CHANDLER, Ariz. (February 26, 2015) – For the second year in a row, Top Alcohol Dragster's Chris Demke rolls into the Phoenix NHRA regional event as the winner of the recent NHRA Winternationals. Though opening the 2015 season with a win provides a confidence boost, Demke and his Maddern Racing team won't let it get to their heads this weekend at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.
“I would say I'm optimistically cautious,” Demke said. “While Pomona, the end result was great, how the weekend went certainly wasn't perfect. We had some growing pains running both cars. Last year, while we started out the year with a win at Pomona, things started going downhill at Phoenix. We want to make sure we keep all of our ducks in a row and our performance levels where they should be. We spent the last couple weeks preparing the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products champ car for Phoenix and going over the X car to see what went wrong. We've got a good idea of what failed and we've taken the steps to correct it.”
Demke speaks of the engine problem and consequential supercharger backfire on the team's experimental 'X' car driven by Ray Martin in the semifinal at the Winternationals. With a full weekend of data and experience on the X car crew, coming from Clint Thompson's TA/FC team, Maddern Racing can look ahead to better numbers at Phoenix.
“Had we gotten one more run out of the X car at Pomona I think you would've seen that car reach its full potential. We were still creeping up on the tune-up run-by-run. The X car did run five-twenties in eliminations first and second round, though they were certainly not to that car's full potential. When the failure happened in the semifinal, unfortunately we didn't get to see any good results on that run or in the final. Now we've got the crews on both cars working efficiently – the X car crew has a full race under their belts so we can get down to business and make some quick runs with both cars,” Demke added.
As the NHRA Mello Yello Series professional race teams proved at last weekend's CARQUEST NHRA Nationals, WHP Motorsports Park can provide the right conditions for quick runs. A few of the quickest and fastest performances in Top Fuel and Funny Car history were recorded here just a week ago.
“For whatever reason, this track is known primarily for big top-end speeds. I don't know if it's the lack of humidity or what. Seeing the results from the national event just confirmed my expectations that the track is still in great shape and that's one reason why I expect to see some big speed out of the X car this weekend,” concluded the reigning Top Alcohol Dragster national champion.
Top Alcohol qualifying at the NHRA West Region Phoenix event begins at 3 PM on Friday, followed by sessions at noon and 4 PM on Saturday. Eliminations are scheduled for noon on Sunday.
Chris Demke and Maddern Racing are actively seeking sponsorship for their NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster national championship title defense season. For more information on sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.MaddernRacing.com.
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/Boost Performance Products blown alcohol dragster is owned by Jerry Maddern and crewed by Adam Rhoades, Kevin Watson, Mike Demke, Greg Rice, Ron Mann 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., Boost Performance Products, B-G Detection, Afco, LA X-Ray, Hoosier Racing Tires, and Morningwood Energy Drink.
