Motorsports legends fill a variety of halls of fame. However, the PRI Hall of Fame is a little bit different. All inductees have contributed greatly to motorsports, but these individuals have also highly impacted PRI in such ways that we owe tremendous gratitude to their accomplishments that excelled the brand to its place today. This second PRI Hall of Fame class consists of Scooter Brothers, Chris Raschke and John Kilroy.
Chris Raschke was all things motorsports. He cherished his ARP family and was always seeking opportunities to promote the fastener brand. He expanded the company's reach to include aerospace, numerous segments of motorsports, and various industrial applications. He was always thinking "ARP first."
As part of his love for racing, he became involved with the Speed Demon race team through Kenny Duttweiler and George Poteet. One of Raschke's most proud accomplishments was earning the Bonneville Black Hat by breaking the 400-mph barrier on the salt flats of Bonneville.
Read the full profile on Chris Raschke that originally appeared in the March/April 2026 issue of PRI Magazine below:
It is doubtful, very doubtful, that anyone who knew Chris Mark Raschke would disagree that the man was the connective, human embodiment of the ARP racing fasteners he sold. His dynamic, superpower skills were illuminated by problems, anybody's problems, which fired up his unquenchable solution aptitude.
Even if Raschke, as ARP Director of Sales and New Products, did not himself have the solution, he did have hundreds of associates throughout motorsports, engineering, and manufacturing who certainly did.
Raschke's address book mostly existed in his instant-recall cranium. Odds are this industry titan may have developed relationships with more people in motorsports than any other single person on the planet.
Why? He made things happen for everybody.
Raschke was a predictable, reliable whirlwind from which one stood back and then watched in awe. Always interesting. Always useful, he delivered with a full-face grin under energetic eyes.
So valued, industry big shots answered his calls, intrigued by how they might help him. Drawing from his extensive, broad-based knowledge bank, Raschke routinely paired people with other people he believed they needed to know.
If he invited you to dinner, you sat where he told you to park yourself. His seating charts made magic crackle into an "opus wowza" few saw coming.
Never hesitating to fly across the country for a client meeting, small task, or odd job, and then, mission fulfilled, he'd fly back home the same day. Who does that?
He learned who not to sell to when they didn't hold up their end of the bargain without an honest explanation.
Raschke saw beyond the motorsports market, recognizing that anything in need of a strong fastener was a potential ARP customer. It's why many airport handrails are put together with ARP fasteners today.
Prominent people in motorsports and the performance industry earn their fame with checkered flags, podium finishes, and speed records.
They all start somewhere.
Problem Solver
Ventura Raceway Promoter Jim Naylor's first employee was 16-year-old California native Raschke, who was already baptized in oil baths, scorched pistons, and buckets of blown-to-bits motor parts.
"A friend who knew the Raschke brothers suggested I hire Chris because he knew how to drive a tractor," said Naylor, adding Chris's racing began astride three-wheelers, then mini stockers at the Raceway.
"When he left the Raceway to work for Margie and Kenny Duttweiler, it changed his life and led him to ARP," observed Naylor. "Chris saw firsthand the issues racers faced. He was constantly on the lookout for how to do something better and earned all the high respect that he was given. The performance industry was his life."
Naylor, an accomplished sign and graphic designer, later worked with him on ARP racing projects and made many improvements to Ventura Raceway thanks to the ARP sponsorship Raschke provided.
"I always helped him as a dad would help a son and got a hug every time he left my shop," Naylor said.
On September 26, 2026, Naylor will host the 85th running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix for USAC midgets sponsored by ARP. The victor goes home with the ARP Chris Raschke Memorial Trophy, designed and built by Naylor.
Raschke spent seven years at Duttweiler Performance in Ventura, California, yet remained involved in countless ways for more than a decade after joining ARP in nearby Santa Paula.
Here he met his first wife, Kenna Duttweiler, with whom he raised three children: Kenneth, Kristoph, and Carley.
