INDIANAPOLIS – Drydene continued its support of grassroots racing on Thursday by announcing a sponsorship agreement with Scott Bloomquist Racing during the PRI Trade Show.
The agreement will see Drydene become the primary sponsor of Chris Madden’s No. 0M and a major sponsor of team owner Scott Bloomquist’s No. 0.
Both competitors will race full-time with the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series, beginning with the season-opening event Jan. 3-5 at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park.
Madden, who began driving for Scott Bloomquist Racing earlier this year after parting ways with Skyline Motorsports, narrowly missed out on the series championship two years ago and is hoping to turn the sponsorship agreement with Drydene into his first national touring title.
“This is a big step for us. We really appreciate Dave (Klinger of Drydene) and his company coming on board to make it happen,” said Madden. “Ever since we started this deal (with Bloomquist) we’ve been trying to figure out what we’re going to do. That seemed to be the question every week. Are we going to build cars? Am I going to continue to race as a team with them or am I going back out on my own?
“It was kind of up in the air and then when this deal came on board it just kind of answered all the questions,” Madden said. “Thanks to Drydene for coming on and helping us figure out what we’re going to do.”
Bloomquist, who was not present for the announcement Thursday in Indianapolis because of a scheduling conflict, won the 2004 series championship in his most recent full season with the tour. The winner of more than 600 features has been a regular with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for the last several seasons.
“It’s exciting,” Bloomquist said in a press release. “I have such a high-percentage win ratio for my first visits to tracks. It’s in the 70-some percent. There’s a number of tracks I haven’t been to, and I like that, that’s exciting to me. If I can come back and pull off a championship that would be awesome. Hopefully one of us will.”
Drydene has been heavily involved in motorsports sponsorship for the last two years. The company is the primary sponsor of Shark Racing drivers Logan Schuchart and Jacob Allen in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series. The company also sponsored Brent Larson in the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series and Corey LaJoie during a NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway this year.
It was announced last week that Drydene would also sponsor Ricky Weiss for the full World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series schedule next year, giving Drydene three opportunities to claim the series championship as a sponsor with Weiss, Madden and Bloomquist.
Dave Klinger, president of Drydene Performance Products, explained that they saw a synergy between Scott Bloomquist Racing and Shark Racing that made working with the Bloomquist camp an easy decision.
“You have Bobby Allen, who is a legendary, and then you have Logan (Schuchart), who has been racing real well as a contender. He’s contending all the time to win. Then you have Jacob (Allen) looking for that first win,” Klinger explained. “When we started looking at it and we had an interest at looking who we were going to team with, it all started coming together.
“Scott Bloomquist, who is obviously still racing, but is very much like Bobby Allen. He’s a legend in the sport. You have Chris Madden, who is looking for that first national series championship, as is Logan. Then you have Ricky, who is new to the World of Outlaws and this level racing and hasn’t won with the World of Outlaws. We said wow, there is such a parallel with Shark Racing and Scott Bloomquist Racing.”