The Diesel powers back into the Hammer lineup this summer, joining the Rebel and Rebel Solid as the three reactive resin balls at Hammer’s mid-performance price point. This new Diesel has been revamped both inside and out. The new Diesel weight block had to be modified from the cores used in the original Diesel line to meet the USBC’s current RG and differential limits. The new core shape has a medium RG of 2.51″ and moderate differential of 0.046″, allowing it to offer nearly five inches of track flare. The coverstock has been updated to the NBT Hybrid veneer that has been used previously in several of Hammer’s high performance and upper-mid performance balls in recent years. The Diesel comes out of the box at a 500/2000 Abralon finish, giving it the ability to chew through any oil it saw during our testing.

We had the best line to the pocket with the Diesel on our heavy oil test pattern. Stroker and Cranker had just a slightly better reaction than Tweener on this pattern. Stroker was able to play right up the track area, laying his ball down on 12. As long as he stayed inside ...