Engine wizard Kenny Duttweiler summed up Raschke this way: "He was an energetic, make-it-happen guy who often used solutions to problems to create new performance products."
When Duttweiler was busily transforming hundreds of Buick Grand Nationals into 1,000-plus-horsepower torque monsters, Raschke emerged as a company lynchpin of creative productivity, working on every aspect of the powertrain.
When a modification of Duttweiler's for a Pontiac GTA intercooler needed a bigger, 2.5-inch radius elbow neck at one end, Raschke procured farming irrigation tubing to prove the concept before getting a pattern made and oversaw multiple foundry production batches.
"Over 10 years we probably sold more of those intercoolers than General Motors sold Buicks," chuckled the delighted Duttweiler. "If Chris noticed we needed something, he would figure out how to make it. He repeatedly found advantages to make tomorrow faster and more profitable, dreaming up a new gadget or part. I can't tell you how many times he got things done before I ever thought about assigning him the task."
Duttweiler marveled at his unquenchable competitiveness. In the pits on the Bonneville Salt Flats between speed attempts, both men would be wrenching hard on the Speed Demon streamliner race engine in their pit.
Cylinder heads off, Raschke would regularly challenge Duttweiler to see who could refit the head back into place first. Duttweiler's engines, as well as the car, were a masterful craft showcase of ARP stainless steel fasteners.
Congenial Speed Demon owner/driver, the late George Poteet, said of Raschke in the book "Demon's Dozen" he commissioned this writer to produce to chronicle the team's stunning 2012 season of speed record setting: "Chris has worked on, even driven, many different types of race cars, and all of them have been 'top of the line.' You can always find Chris helping Steve and Kenny getting another engine race ready. I believe our team is 'top of the line,' but money and passion aren't enough to make a team successful. Family support contributes to the team's efforts, their success."
Poteet referred to Steve Watt, owner and founder of Ventura, California-based Maxwell Industries, who began crusading for salt speed records with Poteet in 2006.
The following year, a turbocharged GM Ecotec four-cylinder allowed Poteet to tear through the time traps, inking a 325-mph streamliner record and "World's Fastest Four-Cylinder" glad brags before retiring the car and building the fearsome Speed Demon.
Raschke had already spent years as a helpful volunteer when Crew Chief Watt asked his long-time pal to join the Speed Demon team in 2012.
"Steve and I have worked and raced together for over 15 years," explained Raschke in "Demon's Dozen." "I love racing, I work with it and around it every day. What I appreciate most of all is that everybody on this team has given me an opportunity to help and participate. I can work on any part of the car but stay away from computers. The highlight of the year for me was getting to see my son, Kristoph, do things he never tried or thought he could. It made me proud."
Raschke later told his current wife, Connie, how extremely grateful he was for the opportunities he had been given. "A highlight of Chris's racing career was when George asked him to drive the Speed Demon in 2023, and I witnessed intense bonding between them. They both drove that year. George mentored him, spending hours going over the car, in the cockpit, discussing every aspect," she recalled vividly.
Raschke added a black hat, earning 400 mph Chapter status in the Bonneville 200MPH Club Life Membership in 2024 with a 432 mph Class B Blown Fuel Streamliner record despite bearing farewell thoughts about Poteet's passing a month earlier.
His 446-mph run handed the Speed Demon team its 12th Hot Rod Magazine Top Time Trophy, given annually since 1949 to the fastest vehicle over a mile distance.
Racing partner Watt, also his business confidant, believes Raschke developed his "connective superpowers" by listening to the plans and problems of others. "What Chris did, every day, for everyone, it helped make me successful," Watt stated steadfastly. "We had an eye out for each other every day. That included finding others who could help not just us, but others in our racing activities. The team knew to 'stand back' when Chris showed up. He often did the work of three."
Watt provided clues about how he and Raschke, through the years, together solved thousands of racing problems. "We never had a plan. We started as just a bunch of motivated racing guys who kept dreaming stuff up, trying new stuff, and breaking a lot of stuff. We learned to fix things because we never had the money to pay someone to do it for us. We all became professional fixers."
