MOHNTON, Pa. (October 5) – When a fan or fellow competitor mentions Chris Demke's name in the same sentence as Top Alcohol Dragster champions like Bill Reichert or Duane Shields, the excited yet humble Californian doesn't always realize he's reached that status. He came close multiple times in the last few years, finishing second in national points after three of the last four seasons. Now a few days after he won the delayed semifinal race from Charlotte, therefore clinching the title, the reality is starting to set in for Demke; he's the 2014 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster world champion.
“After winning the championship on Friday night, I still had to think about winning the Charlotte race and now I'm still thinking about the Maple Grove race. While we did celebrate the championship on Friday night, I haven't had time to relax and think about the accomplishment. It could've been a larger celebration, but we knew we still had two races left to win,” Demke noted.
The road to the 2014 national championship started at Maddern Racing's home track, Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, where Demke won the season-opening Circle K Winternationals. National event wins followed at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 Nationals in Chicago, the historic Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, and most recently the Carolina Nationals from Charlotte, completed this weekend at the NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa. Demke also amassed an impressive four consecutive Lucas Oil Series regional event wins during his championship season.
“I was on top of the world after we won Pomona. I didn't want to admit it and I knew it was far too early in the season to think about it, but I thought that championship would be easy at that point. Our performance was great. I knew there would be some tough competition. Then we fell into a slump. I never had a situation where things were going so well then went so bad so quickly. After the next few races we parked the car because we were hurting too many parts and we didn't know what was wrong. We took six weeks to debug the car and went on the road to Topeka to essentially treat it as a test to see if we fixed the problem. Our performance wasn't great but we weren't hurting parts. We went to Acton, Montana's regional and things just went well from there.
“I wasn't even looking at points after Vegas. I had given up any chance or hope of winning a championship this year. Even after Topeka I thought we had missed too much time. It really didn't seem that we had the chance at such a comeback but lo and behold we went to Acton and ended up beating Joey Severance in the final, giving me a little glimmer of hope. The tear we've been on since then has just been incredible. I try to make every race fun, but when you can throw as many Wallys as we've brought home into the mix, it's been extremely fun. Adam (Rhoades, tuner) always says after we win a race that 'we're at the top of the mountain looking down and it's good.' Well we're at the top of the tallest mountain; we've climbed the Everest of drag racing and we're looking down and it's good,” added Demke.
“We fought back from the highest high to the lowest low. It was a testament to the team. We never lost focus and we knew we could make it happen, we just had to put our nose to the grindstone and we did. We honestly have made no mistakes in the last four or five months. The crew has been flawless, Chris' driving has improved tremendously since the Seattle national and it all came together when it had to at the right time,” Rhoades claimed.
With the championship pressure out of the way, Chris Demke and the Jerry Maddern-owned Peen Rite/Operational Solutions Inc./Boost Performance Products team are really swinging for the fences. During first round of eliminations for the NHRA Nationals on Saturday, Demke ripped off the quickest blown alcohol dragster pass of the season, a 5.217 at a booming 277.94 miles per hour. The run ranks fourth on the all-time list of quickest blown alcohol runs in NHRA history. The speed is the fastest ever for a supercharged, methanol-burning dragster.
“I knew after the 5.29 (during Charlotte eliminations) that if it didn't shake and Chris didn't have to pedal it the performance would be there. I honestly think there's more left. I think if it sticks, if it makes it to a hundred feet, it'll go in the teens. It actually has a lot left early so we'll see what happens,” said Rhoades.
Chris Demke and the Peen Rite team look to improve their career-best numbers and dip into the elusive five-teen zone today during the continuation of eliminations for the NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. Demke will face A/Fuel driver Jeff Veale in the second round.
Maddern Racing is a family-owned and operated NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster team based in Southern California. The team's Chris Demke-driven Peen Rite/Operational Solutions/Boost Performance Products blown alcohol dragster is owned by Jerry Maddern and crewed by Adam Rhoades, Kevin Watson, Mike Demke, Greg Rice, and Robert Hadaller. For more information on Chris Demke and Maddern Racing, please visit www.MaddernRacing.com.
Maddern Racing receives support from the following companies: Peen Rite Inc., Operational Solutions Inc., Boost Performance Products, B-G Detection, Afco, LA X-Ray, Jet-Lube, and Morningwood Energy Drink.
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