Demke Races to Phoenix Regional Final Round
CHANDLER, AZ – Maddern Racing driver Chris Demke added another final round appearance to his national 
championship title defense last weekend at the NHRA West Region event at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. The 2015 Winternationals champion qualified No. 1 and laid down the quickest passes in the first two eliminations rounds before an engine failure stopped him in the final round. Maddern Racing also wrapped up their planned two-race schedule with the experimental “X” car driven by Ray Martin.
“Qualifying went well. We ran a 5.30 out of the box, which was a great baseline. Ray and the X car were right behind me so we were one and two after the first round of qualifying. The crew hopped up my car and once we got a good run on the X car we experimented with some stuff. While the experiment didn’t help the performance on the second run, we did learn a good bit of knowledge on a particular area of the tune-up. With Joey (Severance) ripping off a 5.28, I knew I would need a good run to beat that. We ended up one and four, which meant Ray and I would face each other in the semis if we both won first round,” Demke noted.
A Maddern Racing match-up in the semifinals wasn’t meant to be, as Martin bowed out in his race against Johnny Ahten. Demke made up for it, though, beating Ahten with a 5.275, a step up from the 5.305 he ran first round.
“With the improvement that we saw, we realized there was more left in it so we turned the knobs expecting a 23 or 24 in the final, which I knew we were going to need against Severance. Unfortunately we rolled up for the final round and there was a horrible pop and vibration when we started the car. I did the burnout but we had to shut the car off after backing up. It would’ve been great race if the motor stayed in one piece.”
Obviously distraught over the incident, Demke still presented the positives of the race. “I can’t be too upset about the weekend. We got some great points and moved into second in the JEGS Allstars points, which was our goal for this race.”
The Phoenix regional event was the final planned race for the team’s second car, driven by Alaskan Ray Martin.
“Running a second car was a huge amount of work. While we all knew it would be a lot of work, I don’t think any of us were really prepared for the challenge we faced in fielding two cars. We had a great crew for the second car and they really proved their mettle in a challenging situation. It would be cool to do more races because we were just getting into a groove. We gained some valuable information and tried some things without disrupting the balance of the champ car. We won the Winternationals, runnered-up here and we’re leading the points with the champ car,” Demke said, adding there’s a possibility the X car will return later in the year.
Upon completion of the race, the motor and other parts from the X car were put back into Demke’s Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products car for use at the team’s next race, the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida next weekend. The engine is the same one Demke used to clinch the championship and record the blown alcohol speed record at Maple Grove last fall.