Raschke told his wife Connie that he was the "luckiest guy" because he went to work every day doing what he loved. "He had the ability to make the right connection at the right time," she offered. "He connected fabricators to teams, small racers to resources, and young engine builders to opportunities they never would have found alone."
Watt frequently marveled at Raschke's need to talk to people, help people, appreciate people. However, even a short drive back to the shop, or to ARP, became a race.
"Chris would give, give, give, and never ask for anything in return. When he called others, they jumped at the chance of helping him," Watt said. Dozens of annual birthday bouquets arrived on secretaries' desks across the country courtesy of Chris and ARP."
Watt got a literal front seat to Raschke's industry influence during a cross-country trip to the PRI Show in Indianapolis. His diesel dually began having intermittent operating troubles pulling the trailer loaded with his exhibitor booth and product line.
Raschke started dialing and soon arranged for trucks to be staged across their highway route. All told him, "Just let us know what exit and we will be there to help."
"We just barely made it to the Show and unloaded," recalled Watt. "Then, Chris next arranged for nearby Haisley Machine & Repair to pick up, fix, and return the truck before the Show ended. He just thrived on fixing problems."
ARP President Mike Holzapfel saw how Raschke rapidly absorbed the nuances of tempering, amalgamations, tensile strength, all of it, the day he started at ARP in the mid 1990s. That included repairing shop equipment before using his order desk duty hours as a springboard into R&D, creating new products and serving racing teams.
"That was Chris's pace: fast. He reached out to customers, then pivoted to the trade shows, quickly suggesting how we might improve our booth space," said Holzapfel, who wondered how Raschke accomplished so much in one day. "He started by coming to shows with us, and it wasn't long before he was in charge of the shows for us."
Founder Gary Holzapfel told new employee Raschke, "We gotta dress you up," and off they went to the fashionable foreign land of Beverly Hills. That kindness flourished. Raschke would stop in the middle of his workday when Gary needed chauffeuring on a private errand, treating his boss like family. Some thought the promise of an ice cream treat was prime motivation.
Admiration
Raschke forged tight, lasting marketing networks in drag racing, stock cars, diesel, motorcycling, rally, Formula 1, IndyCar, karts, outlaws, powerboats, tractor pulls, and the tool trade.
Danny Lawrence was the chief engine builder for Richard Childress Racing (RCR) in Welcome, North Carolina, when he met Raschke and became a good friend and good customer. "We never had an issue or cross word. Ever," declared Lawrence emphatically, now RCR's VP of Alliance Operations and director of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. "Chris knew how to make friends. Chris understood the nuances of engine prep, disassembly, and repair. He knew what it took to win a 500-mile race—the practice, the testing, and the earnest competition."
When Lawrence, together with other high-profile stock car figures, was invited to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Raschke tagged along. RCR had brought Dale Earnhardt's car, and Raschke kept watch over it when Lawrence needed to be elsewhere during Lord Montague's noisy, rolling car fest.
"RCR trusted Chris with the company's reputation, all 450 employees," offered Lawrence, who spoke with Raschke before and after every race. "In 2020, he called and loudly told me he set a 232-mph record. Earning a 2 Club red hat was the best feeling ever."
Jesel Incorporated became ARP customers in the early 1980s when brothers Danny and Wayne figured if ARP supplied the aerospace industry, then its manufacturing methods had the quality and consistency they wanted.
"We needed very tight spec tolerances for our top-of-the-line applications back then, but over the years we transitioned to using nothing but ARP throughout our entire product line today," explained Wayne Jesel.
Jesel and Raschke often casually interacted at the races, but when land speed racing touched them both, the business, social, and speed activities liquefied into a new personal and professional alloy.
"Chris never got mad if a customer moved on but was always a bit wounded if they did not tell him why they had to make the business decision they just did," said Jesel of Raschke's professional integrity.
