One of our customers on the other side of the pond - Chris Demke of Maddern Racing - gets the job done in Minnesota:
Zero to Hero in Brainerd!!!
Brainerd, MN – Jerry Maddern, Chris Demke and the crew of the Peen Rite Top Alcohol Dragster went on the offensive, winning the ‘Thunder at the Lakes’ Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Division 5 event at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota. The Peen Rite sponsored Top Alcohol Dragster ran an impressive 5.32 at 269 mph to take on Scott Palmer of Marionville, Missouri in the final round.
The team started off qualifying on Friday with a tire shaking 5.43. Unfortunately the motor broke an exhaust valve at the finish line, causing extensive damage. “We had to change the piston and sleeve on cylinder #2 and both heads” explained crewman Mike Demke. The team worked into Friday evening to prepare for Saturday’s qualifying runs.
The weather heated up on Saturday making for challenging track conditions. “We ran 5.42 on Q2 and Q3 on Saturday.” stated driver Chris Demke.”That put us in the #2 qualifying position. The dragster shook the tires again on both of these runs as well. We knew that if we could fix the tune-up and eliminate the tire shake we could drop our ET by 0.05 seconds. At least we hadn’t hurt any more parts!!!”
Sunday eliminations saw the weather change drastically as a cold front moved in. 1st round saw Demke matched up with Randy Meyer of Spring Hill, Kansas. Both cars left the starting line together but Jerry Maddern’s horsepower propelled Demke to the finish line first with an impressive 5.37 at 265 mph. “The dragster shook the tires again” explained crewman Adam Rhoades. “but the cooling air temperature helped our engine combo make more power!”
2nd round pitted Demke against Ed Schmeekle of Gothenburg, Nebraska. The Peen Rite dragster showed amazing consistency, once again running into tire shake yet once again running 5.37 at 265 mph for the round win. “We couldn’t figure out if our tune-up was too soft or too aggressive. It didn’t matter, we were still winning rounds!” stated Rhoades.
The final round paired the Peen Rite dragster against #1 qualifier Scott Palmer driving Doug Doucette’s injected nitro dragster. Palmer left the starting line first, but Jerry Maddern’s superior horsepower enabled Demke to catch the nitro powered dragster by the 330’ mark and continue on for the win. “We stepped up our performance big time in the final!!” exclaimed Demke. “After last weekend’s epic failure in Topeka my expectations for this event were not very high. Running low E.T (5.326) and top speed (269.83 MPH) of the meet in the final round capped off an excellent weekend!”
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