10-4 Magazine / April 2026 11 they would be there. The dream of building their own race truck began from the very start in 2002 when they attended their first TFK event. In 2008, they attempted to build their first drag race truck, but dad stopped them, saying they were too inexperienced. Dad eventually became a full-time minister, and since then, the boys have pretty much been on their own. By 2012, with the success of their parts store on eBay “Hanks1961KW” (named after Henry’s 1961 Kenworth), the V-Bros quickly ventured onto the world stage and began building Peterbilt 359s for a customer in Sweden and shipping parts to Australia. Building about 15 trucks in total, they would then export them in shipping containers to Sweden. With the boost of social media, they expanded to specialty vintage truck parts and Jemsal, Inc. was born. The name “Jemsal” came from dad, and it is an acronym for the Spanish phrase “Jesus es mi Salvador” (Jesus is my Savior). Wherever a Peterbilt 359 was being built, the Velasquez brothers quickly became the go-to guys for parts. The dream of building a drag race truck had been put on hold for long enough, and having the wrecking yard gave the brothers access to parts and space to save them. In 2016, they bought a classic 1957 Kenworth 921 that would eventually become the race truck. Purchased from Triny Elizarraras, the truck sat behind his house for two more years, until it was finally brought to the shop in Los Angeles in 2018. Gathering a hot rod Cummins Big Cam and a Positraction rear-end, they began working on the truck in their spare time. Why Cummins? Most racers from back in the day ran 8V92 Detroits, but the Velasquez boys grew up working on Cummins engines and were the most comfortable with them, so Cummins it was. By September 2019, the V-Bros had what resembled a drag race truck. Getting close to the October date of TFK, their goal was to finally have their race truck on the track. When race day finally arrived, the truck was not painted, and they needed help hauling it to the races. Their friend, Ryan Rodriguez, offered to haul the KW race truck to TFK with his 1950 Kenworth. Running nowhere near as fast as they do today, these rookies still had huge smiles on their faces, and V-Bros Racing was born. Living pretty close to Irwindale Speedway, it was common to see the KW “testing and tuning” on the track every Thursday night. With lots of experimenting, trying to prove the Detroit powered racers wrong, they were determined to make that Big Cam Cummins run fast. Social media would help the boys a lot, with help that came all the way from Australia. Alfred became friends with Steven Zammit of SRZ Racing who, without really even knowing the brothers, sent them a custom camshaft that would help them start going faster. By April 2021, the truck finally got its flashy Viper red paint job to help identify the truck’s name “El Manzano” – which means “The Apple” – and was the nickname given to Alfred by their father when he was born (apparently his face was all red). Naming the race truck after Alfred was only fitting because he was the one who drove all the other brothers to finally get it finished. For the 40th annual TFK show in 2021, “El Manzano” with its red paint and yellow flames, like you see today, won 1st place in the Super Drag class – it was their first major win. At TFK 2022 the following year, they became repeat champions by winning the class again. Winning their first NHRDA (National Hot Rod Diesel Association) event at the NorCal Diesel Nationals in Redding, CA in May 2023, V-Bros 2008 2026
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