Demke Out Early in Phoenix

CHANDLER, AZ – It’s safe to say that Chris Demke and the California-based Maddern Racing Top Alcohol Dragster team have had better racing weekends than the one they just went through at the LODRS West Region opener at Firebird Raceway. An escalating problem within the car’s oiling system prevented the team from progressing through eliminations as they would have liked.

“The motor wasn’t happy all through qualifying. I pedaled it to a 5.92 first run and 5.42 on the second run. The rod bearings were blackened after the run so we swapped motors. I had to pedal it again in the final qualifying session and ran 5.45. Again, more blackened rod bearings. Rather than continue to damage parts, we made the decision to skip eliminations and head home. We qualified sixth – it wasn’t worth it to damage more parts,” Chris said.

Though it certainly didn’t show in their Winternationals numbers, the Peen Rite/OSI/801 Racing group was struggling with a similar issue at Pomona.

“We’ve got an oiling problem – not a problem with the fantastic 801 Racing oil,” Demke clarified. “We were having the same problem to a lesser degree at Pomona and it’s just gotten worse. It’s clearly something that we did not configure properly when putting the new car together. We decided to head home and fix the problem before we attend any more races.”

For a competitive person like Chris, the decision not to race on Sunday was tough, but understandable.

“It was absolutely a bummer. I don’t want to say I go to every race expecting to win, but that’s the goal. As good as our team is, to go to an event and have these kinds of troubles, it’s tough. It was a tough decision to make, but everyone was in agreement that it was the right thing to do. Drag racing, like other competitions, not only builds character, but it also tests your character. It’s just another speed bump in our quest for victory,” Chris said with optimism.

Demke was quick to give credit to a hard-working crew.

“Team owner Jerry Maddern, Kevin Watson, Adam Rhoades, Mike Demke, Ron Mann, and Robert Hadler worked extremely hard this weekend. Saturday was a challenging day. They were turning wrenches all day long. I gotta hand it to them – they stuck to it.”