Demke Wheels New Car to Winternationals Final Round

POMONA, CA – Top Alcohol Dragster driver Chris Demke has enjoyed plenty of success at Auto Club Raceway in recent years. That success continued this past weekend, though maybe not to the extent that the Californian was shooting for. Considering the fact that the team only had one full run on the car heading into the event, it was a very successful outing for the Maddern Racing team.

“To win it would have been awesome, but to make it to the finals with a new car and all of the engine problems that we ran into, it certainly exceeded our expectations. I think we’re headed in the right direction with it. We’re slowly but surely learning what it likes. What it likes is an aggressive tune-up and it wants to go fast. We’re getting after it at the next one,” Demke said.

Chris started qualifying with a 5.36 at 267 mph, already topping their best run in testing. The performance continued to improve in the second qualifying session, nearing the 5.2s with a 5.34. On the last qualifying run, Demke clicked off a 5.27 at 270 mph, just the fourth full run on the car, to take the #2 slot.

“The first two runs were smooth and easy; nice runs out of the box. There weren’t really any issues with the cars, but I was struggling with my lights. Not that I try hard during qualifying, but my lights were atrocious – a .202 and .299. I went into the final session thinking, ‘I only have one run to figure out what’s going on with me’. I had about 15 minutes of downtime right before the run and I realized that I wasn’t going through my typical mental preparations. Once I realized what I was forgetting, I did my mental preparations, cut a good light, and the car ripped off a 5.278. The whole team was just overjoyed. The car was happy, I was getting comfortable in the car, and the crew had a handle on the tune-up. At that point I knew we were ready to race,” claimed the excitable computer specialist.

For having only a handful of passes on their newly acquired 2002 Uyehara dragster, the Maddern Racing team tuned it up to their standards in a short period. It came as a surprise to Demke how quick the Peen Rite/OSI/801 Racing TAD got up to speed.

“I think it surprised us. Based on how things had gone in Vegas testing – the car not going 30 feet without issues – it brought us back down to Earth. We figured, ‘new car, we know how to do this.’ After the test session, we didn’t have high hopes. Being able to lay down a 5.2 on the fourth full pass, I’d say it did surprise us. It was surprising, but satisfying.”

To start eliminations, Chris drove the Peen Rite rail to a decisive 5.28 first round win over Garrett Bateman. He got around 801 Racing teammate Johnny Ahten in round two, 5.35 to 5.49. The semifinals would see Chris move on to the finals after he beat Don St. Arnaud. Unfortunately the motor nicknamed “Ludwig” would not be moving on with him.

“We name our four blocks: Maximus, Ludwig, Conan, and Ghengis Khan. Maximus was in the car when we won the Finals last year. We did normal service on Maximus and moved it to the new car for Vegas testing and Pomona. So Maximus ran all of qualifying and first round against Garrett Bateman where I ran 5.28, so Maximus was running real well. It rolled a pin on a rod second round against Ahten. Rather than take the head off and change that piston, we decided to put a spare motor in, so we threw Ludwig in. In the semifinals it went into tire shake. I was able to drive through that, then after I pushed it into second I felt it go lame. I shut it off after that, around 1200 feet,” said Chris.

It was hard to abandon the run, but after going through one motor swap already, Demke wanted to avoid more potential problems.

“It’s almost painful. I know I’m supposed to keep my foot on the throttle all the way down the track, but I felt the car going lame,” Chris continues. “I didn’t know what had happened. As I was slowing down, I could smell the burnt oil so I steered the car over towards the wall and came to a stop. I didn’t know what it had run. It ran 5.49 but it felt like a 6.49. When I got out of the car I could see melted shifter air lines and a lot of it was singed, so I knew there was a pretty big flame out the back. Knowing we just went through a motor change, all I could think about was how tired my guys were and if we had enough to fix it. When we got back to the pit, Jerry Maddern and Adam Rhoades already had guys lined up for an engine swap. We were going to throw in our second spare, Conan, but Kevin Watson had the great idea to quickly fix the damaged rod in Maximus. With help from some of the TAFC teams we were able to get Ludwig out of the car and repair Maximus.”

Time was already short before the final round. Unable to start the car and check the timing before their final round meeting with Jim Whiteley, Demke and the crew headed to the starting line unsure what would happen. Amazingly the car clicked off another 5.27. Unfortunately for the Maddern Racing team, Whiteley got a small starting line advantage and ran 5.24 to end their hopes of back-to-back Winternationals victories. Chris is just grateful to the people who helped him and his Peen Rite team turn the car around.

“I really want to thank Bob DeVour and Shane Westerfield’s team, as well as Sean Bellemeur. Bob led the effort to get the rod changed in Maximus and Shane’s guys worked on that while we got the other motor out of the car. Without their help, we wouldn’t have made it up there for the final round,” Demke said with great appreciation