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Family
Affair
It
Must Be In Their Blood
With a long background in trucking and racing, the Talkington
family must have oil pulsing through their veins. Three (going on
four) generations of truck drivers and mechanics, the Talkington’s,
out of
Fontana, California, now own and operate water trucks for a living
and have fun racing diesel trucks with their team, T-N-T Racing.
Currently, two classic rigs and one "cracker box" cabover
comprise T-N-T Racing’s
rag-tag team of three big rig racing trucks.
John Talkington has been in the trucking industry for almost 50
years. His dad was a truck driver, his brother was a truck driver,
and now his two boys, Wayne and Scott, are truck drivers. In the
near future (as soon as they are old enough) John and his brother’s
grandkids will most likely join the family’s trade – or at least
start racing with them. Back in 1969, John and his brother started
T-N-T Truck Service in Lynwood, California. Even though that
business is no longer around, the name lives on with T-N-T Racing
– a fun family partnership between John, Wayne and Scott.
Wayne Talkington got his first truck when he was seventeen. Over
twenty years later, he’s still driving and loving it. Growing up
around
racing, both Scott and Wayne got involved with motorcycles. The
brothers both went professional at one time, but now focus their
attention on large car racing. Wayne is the owner and driver of the
drag truck on our cover this month. Purchased four years ago from a
sick friend, the old 1964 Kenworth wasn’t much to look at back
then. John and Wayne decided to fix her up a bit and take her out to
the upcoming truck drags in Palmdale.
They began by pulling out the stock Cummins engine and dropping in a
barely-running (actually seized up but they broke it loose) Detroit
that was laying around in the yard. Then, they replaced the stock
transmission with a 13-speed and rebuilt the rear end – taking the
stock R170 apart and welding the spider gears together creating a
"locked" rear end. Racing slicks (courtesy of a
sponsorship from GCR Tire in Fontana) were the final touch. Seven
short days later, the boys and their dad found themselves out at the
drag strip falling in love with truck racing. John fixed up an old
black 1969 Freightliner cabover to race, which spurned Scott to
decide he wanted in
on all the fun too - but his dad told him he’d have
to get his own truck.
Looking for a suitable truck to race, Scott went out in the yard and
found an old ugly truck. The 1967 GMC "cracker box"
cabover, now fondly called the Junkyard Express, was born that day.
After
replacing the injectors in the truck’s old and tired 318 Detroit
engine, Scott added some racing slicks and that was it. It might not
be pretty but it brings home the trophies – last April at Super
Truck Sunday in Palmdale, it brought home a 1st Place in the 2-Axle
Cabover class, it beat out Bob Wilson to win the Best Burnout
contest, and took a well-deserved 2nd Place in the Ugliest Truck
category. Not bad for a beat-up old cracker box built out of junk
parts.
Today, Wayne’s KW drag truck, with the help of sponsors including
the Napa store in Fontana, has been modified from its original
racing setup. Since then, they have added a new Detroit Diesel
engine complete with twin turbos and a nitrous oxide system. They’ve
also added a roll cage and a flashy paint job – Napa Blue with
orange and yellow flames. Pulling around 800 hp, the truck (which
isn’t quite fast enough for the "Super Truck" class yet)
can do the 1/4-mile in around 16.31 seconds, hitting speeds in the
90’s. Folks with true working trucks sometimes get upset that this
rig is in their class but, as John put it, "It’s all bracket
racing anyhow – it doesn’t really matter how fast or slow your
truck is." Once your truck pulls a time of 12.99 or better, you
are moved into the Super Truck class.
They say the family that races together stays together – and that
must be true. Not only are the Talkington’s all in business
together and race together, but they also all live on the same
property. John’s land was large enough to accommodate a house for
himself and each of his sons and their families. When we say this
family is close, we mean it – literally. Traveling together as a
family, they enjoy fishing trips and treks down to John’s brother’s
house in Mexico a few times a year. John’s 13-year old grandson
can’t wait to race, but for now they won’t let him. John’s
brother’s 9-year old grandson Christopher Talkington just won the
Western Division Championship in the Jr. Drag Racing Association at
a race in Denver, Colorado. He made eight straight runs and beat all
75 of the entrants. As we said, racing is in the Talkington blood.
Looking to attend other truck races and get more involved in truck
dragging, the team of T-N-T Racing has been invited to race at
tracks in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, El Paso, Denver and Kansas City.
To do this they need more sponsors – any takers? The next time
they’ll be out racing will be in Palmdale at the Truckin’ For
Kids Show and Drags – an annual charity event to help raise money
to send disabled children and adults to summer camp. This year’s
Drags are being held at L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale on October
14th and 15th. As well as T-N-T Racing and their crew, 10-4 will be
there having fun and documenting the event (as we always do). We
hope to see you all and can’t wait to see that screaming blue KW
tear up the track and pull its best time ever – good luck guys!
For more details about the
show and drags or to pre-register for the event, see their ad on
page 25 or call Astrid Giese-Wright, Events Coordinator for
AbilityFirst, at (626) 396-1010 ext. 336.
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