the BDP event offers something for all diesel enthusiasts and competitors, with action on the chassis dyno, and burnout fun on the concrete pad mixed in with a manufacturer midway and show-n-shine, then finishing out the day with the sled pull. This year also marked the return of dirt drags to the event, which made both participants and spectators happy. With just about every diesel performance discipline on hand in a small area on the BDP grounds, Blackout in the Country offers great bang for the buck for spectators and participants alike.
High-powered trucks were spinning Beans’ Dynocom chassis dyno rollers first thing in the morning, with crowds of spectators gathered around the dyno bay to catch the action. Dyno action continued throughout the day and into the late hours of the night when Ryan Bean ran his truck across the rollers to the tune of over 1,700 hp and nearly 2,900 lb-ft of torque. While Bean threw down a huge number on the dyno with his C-10, it was no match for Donavan Harris and his Dodge that spun the rollers with nearly 2,000 hp and over 3,000 lb-ft of torque earlier in the day. More than 50 vehicles made passes on the dyno rollers throughout the day. Those who weren’t hanging around the horsepower battles on the dyno could walk through the nearby manufacturer midway, where many of the top performance diesel manufacturers and vendors in the diesel world had booths set up to show off their latest and greatest offerings. Diesel enthusiasts could also check out the show-n-shine competition trucks.
By 9:30 in the morning the action began to get serious on the burnout pad, with several participants bringing extra wheels and tires specifically for burnouts so they could attempt to blow them out. Huge crowds were on hand for the burnout action—everything from Camaros and Challengers to mini-trucks trying to light up their rear tires. Of course, the best smoke shows featured black smoke from the exhaust as well as white smoke from the tires to drive the crowds into a frenzy. We witnessed many blown tires throughout the day as well as huge plumes of tire smoke billowing into the sky and it was clear that the burnout pad remains one of the most popular spots on the BDP campus.
With prep complete for the dirt drag trucks, they started making practice passes down the dirt strip around 11:00. The Beans Diesel Performance crew hosted three classes of dirt drag racing: Street Class, Modified Class and 2WD Class. But the only 2WD competitor ended up being Ryan Bean in his 2WD Cumminspowered Chevy C-10 drag truck so he simply made a few exhibition passes to thrill the fans. After the test and tune sessions were done the trucks lined up for elimination rounds to determine the winners in each class.
The featured event for the day, of course, was the sled pull with 50 hooks in four classes, including the ever-popular 2.5 Class as well as a 2.6/3.0-Smooth Bore Class, 3.6-Smooth Bore Class and a “Run What Ya Brung” Class to give everyone wanting a chance to tackle the sled an opportunity. The first truck hooked to the sled at around 6:00 o’clock and the last hook finishing just after 10, rounding out the day of diesel fun with around 50 hooks for the night.
If you weren’t there, check out these pages to see a sample of photos from the event. If you’re in the Nashville area (or can arrange your schedule to be in the area) on October 13, 2018, and are as crazy about diesels and diesel performance as we are, you should make the trip down to Woodbury for the Beans Diesel Performance Blackout in the Country—we’re sure you’ll be glad you did!
Sources:
BEANS DIESEL PERFORMANCE
615.563.7800
BDPshop.com
DOMINATOR SLED RENTALS
901.568.1822
DominatorSled.com