There is something remarkable about barriers. There was a time when it was deemed impossible for a human to break the four-minute mile time barrier. How it was achieved is a much longer story, but one variable is that competition improves us all. Most interestingly, once Roger Bnanister broke the barrier in 1954 other began to do it. Today, over 1400 runners have broken the four-minute mile. 
World record set in September, broken in February
This past weekend Firepunk Diesel broke an impossible barrier by becoming the first-ever diesel-powered vehicle to break four seconds in the eighth mile. The Ohio-based Firepunk Diesel team accomplished the feat at the Lights Out 12 in Adel, Georgia.
Lavon Miller has been a builder to watch for many years now, and with Larson Miller behind the wheel, it was a head-turning performance. The Cummins-powered 2000 Chev S-10 whipped out a 3.998-second 1/8-mile pass, reaching a scorching 182.67 mph at the finish.
In recent months the Firepunk Diesel team has been slowly inching toward this breakthrough moment. According to a story in The Shop the established a record at No Mercy 11 with a 4.11-second pass and more recently put down scores of 4.10, 4.04 and 4.00, so they've been eyeing this moment for a while. It's clearly one of those stories of continuous improvement, find new ways to squeeze a hundredth of a second more out of every facet of the engineering.
There are quite few eyes on this cutting edge team, so expectations are always high. No question that what they accomplished at the South Georgia Motorsports Park would have been deemed impossible 20 years ago, or maybe even five.
Here's Monica Gonderman's version of the story at Truck Trend when the news first broke February 25. There's a small squadron of photos worth checking out as well:
They Did It! Firepunk Diesel Has a 3-Second Chevy S-10 Cummins Drag Truck
http://www.trucktrend.com/news/firepunk-diesel-3-second-chevrolet-s-10-diesel-drag-truck
Congratulations to Lavon and Larson Miller, and the whole Firepunk Diesel Team.
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The standard distance of a drag race is 1,320 feet, 402 m, or 1/4 mile( +- 0,2% FIA & NHRA rules). However, due to safety concerns, certain sanctioning bodies (notably the NHRA for its Top Fuel and Funny Car classes) have shortened races to 1,000 feet. Some drag strips are even shorter and run 660 feet, 201 m, or 1/8 mile. The 1,000 foot distance is now also popular with bracket racing, especially in meets where there are 1/8 mile cars and 1/4 mile cars racing together, and is used by the revived American Drag Racing League for its primary classes (not Jr Dragster). Some organizations that deal with Pro Modified and "Mountain Motor" Pro Stock cars (Professional Drag Racers Association) use the 1/8 mile distance, even if the tracks are 1/4 mile tracks.
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