POMONA, CA – Three-time NHRA Winternationals Top Alcohol Dragster champion Chris Demke is chomping at the bit to fire up his Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products dragster at the season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals this weekend. After finishing fifth in national points last year, Demke enters 2017 at his home race with his same trusty crew and sponsors, and a freshened chassis and new parts.

“Pomona is our team’s home track,” said Demke, a Valencia resident. “It’s always fun to race with all of my hometown fans present to help cheer on the team as we start the season. It’s also always nice to catch up with all of the teams after the offseason, as well as meeting the new drivers who are on the entry list. There’s a strong list of cars entered, so it should be a good, competitive weekend.”

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CONCORD, NC – Maddern Racing Top Alcohol Dragster driver Chris Demke enters this weekend’s NHRA Carolina Nationals as a past event champion, but he’s never actually hoisted a coveted “Wally” trophy at zMAX Dragway. Demke hopes to change that this weekend, though.

“I would love to add Charlotte to the list of racetracks where I’ve won. It’s one of Bruton Smith’s tracks, so it’s an awesome racing facility. It’s the only four-wide dragstrip in the world, and it’s in the heart of racing country. The fans in the Charlotte area are all about any kind of racing, and they love drag racing,” said Demke, who won the 2014 Charlotte event as part of a trifecta weekend during which Demke won the Carolina Nationals, Keystone Nationals, and the NHRA Lucas Oil Series national championship.

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BROWNSBURG, IN – Top Alcohol Dragster veteran Chris Demke entered last weekend’s 62nd annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals with a lot on his mind. Of course he was thinking about winning a second U.S. Nationals title, but he was also trying to shake a mental funk that he picked up after sustaining a dramatic crash at the Seattle regional race just weeks prior. As it turned out, it wouldn’t take long for the past world champion to move past the accident.

Driving Maddern Racing’s spare car, the same car he drove to the 2014 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster world championship, Demke started off U.S. Nationals qualifying with another tense situation. He was already halfway down the Lucas Oil Raceway strip when he realized the steering wheel had become detached from the steering shaft upon launch. The Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products dragster was heading for the left retaining wall as it crossed the finish line at around 90 mph, but Demke took matters into his own hands.

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BROWNSBURG, IN – Less than two weeks ago, Chris Demke was climbing out of his mangled Top Alcohol Dragster chassis after a high-speed crash during the second qualifying session at an NHRA West Region race in Seattle. The crash would’ve put some other teams out of commission for weeks, it not months, but the Maddern Racing team went right to work preparing their spare car for this weekend’s 62nd annual Chevrolet Performance NHRA U.S. Nationals.

Racing at Pacific Raceways’ regional event, Demke was qualified seventh going into the second qualifying session when he encountered traction issues, pedaled a few times, and smacked the wall around the eighth-mile mark. The car then shot sideways across the centerline and hit the right wall, eventually coming to a stop past the finish line.

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KENT, WA – While most of the top NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster teams are racing at the Brainerd national event this weekend, 2014 TAD world champion Chris Demke and the Maddern Racing team will be competing for their fourth consecutive event title at the Pacific Raceways regional event, August 19-21. The decision to race Seattle was an easy call for the California-based driver, who raced to the final round at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways a couple weeks ago.

“We’ve won this race the last three years. We needed some in-region races. We missed out on the Woodburn and Mission races, so we figured we’d hang out in Seattle for the regional race then head east for the U.S. Nationals in Indy,” Demke said.
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JOLIET, IL – Past JEGS Allstars Top Alcohol Dragster champion Chris Demke made the most of his last-minute trip to the Route 66 Nationals last weekend when he drove the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products dragster to another JEGS Allstars win and semifinal finish in the Route 66 Nationals. The Maddern Racing team performed flawlessly in the Allstars race, then worked through traction issues to claim a late-round finish on the national level.

While most of the eight JEGS Allstars competitors earned their spot in the prestigious race, Demke was actually invited as the sixth alternate for the West Region.

“One of the cool things about the Allstars is it’s the best of the best who earned their way there, even though we didn’t earn our way there,” Demke laughed. “With the last-minute invitation to go and our decision to accept that invitation, it was awesome to actually make something of it.”

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JOLIET, IL – As of a few weeks ago, back-to-back-to-back and defending event champion Chris Demke and the Maddern Racing team weren’t planning on racing at this weekend’s K&N Filters NHRA Route 66 Nationals. A last-minute invitation to represent the West Region in the prestigious JEGS Allstars shootout race was all it took to coax the team from their base in Southern California to the heat and humidity of the Chicagoland area.

Demke, the 2012 JEGS Allstars Top Alcohol Dragster champion, wasn’t one of the top two in West Region JEGS Allstars points before the invitation was passed down to him.

“I’m just really excited to be a part of the Allstars race. I wasn’t really the number two guy. I was number six on the list, so it was a real surprise for our team to be going to Chicago. Shawn Cowie pulled out and the division director started calling numbers three, four and five, but nobody wanted to go. It came down to us. Our team really enjoys the JEGS Allstars event. Based on our past performance at this race, we just couldn’t say no,” Demke said.

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MORRISON, CO – After a physically demanding weekend in the Tulsa heat, Chris Demke and the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products Top Alcohol Dragster team were able to add the first event win to their 2016 scorecard last weekend. Demke seeks to pick up another NHRA regional event Wally this weekend as the Maddern Racing team competes at Denver’s Bandimere Speedway for the first time in a decade.

Driving the team’s experimental “X-car”, Demke qualified number two at the NHRA Central Region event at Tulsa Raceway Park with a 5.330 elapsed time at 267 mph.

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TULSA, OK – Chris Demke and the Maddern Racing Top Alcohol Dragster team have raced across the country for over two decades, so it’s not often that the California team pulls into a track they’ve never raced at before. That’s the scenario this week, though, as Demke will compete at the NHRA Central Region event at Tulsa Raceway Park, June 9-12.

“We try to squeeze in a new track every year just to keep us on our toes. We’ve talked with other teams about Tulsa and it sounds like a great facility with a decent racing surface. I don’t think there’s anything different that we do at a new track other than try to enjoy it. It’s like taking a vacation to a place you’ve never been to before. There’s always some added fun and excitement to it,” said Demke, the 2014 TAD world champion.

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TOPEKA, KS – A strong qualifying effort and semifinal finish was the result for Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Chris Demke at the NHRA Kansas Nationals last weekend. The Maddern Racing team kicked off the Midwest portion of their 2016 season at the Heartland Park Topeka event, where Demke qualified number two with a 5.26 et at 272 mph.

“We were happy to start off the weekend with a 5.28 off the trailer for the provisional number one spot. The blower belt came off for reasons other than the blower belt failing on its own on the second run. Then to run the 5.26 and holding on to the number two spot behind Megan [Meyer] after final qualifying, we couldn’t have been happier – well, unless we were number one,” Demke laughed.

The Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products blown alcohol dragster moved on to the first round of eliminations to face Kansas local Gary Cooper. Demke again lost the blower belt, but Cooper handed the win to the Peen Rite team when he left before the green light came on. Demke’s second-round opponent, James Stevens, also red-lit, but Demke was ready for a race with a 5.324 at 268 mph performance.

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