GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 13) – West Coast Top Alcohol Dragster heavy hitter Chris Demke and his Maddern Racing team are heading east from their Southern California shop towards Florida, going after their third NHRA Gatornationals trophy. The excitable Demke is eager to return to Auto-Plus Raceway to further his place in Gatornationals history and start playing with the east coast A/Fuelers for the first time this season.
Chris and his Peen Rite/OSI/Boost Performance Products team made the trek to Gainesville twice in the past few years, returning to California with the Wally both times.
“Some of the best performances in NHRA history were run at this track. Additionally, Maddern Racing has a great history at Gainesville. We came here in 2011 and 2012 and won it both years. Our team's tuner, Adam Rhoades, also has a history at this race, as his father, Walt, won the Gatornationals in 1971 and 1987. The track has a lot of history with NHRA and with our team,” Chris said. “It's also where I proclaimed myself as 'the new sheriff in town' in one of my ESPN2 interviews.”
The NHRA Gatornationals, March 13-16, serves as the east coast season opener. For that reason, most of the east coast and midwest A/Fuel cars haven't had many opportunities to play around with the new A/Fuel rules announced over the winter.
“I know they're chomping at the bit to start playing with that extra percent of nitro that they're allowed to use this season. Looking at the first couple of races so far, some of the teams have struggled to manage the extra nitromethane. On the other hand, it looks like the other teams have been able to figure it out in two or three runs. It certainly won't be easy this weekend. We just need to be on our game and run every run to our full potential,” Demke commented.
The Peen Rite blown alcohol dragster team will be looking to return to the winning ways with which they started the season at the Winternationals.
“We just need to pick things up where we left off in Pomona. We struggled with some technical difficulties at the Phoenix regional, but I think we have all of that behind us. We're ready to hit the track in Gainesville. The air looks like it should be decent; I think we have the right tune-up for the conditions,” Chris concluded with confidence.
Top Alcohol Dragster qualifying at the NHRA Gatornationals starts on Friday with sessions at 11:15 AM and 5 PM ET. A final qualifying session is at 10 AM on Saturday before first round of eliminations at 4 PM. Eliminations conclude on Sunday afternoon.
Maddern Racing is a family-owned and operated NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster team based in Southern California. The Chris Demke-driven Peen Rite/Operational Solutions/Boost Performance Products dragster is owned by Jerry Maddern and crewed by Adam Rhoades, Kevin Watson, Mike Demke, Greg Rice, and Robert Hadaller. For more information on Maddern Racing, please visit www.MaddernRacing.com.
Maddern Racing receives support from the following companies: Peen Rite Inc., Operational Solutions Inc., Boost Performance Products, B-G Detection, Afco, and LA X-Ray.
Chris will win !
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