Since 1994 independent truck driver Petra Rosalie Maples has made her living hauling sheep and goats or pulling reefer trailers all across the USA. At first glance her classic '99 Kenworth with over 1,470,000 miles on it, looks similiar to most semi trucks you see trucking down our highways and interstates. One look under the front clip it's obvious this is one unique Kenworth. Matzke diesel out of Monroe Wisconsin built the Cat15 accert, msx block engine. The head is a fire ringed apc stage 5. The crank, rods, pistons, flywheel and pressure plate are all balanced. It also has cat c18 liners with one piece ipd pistons. The cam is a cat 800 horse industrial grind with flow matched cat 3028s injectors. An airdog lift pump is used plus a champ 2 and a cat sdp fuel pump. The 103mm turbo is a Hart's diesel machine prostock unit off of agent orange with a 32 open throat on atmosphere and a 91mm turbo with a 145 open throat on a full tilt manifold. Earl Hosetter and Antrim diesel of Green Castle Pa. did the ecm and tuning. The truck on a recent trip of 1,086 miles averaged 6.44 mpg.
So having a rare weekend off Petra of Shannon, Illinois decided to take her rig to nearby Byron Dragway for a day of racing matching up against fullsize diesel pickup trucks at the Jarrett Powell Memorial Diesel Drags Event. Petra ran a best time of 18.01@86.23mph and also ran a 18.34@84.16mph on a very hot windy day at Byron Dragway. #womentruckdriver #dieseldragracing #semitruckracing