Maddern Racing
Demke Claims Important Vegas Regional Win
LAS VEGAS – Chris Demke’s Top Alcohol Dragster win at last weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil Series West Region event 
in Las Vegas might not seem so special at first glance; a regional event win is a standard accomplishment for a championship team like Maddern Racing. But it really was an important win for Demke and team, as it was their first win in Sin City in five years and they defeated Joey Severance, who previously hadn’t lost a round at The Strip since 2013.
“We struggle at this racetrack all the time and this weekend certainly wasn’t any different. We faced our own challenges and the car never ran as good as I expected it to run, but as it turned out it was good enough,” Demke remarked.
Demke Chasing JEGS Allstars Points at Las Vegas Regional Race
Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. An untimely parts failure resulted in a rare first-round loss for the defending national champion. Demke and the Maddern Racing team will have another shot at The Strip this weekend, though this race will carry more consequences as the team competes at the Lucas Oil Series regional event.
“The last-minute decision to come out to the national event didn’t go as we hoped. The blower came off without a backfire, causing us to lose first round. Clearly it wasn’t what we hoped for, but we’ll pick up the pieces and move on to the regional race. Our main goal is to earn points and hold onto our spot in the JEGS Allstars standings,” said Demke, who qualified No. 2 in the SummitRacing.com Nationals field.
Demke Races to Third Gatornationals Final, Third Final of 2015
GAINESVILLE, FL – Top Alcohol Dragster driver Chris Demke raced to a runner-up finish at the 46th Annual 
NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida last weekend. The Californian driver battled hot conditions all weekend before dropping the final round match to A/Fuel guru Randy Meyer. The final was Demke’s third consecutive money round finish since winning the 2014 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster national championship.
“One thing about our team is we know how to go rounds,” Demke boasted. “I’m so proud of our team. It was a tough weekend and my crew worked extremely hard to get to the finals. I’m a little disappointed that we weren’t able to win the race but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Knowing Randy Meyer ran a 5.21, we really didn’t have anything for him. If the car ran where we had it tuned for, he still would have won.”
Demke Heads to Gainesville with Third Gatornationals Victory in Mind
GAINESVILLE, FL – Chris Demke and the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products Top Alcohol Dragster team have 
headed east in search of their third NHRA Gatornationals victory. The California-based group is eager to add another thrilling chapter to their Gainesville history book, but Mother Nature and a field of east coast competitors won’t make it easy.
Demke, the defending NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster national champion, is off to a strong start in 2015, having won the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona and reaching the final round at the Phoenix regional event, all while bringing on an additional experimental team car. Maddern Racing is back to running as a one-car team this weekend, though the powerful motor from the “X” car is back in Demke’s car, ready to rip off low-5.2 elapsed times at over 270 miles per hour.
Demke Races to Phoenix Regional Final Round
CHANDLER, AZ – Maddern Racing driver Chris Demke added another final round appearance to his national 
championship title defense last weekend at the NHRA West Region event at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. The 2015 Winternationals champion qualified No. 1 and laid down the quickest passes in the first two eliminations rounds before an engine failure stopped him in the final round. Maddern Racing also wrapped up their planned two-race schedule with the experimental “X” car driven by Ray Martin.
“Qualifying went well. We ran a 5.30 out of the box, which was a great baseline. Ray and the X car were right behind me so we were one and two after the first round of qualifying. The crew hopped up my car and once we got a good run on the X car we experimented with some stuff. While the experiment didn’t help the performance on the second run, we did learn a good bit of knowledge on a particular area of the tune-up. With Joey (Severance) ripping off a 5.28, I knew I would need a good run to beat that. We ended up one and four, which meant Ray and I would face each other in the semis if we both won first round,” Demke noted.
Two-Car Maddern Racing Team Rolls on to Phoenix Regional
CHANDLER, AZ – For the second year in a row, Top Alcohol Dragster’s Chris Demke rolls into the Phoenix NHRA 
regional event as the winner of the recent NHRA Winternationals. Though opening the 2015 season with a win provides a confidence boost, Demke and his Maddern Racing team won’t let it get to their heads this weekend at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.
