MOHNTON, PA – Chris Demke’s last visit to rural Pennsylvania’s Maple Grove Raceway was a once-in-a-lifetime weekend that ended with two national event wins and a Top Alcohol Dragster national championship. Though he’ll only be racing for the NHRA Keystone Nationals victory this weekend, and the national championship is far from decided, Demke and his Peen Rite team are still excited for this weekend’s race.

“The term ‘Maple Grove’ gives me chills when I think about what we were able to pull off at this event last year,” Demke says. “Securing the national championship and winning the rained-out Charlotte race and the Maple Grove event was a once-in-a-lifetime event. While I don’t think the stars are aligned to create that same type of excitement this weekend, I always look forward to going to this track. It’s fast, it’s fun and it’s a great group of people.”

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BROWNSBURG, IN – Top Alcohol Dragster national points leader Chris Demke enters the prestigious 61st Annual Chevrolet Performance NHRA U.S. Nationals as the defending event and world champion, but he isn’t overly confident heading into the sport’s most storied race. Demke’s performance at his last two races in Seattle provided a reminder that no matter the number on the wing or amount of Wallys in the trophy case, anything can happen when it comes to 3,500-horsepower racecars.

“It was a shock,” Demke said of a first-round loss at the NHRA Northwest Nationals last month. “It was a round we should have won, but we swapped engines after the last round of qualifying and a small bolt didn’t get tightened in assembly. It didn’t show up in the warm-up, but it certainly got our attention at the one-two shift when it shut the car off. The only thing damaged was our team’s ego.”

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KENT, WA – Red-hot NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Chris Demke is back on the west coast after a dominant Midwest tour, which ended with a total of three race wins in four attempts. Demke, who leads the NHRA Lucas Oil Series national points, is set to compete in the NHRA Northwest Nationals near Seattle, with full knowledge that he’ll face competitors and conditions he hasn’t seen in months.

“No doubt the last few races have given us great momentum but you can never take it for granted. As we head back west we’re going to be facing a whole different set of players, each presenting their own challenges. We’re leaving the heat and humidity of the Midwest and heading back to the oxygen-rich Northwest. We traditionally run well at Seattle. I have high expectations for our car’s performance, and we’re going to need it because we’re going to run head-to-head with our strongest competitor, Joey Severance,” noted the Peen Rite-sponsored driver.

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HEBRON, OH – An “old-school” tuning strategy paid off for Chris Demke and the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products Top Alcohol Dragster team last weekend. Racing on a hot, tricky surface at National Trail Raceway, Demke defeated three of the hottest A/Fuel dragsters in the Midwest despite a broken data recorder. He scored his second NHRA Lucas Oil Series regional event win of his national championship defense season to maintain his position as national points leader.

“It was a tough weekend,” Demke admitted. “The track surface was over 120 degrees through qualifying – very slick conditions and our car shook the tires every round of qualifying. We tried everything and just couldn’t get a handle on it. We actually had to go so far out of our tuning window that we had to pull out our log book from 2006 to find a tune-up for the conditions. We went old-school.”

Adding to the weekend’s old-school theme was the lack of data. The car’s on-board data recorder shut off upon launch during the second qualifying session. The team was unable to fix the recorder, so they resorted to manually noting as much as possible. The crew read the spark plugs after each run and attached a GoPro camera to the car to keep an eye on wheelspeed.

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HEBRON, OH – NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Chris Demke has to be feeling good as his Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products team rolls into National Trail Raceway for the Buckeye Fuel Wars NHRA North Central Region event this weekend. Demke is the defending event champion, and he recently won the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals just up the road in Norwalk, Ohio, as well as the Route 66 NHRA Nationals near Chicago last weekend.

“I should be calm, cool and collected but I feel anything but that,” Demke revealed. “I have a lot of stuff going on at home; work is very busy and I’m in the middle of buying a house. Lo and behold I have to go racing in the middle of it all. It’s never easy and kind of a distraction at times but I’m sure once I get on the plane and start heading toward Columbus my focus will come.”

