WOODBURN, OR – Racing at Woodburn Dragstrip’s Fall Classic NHRA regional event, Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Chris Demke reached his fourth regional final round, where he fell short to first-time winner Garrett Bateman. The runner-up finish also moved him within striking distance of the West Region championship going into the Las Vegas event next month.

Demke qualified his Peen Rite/OSI/Boost Performance Products dragster in the second spot during shortened two-shot qualifying. Local driver Gregg Lawrence would be his first round opponent.

“Going into first round, we were the last pair. We watched every other top-half car lose ahead of us. Joey Severance blew it up, No. 1 qualifier Shawn Cowie couldn’t get his car backed up, and Ray Martin’s car had a bad crank trigger. So I’m thinking, ‘what’s going to go wrong here?’ All of this was happened in our lane, so Adam (Rhoades, tuner) was even considering swapping lanes because of bad juju in the right lane,” Chris laughed. The team stuck with their lane and easily won with a 5.38.

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WOODBURN, OR – Chris Demke enters Woodburn Dragstrip’s 28^th Annual Fall Classic NHRA LODRS regional series event with momentum following a No. 1 qualifying position and runner-up finish at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Chris reached the finals at the last three regional events he entered, winning the third in Seattle. One of those races was the first of two regional events held at Woodburn – he lost to returning star Shawn Cowie. His Maddern Racing team caught the problem that cost them the race, and they’re poised to repeat their 2012 victory at this event.

“I don’t want the good times we had at Indy to cloud my view but Indy went well and the Seattle regional went well. However, the car was shaking the tires the last time we were at Woodburn. While we’ve had some recent success, we need to keep our focus on what we need to do to get the car down the track at Woodburn,” Demke said, who won here last year with a 5.27 to 5.40 victory over Jim Whiteley.

“We learned some things at Seattle and Indy. We found a clutch problem at Seattle, which helped at both Seattle and Indy. We need to see if we can apply what we learned there and make it work at Woodburn.”

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CLERMONT, IN– Top Alcohol Dragster’s Chris Demke added another runner-up finish to his 2013 bid at the national championship, this time reaching the finals at the legendary 59^th Annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. The classic Labor Day meet was Demke’s sixth runner-up of the year.

Chris drove the Peen Rite/OSI/Boost Performance Products blown alcohol dragster to the No. 1 qualifying position during the final qualifying session after two consecutive low 5.4-second runs. His “Hail Mary” 5.33 put him on top of the U.S. Nationals qualifying order, which included twenty four cars from around the country.

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CLERMONT, IN – Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Chris Demke returns this week to the site of his team’s first national event win, the legendary U.S. Nationals. The Maddern Racing driver has won some of the sport’s most historic events, but a Wally from “The Big Go” has eluded him.

“This is it – this is ‘The Big Go’. Certainly the Pomona races – the Winternationals and the World Finals – are great races, and I’ve won both of those, but Indy is the one that everybody wants to win. I would love to add a U.S. Nationals trophy to my trophy case this weekend. To have won Indy is almost as big as winning a championship – not quite, but almost,” Chris claimed.

A win at this year’s 59^th Annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals would be the second Big Go victory for the California-based team. Though it would be Chris’ first as the driver of the Peen Rite/OSI/Boost Performance Products dragster, it would be his second as a member of Maddern Racing.

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SEATTLE, WA – Maddern Racing driver Chris Demke returns to Seattle’s Pacific Raceways this weekend to improve on his second round exit at the Northwest Nationals held at the picturesque race track just weeks ago. His Peen Rite/Operational Solutions/Cleanboost Oil Top Alcohol Dragster team knows what went wrong, and they’re ready to make things right at the NHRA LODRS regional event.

“Everything was going good. The car was running great. We just missed the tune-up second round against (Shawn) Cowie. We were too conservative and our time showed the results. No parts breakage. What we tuned it to run was not what we needed to win the round,” Chris said. He qualified third and took a decisive first round win over Jeff Ashwell before falling to eventual race winner Shawn Cowie in a 5.29 to 5.37 match.

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SEATTLE, WA – Top Alcohol Dragster points leader Chris Demke returns to Seattle’s Pacific Raceways this weekend to defend his O’Reilly Northwest Nationals title. Chris won last year’s event in one of the sport’s most bizarre final rounds, where he defeated rival Jim Whiteley in an 11.37 to 11.76 race – a few seconds slower than their typical 5.2-second elapsed times.

“I guess that’s a final round that will go down in history. Jim and I both crossed the finish line at over eleven seconds with our parachutes out. It was a very helpless feeling. I knew my motor blew up. Typically when that happens you just watch the other guy go by you to take the win. As I coasted down the track,  I felt the parachutes blossom I and pushed in the clutch. I realized that Jim wasn’t going by me. The motor blew up at three seconds into the run so that means I coasted for eight seconds. That was eight of the longest seconds of my life. I crossed the finish line and saw my win light come on, and then just exploded into laughter. I had no idea what happened but I won the race and that’s all that mattered at that point,” Chris recalled.

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WOODBURN, OR – It took a little guesswork and a little good luck, but Chris Demke and his Peen Rite/Operational Solutions Top Alcohol Dragster team reached their seventh final round of the season, this time at Oregon’s Woodburn Dragstrip. The points-leading blown alcohol dragster was consistent throughout eliminations, but it didn’t have enough to beat Shawn Cowie, who stepped foot in his race car for the first time since a serious motorcycle accident two years ago.

Demke qualified his Maddern Racing entry in the No. 2 spot despite persistent tire shake, running a best of 5.39 at 270 MPH. The car’s on-board data recorder reached its breaking point on the final qualifying run, leaving tuner Adam Rhoades and the crew to tune the car based on what they saw from the starting line.

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WOODBURN, OR – Last year’s Woodburn regional Top Alcohol Dragster runner-up Chris Demke returns to Woodburn Dragstrip to make a run for the Les Schwab Tires Challenge NHRA regional event title. Demke, who just won the Route 66 Nationals two weeks ago, is still winless on the 2013 regional tour after debuting a new car at the beginning of the season.

“Our team’s confidence is very high after winning the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago. We proved that we can win with the new car. I think we can go on a winning streak. While I got the national event monkey off my back this year, now I need to get the regional monkey off my back. We’ve got what it takes to do it,” said the excitable California driver, who also reached the Jegs Allstars final at Chicago.

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JOLIET, IL –  After five final round appearances, Top Alcohol Dragster pilot Chris Demke and his Jerry Maddern-owned team were able to break through to earn their first race win of the 2013 season. In addition to winning the Route 66 Nationals, Demke reached the prestigious Jegs Allstars final round for the second year in a row.

Demke qualified No. 2 for the Allstars event, lining him up with East Region representative Dan Mercier first round. Chris ran 5.322 to move around Mercier. The first round run also counted as the Allstars competitors’ final qualifying session, so Demke’s 5.32 put him in the No. 4 spot going into national event eliminations. Semifinal opponent Randy Meyer was shut off just before launch, giving the Maddern Racing team a free run into the finals. Chris’ 5.31 gave him lane choice over Bill Reichert. Reichert pulled out his quickest run of the weekend (5.319), defeating Demke’s close 5.327.

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