Maddern Racing prepares for 2010 Season Opener

MADDERN RACING PREPARES FOR 2010 SEASON OPENER

Sun Valley, CA – Maddern Racing headquarters is busy with activity as the crew of the Peen Rite Top Alcohol Dragster prepares for the start of the upcoming 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing series. The season officially begins Thursday, February 11th at the 50th Anniversary Kragen O’Reilly NHRA WinterNationals. The event will be hosted by the Auto Club Raceway at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA.

What’s new for 2010? A fresh new website at www.maddernracing.com! Maddern Racing has teamed up with the web gurus and artists at RaceCar.com to create a visually vibrant and informative site. Be sure to stop by, take a look and bookmark the page. Sign up for the Maddern Racing Team Newsletter and track the exploits of Jerry and the team as they travel the NHRA circuit. Download a cool Maddern Racing background for your computer or simply leave a note in the guestbook.

As for the racecar, “We have made only a few, small performance changes to our racing combo. Most of our time has been spent installing the new safety equipment NHRA has mandated for 2010” indicated Kevin Watson, crew member of Team Peen. One of the more costly and complex devices now required is the “SB-001” manufactured by Electrimotion, Inc. The SB-001 or “Safety Box” kills the ignition, turns off the fuel pump and deploys the parachutes in the event of an engine explosion.

Another new requirement is a much larger (6.75 gal) oil catch can, or “puke tank”. “There isn’t very much room left in that area of the chassis” explained Jerry Maddern, Crew Chief and owner of the Peen Rite Top Alcohol Dragster. “We’ll get something squeezed in back there.” Other additions include a cable from the rear wing to the parachutes. This deploys the ‘chutes if the wing were to become detached from the car.

“It was nice to have some time off” stated Chris Demke, driver for Maddern Racing. “We went to sixteen races plus a test session for seventeen weekends of racing in 2009. It was quite a year!” Demke and the Peen Rite Dragster finished in 7th place at the conclusion of the 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing season. This was a tie for Maddern Racing’s 2nd best season, also finishing 7th in 2004. In 1999 the team finished 4th with Darren Nicholson driving to three National and two Divisional wins.

The 2010 season opener at Pomona will once again see Maddern Racing team up with Mike Austin and the LAD Automotive Top Alcohol Dragster. “We are loaning Mike one of our spare engines” said Jerry. “His Uyehara chassis is very similar to ours and should run well at Pomona. Having information from both cars each run should be helpful.” Austin once drove for Maddern Racing, filling in for an injured Demke. He won 3 straight events and earned 2006 Top Alcohol Driver of the Year.

Qualifying for the WinterNationals begins Thursday, Feburary 11th. 1st round of qualifying for Top Alcohol Dragster will be at 1:30 pm, with 2nd and 3rd round scheduled for Friday, February 12th at 1:30pm and 4:30pm. 1st round of eliminations will be Saturday afternoon, February 13th at 1:30 pm. Tickets are available at www.nhra.com .

For more information about Chris Demke and Jerry Maddern’s Top Alcohol Dragster team please send email to info@maddernracing.com .

Courtesy of Chris Demke