Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Past Event Champion Demke Ready for Fresh Start at NHRA Winternationals




Maddern Racing
2017 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
Circle K NHRA Winternationals
Auto Club Raceway at Pomona
Pomona, California

February 9-12, 2017

Contact:
Nate Van Wagnen
NVW Motorsports Promotion
440-986-2480


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Past Event Champion Demke Ready for Fresh Start at NHRA Winternationals

(February 8, 2017) POMONA, Calif. – Three-time NHRA Winternationals Top Alcohol Dragster champion Chris Demke is chomping at the bit to fire up his Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products dragster at the season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals this weekend. After finishing fifth in national points last year, Demke enters 2017 at his home race with his same trusty crew and sponsors, and a freshened chassis and new parts.

“Pomona is our team’s home track,” said Demke, a Valencia resident. “It’s always fun to race with all of my hometown fans present to help cheer on the team as we start the season. It’s also always nice to catch up with all of the teams after the offseason, as well as meeting the new drivers who are on the entry list. There’s a strong list of cars entered, so it should be a good, competitive weekend.”

Returning to Pomona with Demke is the full Maddern Racing team from 2016, headed up by Demke’s stepfather and team owner, Jerry Maddern, and car chief Kevin Watson. The team’s primary supporters from the last several seasons, Peen Rite and Boost Performance Products, are also on board for 2017 along with returning associate sponsors Hoosier Tire, VP Racing Fuels and Morningwood Energy Drink.

“Brent Gines at Boost Performance Products is back with their great CleanBoost oil and other CleanBoost products. I’m happy that our supporters from last year have returned and have confidence in our ability to perform, put on a good show and represent them well,” added Demke, who won the NHRA Winternationals in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

New for 2017, however, is the front half on Demke’s Uyehara-built dragster. The chassis was showing its age at the end of the 2016 season, so the Maddern team elected to front-half the car over the winter. All engine and transmission components were either freshened or replaced, as well.

“As most people know, last season didn’t necessarily go as we had planned,” admitted the 2014 national champion. “I crashed midway through the season in the first round of qualifying at the Seattle regional. Fortunately, I was OK, but the car was basically ruined. We had to pull out our older chassis that had won the championship in 2014, but it’s had a lot of runs on it. We nicknamed it ‘Saggy Maggie’ because it had a pretty good sag to it. We took it up to Wade Ramsey for a few upgrades. He put a new front half on the car, so everything in front of the roll cage is fresh pipe. He also made us a new magnesium body. We’re hoping the fresh pipe as well as the freshened motor parts will help get our performance back on track.”

Chris Demke, driver of the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products Top Alcohol Dragster, will take to the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona for the Circle K NHRA Winternationals Thursday, February 9, at 4:45PM PST for the opening round of qualifying. Qualifying will continue on Friday, February 10, at 2:15PM PST, followed by a third and final qualifying session on Saturday, February 11, at 10:30AM PST. First round of eliminations is scheduled for 2:30PM PST on Saturday. Eliminations continue on Sunday, February 12.

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ABOUT MADDERN RACING

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 Kevin Watson, Aimee Maddern, Mike Demke, Greg Rice, Robert Hadaller, and Ryan Miller. For information on Chris Demke and Maddern Racing, please visit www.maddernracing.com and www.facebook.com/maddernracing.


Maddern Racing receives support from the following companies: Peen Rite Inc., Boost Performance Products, B-G Detection, Afco, LA X-Ray, Hoosier Racing Tires, VP Racing Fuels, and Morningwood Energy Drink.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

talking with Kevin:

From an interview with Kevin Watson: 

The guys and myself have been busy prepping for the 2017 race season, above our normal offseason prep:

This offseason we are basically starting with an almost new car. We had parked our 2014 champ car mid-season last year in favor of our older but fresher second car.

After an unfortunate accident at the Seattle regional race we were forced to dust this car off and put it back in for the remainder of the 2016 season. For no other reason than to get back on the horse as they say.


Part of the reason for sidelining this car was the high number of runs on the chassis and the fact that she had a pretty good sag to her. We had given the car the nickname Saggie Maggie, the poor girl was screaming for a much-needed facelift.

Shortly after Christmas we contacted our good friend and chassis builder Wade Ramsey who is the now owner of Sarmento Racecars in Yuba city California.

Having done an awesome job on our other car we felt very confident in calling on Wade to take on the task of building a whole new front half and fabricate a completely new magnesium body. This took a few weeks, and as expected it turned out AWESOME.


Once we got the car back down to our Sun Valley based shop it was time to get to work. We basically stripped the car down to bare pipe and began the process of reassembly.

This includes rewiring and plumbing the entire car. We are also updating some things that had been over looked for some time, basically the car is getting some much-needed love.

It’s been busy over here at The Maddern racing shop, with the hauler get some much-needed attention too. To say it's has been a busy off season is a little bit of an understatement.

But as per the norm around The Maddern Racing shop, it all seems to be coming together just in time to kick off the 2017 season, at one of our favorite tracks, which also happens to be Pomona our home track.

We are excited to get back at it and see what this car will do.

We are also very happy to have back on board with us our great sponsors Peen-Rite, Afco, BG-Detection, L.A. X-ray, Boost PerformanceProducts, Hoosier Tires and Motorsports Unlimited. Who without there support we wouldn't be able to do what we do.

So, thank you all very much and here's to an awesome 2017 season.

Car Chief/Tuner and Basic Badass

Kevin Watson