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JOLIET, IL – It’s easy to see why Route 66 Raceway is one of Chris Demke’s favorite tracks, as the California driver has enjoyed plenty of success at the Chicagoland facility in the recent past. Demke’s reign at Route 66 continued last weekend when he won his third consecutive NHRA Route 66 Nationals Top Alcohol Dragster title.

The weekend started out with a very strong qualifying effort. Demke was qualified No. 3 with a 5.300 elapsed time after the first two sessions, which also put him in the two spot for JEGS Allstars eliminations. Demke drove the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products dragster to a 5.289 blast in the first round of Allstars competition, but fellow West Region qualifier Joey Severance used a .013 reaction time and 5.324 et to take the holeshot win.

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JOLIET, IL – Chris Demke’s trophy case contains just about every award a NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver can earn; national and regional event Wallys, a JEGS Allstars trophy, and even a Lucas Oil Series national championship Wally. However, he was missing the coveted billet ice cream scoop that comes with a win at the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals. After a long, hot race day in rural Ohio, Demke and the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products team earned their ice cream scoop.

“It was awesome to see the size of the crowd and the general excitement of the fans at Norwalk, and what a great show the Bader family puts on. It was just so wonderful to be a part of that. I even told Mr. Bader when he presented me that ice cream scoop, ‘Don’t get me wrong; Wallys are great and I definitely need the points, but I came here for the ice cream scoop,’ and that’s what we left with. That was a very satisfying accomplishment,” said Demke, the defending Lucas Oil Series Top Alcohol Dragster world champion.

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NORWALK, OH – NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Chris Demke has some unfinished business to settle when he gets to Summit Motorsports Park for the 9th Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals this weekend. The California native is scheduled to complete the final round from the Chicago regional race during qualifying for the Norwalk national event, adding another level of excitement to the Fourth of July weekend.

Back at Route 66 Raceway’s NHRA North Central region event in June, Demke qualified the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products dragster in the No. 2 spot before scoring round wins over John Paul Gutierrez and Jake Sanders. He’ll face Mia Tedesco in the Hirata family’s A/Fuel dragster in the final round, set to take place during the third qualifying session at the Summit Nationals.

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JOLIET, IL – Chris Demke and his Maddern Racing teammates don’t usually dwell on the last race’s performance, but the California racer is especially ready to forget the last race and move on to this weekend’s Burndown at Sundown NHRA regional race at Route 66 Raceway. Demke is still hurting over a first-round loss at the Kansas Nationals, so he sees this weekend as a chance to redeem himself.

“I just failed on the starting line and gave away an opportunity to go rounds and earn more points. I was racing against a torque converter-equipped car, and the required staging process for one of those cars just distracted me. The fact is I don’t have enough experience racing converter cars. I certainly don’t blame the guy in the other lane; he didn’t do anything wrong. There is enough of a difference in the staging procedure of a converter car compared to that of an A/Fuel or blown clutch car that it distracted me. It was a good learning opportunity and I’ll be better prepared for the next time I line up against a converter car,” Demke said.

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TOPEKA, KS – NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster national points leader Chris Demke and his Peen Rite team are kicking off their 2015 Midwest tour this weekend at the NHRA Kansas Nationals in Topeka. The four-time Topeka finalist is seeking his elusive first Kansas Nationals Wally, and with Heartland Park Topeka’s future in jeopardy, this might be his last chance.

“[Tuner] Adam Rhoades texted me a couple weeks before the race and said, ‘Looks like this could be the end of the Topeka event, we’re gonna have to win it,’ so we’ve got our marching orders. I’ve been to the finals here plenty of times, but I’ve yet to win the national event. We went to the regional event for the first time last year and won. We know how to win at this track. We just haven’t been able to put together the four runs necessary to win the Kansas Nationals,” Demke admitted.

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