“Ultimate goal is to have the fastest
street legal diesel, Period”
Written by Jim Fox Photography by Jesse Fox (3G Video)
The Truck that Catches Everyone’s Eye
Meet Bernie the ‘45’ Chevy diesel truck. Bernie has a tube chassis, mild steal, with a Common Real Cummins six cylinder engine and compound turbos. A Garrett 88 on top, the big one, and the small one is a board base 7286 and the injectors are 4.50 percent over. At Hot Rod Drag Week 2022 Bernie set a new record of 8.81 average for the week and a new record of 8.61 single pass for a diesel in a drag-n-drive event. Not bad for the old boy. The goal is for Bernie to be the fastest street legal diesel, period.
The Man Behind the Build
Now let’s meet Robert Berry, the one who came up with this wild build. Raised in a Christian home, accepted Jesus as his Savior at the age of eight, was at the drag strip with his Dad all of his life. Bernie has become a platform to share his faith, people are interested in the truck and that opens doors to witness. Not always the way he thinks it will, but the opportunity comes up. He tries to show Jesus to everyone not beat them over the head, rather live a life that demonstrates who
“Do they always see Jesus in me, no, but
my goal is to be salt and light and the
truck gives me the avenue to do that.”
Jesus is. He said “Do they always see Jesus in me, no, but my goal is to be salt and light and the truck gives me that avenue to do that.” All he wants is to be salt and light to the world around him. Robert has a wonderful wife and three great kids. All of them know Jesus as their Savior and one daughter is in full time ministry. His wife is an elementary school principle and is able to incorporate the ministry in her work. Robert says his wife is the best thing, other than Jesus, that ever happen to him and they just celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary the first day of Drag Week 2022. Drag racing has always been in Robert’s life, had to take a break raising his kids but it was there.
How it All Begun
In 2014 the plan was to take his Corvette, which was pretty fast, to Drag Week. He had also decided that he wanted to build a rat rod, a two thousand dollar budget to just have some fun doing burnouts around town. Robert has his own business “Berry’s Auto Center” in Miami, OK where a buddy and he started the project. They put a diesel engine and a race transmission in it on a three quarter ton Dodge chassis. Got done, took it out on the street for the first time, shifted gears and it made the tires bark. They looked at each other wide eyed knowing they had something different. Got back to the shop and Robert decided he wanted to take the rat rod to Drag Week instead of the Corvette.
Off to Drag Week
Took Bernie to Drag Week for the first time in 2014. Robert said “it was a freak show but people loved it and I had a great time. I had drag raced all my life and
“It was a freak show but people loved it”
never had so much fun going 14 seconds. I ran 14s every day that week, then on the last day in Tulsa ran a 13.86 and thought I was a rock star. Did multiple years of drag-n-drive events and in 2017 during Drag Week at Cordova I left the line and the truck wiggled a little bit, made a hard left and hit the wall, totaling the truck.”
Faster and Safer
After that Robert decided he wanted to be safer and go faster. Now Bernie has a home built tube chassis and weighs four thousand pounds with Robert in it. Still
"Budget is out the window"
very heavy with a diesel engine and tranny. The two thousand budget is out the window, his convertor costs that much, but he is going faster. At Race Week, two weeks before Drag Week, he had a 9.12 average and did an 8 second pass in Tulsa the last day, but the ET and the MPH were down. Realized coming home he had a ruptured enter cooler and was only making thirty-five pounds of boast when normally it is seventy-five. The goal was set to run all 8s at Drag Week and have an 8 second average. Half of that goal was met, the average for the week was 8.81 but the first day he had a 9. But did run a personal best of 8.61 which had to feel good.
Overcoming to Achieve
The week didn’t go without some obstacles, the first day in St. Louis he opened the parachute and drug it all the way down the track. Then in Indy stayed in the beams to long and couldn’t turn his time in on that pass. Then on the last road trip coming back from Cordova to St. Louis, was coming down a hill doing 65mph,
"Thank God for a praying Mama"
bottomed out, hit so hard it shirred the pin off in the steering, went to turn wheel and was no response. Robert said “Thank God I was on a straight road, hit the brakes and came to a stop. Thank God for a praying Mama and family.”
Still Hold the Record
The times that were set on Drag Week 2022 have held up through three major events that have taken place over the last year and a half since this event. He blew the engine up at the Texas Diesel vs. the World event. Tore it all down rebuilt it then went to Rocky Mountain Race Week 2023 and blew it up at Bandimere. As of right now the diesel engine has been taken out and Robert is putting in an LS to run some no prep races. They should be a lot faster since the truck is one thousand pounds lighter.
Don’t worry, the diesel will be going back into Bernie by the time diesel racing begins in May of 2024. Robert has put in place two full systems, fuel pumps, computer set up, larger radiator, transmission systems so switching engines will not be so big of a deal.
Lofty Goals Ahead
This is what Drag-n-drives are all about, overcoming adversity to go ahead and reach your goals. Robert still has some lofty goals for Bernie, they are right on the edge of running an 8.50 and by the first of next year want to be running a 7.99 or faster. Remember the ultimate goal to have the fastest street legal diesel, PERIOD….
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