Pro Street might be one of the elite categories in the world of diesel drag racing, but that doesn’t mean only a select few get to compete. Anyone and everyone is welcome—even those without a full-service diesel shop performing the build or providing all the financial backing. One great example of a privateer entering the Pro Street fray and proving himself to be extremely competitive is a YouTube sensation, “Turba” Tom Borrell. He built his fourth-gen Ram in his home garage, and in his first season running Pro Street he’s already been 5.20s in the eighth-mile, gone 8.20’s in the quarter, and currently sits fourth in the ODSS points chase.

“I just wanted to build the fastest truck I could,” Tom told us. “UCC was a goal of mine, too, so I said we’ll see where it lands, and I’ll either run 5.90 or Pro Street once it’s done.” Luckily, Tom’s fourth-gen Ram went 5.40s its first time out, which made the decision to go all-in on Pro Street easier—especially since he didn’t want the challenge of trying to slow the truck down in order to run an index class. With encouragement from a friend and fellow UCC competitor, Trevor Peterson, Tom embarked on the ground-up build more than two years ago. Impressively, other than the Freedom Racing Engines Cummins, Muldoon’s Performance Transmissions’ 48RE, and Hardway Performance’s ECU tweaks, he did everything himself. That includes building the 8.50 cert cage, the four-link suspension, reinforcing the factory axles, wiring everything up, everything.

Tom’s 6.8L solid block Cummins from Freedom Racing Engines receives fueling help from S&S Diesel Motorsport and AirDog, is fed 70 to 75-psi of boost thanks to a single T6 GT55 turbo and two stages of nitrous, and is backed by a Muldoon’s 48RE fitted with a Santjer input shaft and a 2,500-rpm stall Sun Coast converter. Back in June, Tom put an 8.24-second quarter-mile pass together at Maryland International Raceway, earning the honor of owning the quickest quarter-mile fourth-gen Ram in the world. The blazing trip through the 1320 came on the heels of a Sixth Place overall performance at UCC 2021. “I’ve already achieved a few goals I had for the truck,” he tells us. “I broke 8.50 in the quarter and I also broke 2,000 hp on the dyno.”

With so much success right out of the gate, look for Turba Tom to be a regular presence in Pro Street, as well as compete in the Ultimate Callout Challenge again in 2022. His next goal is to get the truck down to the 4,400-pound Pro Street class minimum without back-halving it, and eventually foot-braking a 48RE into 4’s… Along the way, Tom hopes that his build will inspire some of the guys in 5.90 to bump up, or for anyone interested in diesel drag racing to say “hey, I can build one of these and go head-to-head with some of these shop-built trucks.”