“I would say I’m optimistically cautious,” Demke said. “While Pomona, the end result was great, how the weekend went certainly wasn’t perfect. We had some growing pains running both cars. Last year, while we started out the year with a win at Pomona, things started going downhill at Phoenix. We want to make sure we keep all of our ducks in a row and our performance levels where they should be. We spent the last couple weeks preparing the Peen Rite/Boost Performance Products champ car for Phoenix and going over the X car to see what went wrong. We’ve got a good idea of what failed and we’ve taken the steps to correct it.”
Demke speaks of the engine problem and consequential supercharger backfire on the team’s experimental ‘X’ car driven by Ray Martin in the semifinal at the Winternationals. With a full weekend of data and experience on the X car crew, coming from Clint Thompson’s TA/FC team, Maddern Racing can look ahead to better numbers at Phoenix.
Demke Caps Off Championship Season at 50th Annual Auto Club Finals, NHRA Awards Banquets
POMONA, CA – While Chris Demke didn’t bookend his dream season with a win at the Auto Club NHRA Finals, he did accomplish a few goals 
set for the season finale. Demke and his Peen Rite Top Alcohol Dragster team celebrated their national championship with family and friends, drummed up interest in their spare ‘For Rent’ dragster, and enjoyed some success, qualifying No. 3 and reaching the semifinals. It was a fitting end to a monumental season for the fun-loving, hardworking Maddern Racing team.
“It certainly went well but it didn’t end like we hoped it would,” Demke said of the Finals. “We received numerous inquiries about driving this car next year, which was our goal. While we haven’t signed any deals, we talked with numerous players. Performance-wise, the car ran a few twenties. I think there’s more left in it, we’re just creeping up on it. The chassis is still plenty competitive, as competitive as the championship car.”
SoCal’s Demke, Maddern Racing Return to Pomona as 2014 TAD Champs
POMONA, CA – Chris Demke enters the 50th Annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona with a recently refined, once-retired race car. After a 
series of upgrades, Demke and his Peen Rite team brought an old car to the Las Vegas regional with the goal of finding a quick, consistent tune-up for future competition. The Uyehara-built Top Alcohol Dragster, retired in 2012 and replaced by the 2014 national championship-winning car, performed as anticipated. Demke ran a pair of low five-thirty elapsed times in qualifying, but slowed to lose first round.
“As for getting the bugs ironed out of the car, I would say everything went according to the plan. We tested on Thursday and that was valuable as it gave me some seat time to readjust to this car. The car ran well in qualifying. We just missed on the tune-up going into eliminations. While we got all of the bugs ironed out, we were tuning this car the way we tuned the championship car. I hate losing first round. It was the first time we’ve lost first round in a long time this year, but other than that we accomplished everything we set out to accomplish. Now the car is ready for Pomona this weekend,” Demke claimed.
TAD Champ Demke Testing Retired Car at Vegas Regional for 2015 Title Defense
on their accomplishment. 2014 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champ Chris Demke and his Peen Rite team wouldn’t even consider it. The Jerry Maddern-led team returned from their last race in Reading, PA and almost immediately started preparing one of their old cars for a title defense in 2015. The 2012 Maddern Racing dragster underwent a few updates and will return to the track at the Las Vegas NHRA regional race this weekend.
“We clinched the national championship and locked up the West Region title, so we can start preparing for next year during these next few races. We decided to pull out the car we retired at the end of 2012. That car has been front-halved and re-skinned by Sarmento Race Cars in Sacramento. It’s really the same car, but the new skin has an aerodynamic package – a taller windshield and shroud over the roll cage – that we’re hoping will help add some mile-per-hour. We’ll use these next few races to get that car ready for next year. Either I can drive it or I can go back to the championship car and we can rent the 2012 car to another driver,” hinted Demke.
Demke Sweeps NHRA Nationals Weekend at Maple Grove
MOHNTON, PA – 2014 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster national champion Chris Demke swept the NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway last 
weekend, clinching the championship on Friday, winning the rained-out Carolina Nationals on Saturday and claiming the NHRA Nationals event win on Sunday. The weekend was a fitting end to a whirlwind championship chase that took Demke and the Peen Rite team across the country multiple times since the season started in February.
“This weekend has been indescribable, considering I didn’t even want to go to this race. I feel like a fool for arguing with my crew as they certainly had the right idea coming here and had more confidence in our ability to perform than I did,” Demke admitted.
