Photo courtesy of David Smith
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (November 7, 2014) – Upon winning their first major national championship, some teams in drag racing might take it easy for a while and reflect on their accomplishment. 2014 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champ Chris Demke and his Peen Rite team wouldn't even consider it. The Jerry Maddern-led team returned from their last race in Reading, PA and almost immediately started preparing one of their old cars for a title defense in 2015. The 2012 Maddern Racing dragster underwent a few updates and will return to the track at the Las Vegas NHRA regional race this weekend.
“We clinched the national championship and locked up the West Region title, so we can start preparing for next year during these next few races. We decided to pull out the car we retired at the end of 2012. That car has been front-halved and re-skinned by Sarmento Race Cars in Sacramento. It's really the same car, but the new skin has an aerodynamic package – a taller windshield and shroud over the roll cage – that we're hoping will help add some mile-per-hour. We'll use these next few races to get that car ready for next year. Either I can drive it or I can go back to the championship car and we can rent the 2012 car to another driver,” hinted Demke.
The popular Californian driver already won both the national and regional titles, so the Peen Rite/OSI/Boost Performance Products team is left with two races in 2014 to basically test the refurbished car. Demke clinched the NHRA TAD national championship at the NHRA Nationals last month, where he claimed not only the national title but also event wins from Reading and the delayed Charlotte race. The Lucas Oil Series West Region title was decided when Demke won four of five claimable regional races, including Topeka, the last race he used as a test session.
“We secured the regional title so these points won't help anything except our JEGS Allstars points position so we can race at the Allstars race in Chicago next year. Similar to Topeka, we're treating this weekend as a test and debug session for this car. Even though the car has a proven history, it's been stripped down to the bare tubes and front-halved. We spent the last two weeks putting it back together. With something as complex as these cars, you're always going to have issues that need to be resolved. This test will help us catch any of those issues so we can go into 2015 with a strong car,” Demke declared.
The final Lucas Oil Series regional event of the season, the Shortline Express Markets Gambler Shootout, takes place at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, November 6-9. Top Alcohol qualifying starts with a session on Friday at 3 PM with additional sessions at noon and 4 PM on Saturday. Top Alcohol eliminations kick off at 11 AM Sunday morning.
Maddern Racing is a family-owned and operated NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster team based in Southern California. The team's Chris Demke-driven Peen Rite/Operational Solutions/Boost Performance Products blown alcohol dragster is owned by Jerry Maddern and crewed by Adam Rhoades, Kevin Watson, Mike Demke, Greg Rice, and Robert Hadaller. For more information on Chris Demke and 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, LA X-Ray, Jet-Lube, and Morningwood Energy Drink.
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