Billings Regional Victory has Demke Primed for Route 66 Nationals Weekend

Billings Regional Victory has Demke Primed for Route 66 Nationals Weekend

BILLINGS, Mont. (June 24) – Chris Demke is leaving Yellowstone Dragstrip with another Wally, as he claimed the NHRA West Region event title over Joey Severance on Sunday night. The win was Demke's second Billings victory and the third for his Maddern Racing team. Securing their second win of the season was a helpful morale boost as the California team heads east for the Route 66 Nationals and Jegs Allstars race in Chicago.

Demke and the Peen Rite/OSI/Boost Performance Products blown alcohol dragster swept the Billings event, qualifying No. 1 with a 5.48 and winning the final round with a quicker 5.45 over Ynot Racing driver Joey Severance. While the win on-track was certainly important, Demke is also happy about the small victories in the mechanical department.

“With Topeka and Billings, that's two weekends in a row where we haven't hurt parts. We aren't out of the woods yet, but that's a good sign that we have a handle on the parts attrition issue that was affecting the team earlier in the season,” Chris said, giving credit to his team owner. “I have to hand it to Jerry Maddern; he's the glue that holds this team together. Without him we wouldn't be out here having all of this fun. We had some tough times earlier in the season, but Jerry's patience and perseverance have put us back on what appears to be the right track.”

Chris Demke and the Peen Rite/Operation Solutions/Boost Performance Products Top Alcohol Dragster team will next race at the O'Reilly Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway near Chicago, June 27-29. In addition to national event competition, Chris will compete in the prestigious Jegs Allstars race, a specialty race containing eight of the best drivers and teams in Top Alcohol Dragster.

“I really get excited about the Jegs Allstars event. I'm very appreciative that Jegs sponsors this event. Ever since our team started drag racing back in 1993, the Allstars race has always seemed like a big, prestigious thing to me. I never imagined that I would qualify for the Allstars, much less win it like we did in 2012. Then we won the national event last year, and came within thousandths of a second of doubling up,” Demke recalled.

The addition of the Jegs Allstars competition adds two rounds of racing onto a typical seven-run weekend. In order to reach the finals in both the Allstars and Route 66 Nationals eliminations, Chris and the Maddern Racing team would need to make two qualifying runs, three rounds of Allstars eliminations, and four national event eliminations runs.

“That's one thing about the Jegs Allstars weekend; it's two races in one. It really tests the limits of your crew and your equipment. You've gotta have a good, stable tune-up. If you're constantly swapping parts you'll wear out your crew. So you want to run your car as hard and fast as you can, but you have to consider parts attrition and the human aspect, as well. For the driver, it's just that much more fun,” joked Demke, who is making his seventh Jegs Allstars appearance.

The Peen Rite/OSI/Boost Performance Products team will receive qualifying sessions at noon and 3:30 PM on Friday to set their position for Saturday's Jegs Allstars race, which begins at 1 PM after driver introductions at noon. Route 66 Nationals Top Alcohol Dragster eliminations begin at 9 AM on Sunday.

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/Operational Solutions/Boost Performance Products blown alcohol dragster is owned by Jerry Maddern and crewed by Adam Rhoades, Kevin Watson, Mike Demke, Greg Rice, 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., Operational Solutions Inc., Boost Performance Products, B-G Detection, Afco, and LA X-Ray.