Man Built Truck With Shop Class, Became a Drag Week Staple

In the mix at Hot Rod’s Drag Week, there are all sorts of different machines immediately absorbed our attention. As a gear head, it’s hard not to have your head on a swivel. Some of the machines are definitely more expected than others. Once we waded our way through the sea of machines that were expected, eventually, we find an old school Chevrolet C10.

All the way from Oklahoma, Jesse Madaffari journeyed over the long haul to compete this year. It might’ve been an 18 hour drive that spanned over 1200 miles, but that wouldn’t stop him. As Jesse tells us, Drag Week has become a sort of addiction that he hasn’t been able to shake. We’re super excited that he did decide to make the trip because his story was certainly among our favorites.

On the outside, the old C10 might look like nothing more than a farm truck and, well, that’s because it is. Jesse tells us that the truck is his daily driver so he gets to test it all year before taking on Drag Week. It isn’t any stock machine, either. Instead, the truck powered by 496 cubic inches is clad with all sorts of modifications. Perhaps the best part is that Jesse didn’t take on the build himself. Instead, students throughout the years have helped with just about every last component onboard. There are even a couple of special surprises where they got a bit creative to make this thing work.

By following along with the video below, we get the top to bottom on this unique Drag Week machine. This is an event where we’ve learned to expect the unexpected. With Jesse’s C10, the truck certainly is much more than meets the eye. From what we’ve gathered, Jesse has even become a staple of the event and after chatting with him, it’s not hard to see why.