Veteran racer Chris Raschke suffered fatal injuries in a catastrophic crash during the second day of Bonneville Speed Week on Sunday afternoon when the legendary streamliner Speed Demon III went airborne at nearly 300 miles per hour. Raschke was making a preliminary pass down Bonneville’s Course Number One around 3 p.m. on August 3 when he left the course near the 2.5-mile mark and crashed. Emergency vehicles responded immediately and Raschke was airlifted off of the course, but he later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased the same day, as confirmed in an official statement from the Southern California Timing Association.
The event was concluded for the day following the crash, and the SCTA say the crash is being investigated for cause, though have not released any details of the circumstances leading to the incident. Speed Week continued on Monday following a thorough cleaning and inspection of the course.
Raschke, 60, was a seasoned land speed record driver, having tripped the beams at 446.716 miles per hour during the 2024 Bonneville Speed Week to win the Hot Rod Magazine Trophy. He’d been a part of the Speed Demon team since 1996, and the salt was well and truly in his blood. As Director of Sales and Marketing at ARP Inc, a position he’s held since 1996, it’s clear that Raschke’s enthusiasm for hot rodding was all-encompassing.
Speed Demons
The Speed Demon team has been the project of hot rodder George Poteet since 2016, making dozens of attempts to finally break the 500-mile per hour barrier. Poteet’s Speed Demon II (above) is the world’s fastest piston-powered car, running a one-way speed of 481 miles per hour. Following George’s untimely death last year, the Poteet family decided the car belonged in a museum. With the Poteet family’s blessing, the team was determined to continue and set about building a new Speed Demon for the 2025 run with Raschke as a tribute to George’s legacy on the salt. The team’s one remaining goal was to win the E motor class record, and that was Chris’ aim for Speed Week this year.
The hot rod community has seen an outpouring of tribute and storytelling dedicated to the late racer on social media. Bonneville bon vivant Brian Lohnes, speaking to Hot Rod Magazine, had this to say about Mr. Raschke: “Chris Raschke was admirable in all the best and truest senses of the word. He was a pillar of an industry, he was a skilled operator of one of the fastest wheel driven cars in history, and he was, like so many of us, fully consumed with cars and the universe around them. As I reflected on his passing yesterday at Bonneville, I kept coming back to admiration as my overriding feeling about who he was… His actions, the pursuit of his passions, and the fact that everyone who knew the guy knew that he carried a love of all things with round wheels and loud engines cemented his place as a true leader by example in the aftermarket.”
“At this time, we ask everyone to please respect Chris’s family, friends, and the Speed Demon team. We are deeply devastated,” reads a post on the team’s Facebook page.