"It was 2020 when I asked him to drive our LSR pickup truck, and he earned his Bonneville 200MPH Club Life Membership," Jesel added. "He also wanted to drive at El Mirage dry lakes, so in 2023, Tom Stewart, Brian Maxwell, and Gary Wilson joined us. We went on to win the 2024 SCTA season championship."
However, Raschke had an odd chink in his memory. The team relied on the MSD Racepak, but Raschke simply couldn't remember how to download the run data.
"He would call me, or wander into our pit after every run," recalled Donny Cummins, Holley Motorsports sales manager. "Each time, I walked him through the steps, and he was grateful. But by the next run, his mind blanked. I cracked up every time he called but happily helped."
All total in the 2024 racing season, Raschke ran five speed trials, earned five records, and snagged the Hot Rod Magazine Trophy with a 446-mph speed on the salt. And he upgraded his headgear to a 400 mph Chapter black hat.
Jason Line, three-time NHRA National Pro Stock Champ and owner of JLine Performance in Troutman, North Carolina, met Raschke when he agreed to give ARP testimonials while racing.
"Chris solved fastener problems in ways you can't pay someone to care the way he did," said Line unequivocally. "He helped me develop my engine block manufacturing business and genuinely used all his resources. Ask anyone; he lived 'wide open' and is impossible to replace."
Line and Raschke were two of the 10 people who drove Wayne Jesel's thundering land speed pickup truck, earning the coveted Bonneville 200MPH Club red hats.
Jesel later treated friends Raschke and Line to the Isle of Man race in the United Kingdom. As Line drove the rental car around the 37.73-mile course with Line's son Jack and Jesel, it was Raschke who relentlessly pleaded, "Don't be gentle with the rental."
Joe Pando, senior sales manager of motorsports at Holley Performance Brands in Bowling Green, Kentucky, recalled exactly when he met the man he believes was deprived of an "off" button.
"Chris was modifying OEM Grand National intercoolers at Duttweiler's by first cutting off one end before welding on Kenny's special bits and finishing it all in rattle-can black before tossing it in the finished bucket. One after the other and another. All the while, he never stopped talking to me. Right then I knew he was some sort of exceptional," said Pando.
At Bonneville, where Pando crews for the 300-mph 911 roadster driven by Donny Cummins, he witnessed firsthand Raschke's bigheartedness.
The 911 team developed ignition problems on the starting line as the Speed Demon waited in line behind them. Officials were about to remove the roadster, but Poteet and Raschke intervened, saying they were happy to wait. The 911 soon fired up and made its run.
"We all gained enhanced admiration for the Speed Demon team that day," Pando recalled. "We now pay forward that integrity, remembering how we were helped."
Cummins, who set a 284-mph Blown Fuel Roadster Class land speed record, volunteered: "What made Chris unique is how he maintained so many contacts in every genre of motorsports you can imagine. He made people feel like part of his family. He once apologized that he had missed my birthday by one day. I later found out he did that for dozens, some for more than 30 years. How in the hell was he able to do that?"
Wife Connie knew and explained: "If you were part of motorsports, you were part of his world. He didn't just make connections, he checked in."
"That treatment is part of how he built a great deal of loyalty that kept customers coming back," said Cummins, recalling nearly 1,000 people who attended Raschke's standing-room-only 2025 memorial after his passing while piloting the Speed Demon on the Bonneville Salt Flats. "It's also why you see a swarm of ARP Raschke Memorial decals slapped on the side of drag cars at every level and class. Each one of them was applied out of respect, not because they were paid to do so."
Elwin "Al" Teague commands unwavering respect bordering on superstardom in land speed racing. His homebuilt "Spirit of 76" is a celebrated plus-400-mph streamliner.
Raschke enthusiastically gave Teague a five-hour, personal tour of every ARP workshop, followed by a sumptuous meal at Hozy's, the company's eatery that shames some Michelin-starred joints.
"Chris has done a lot for Bonneville racing and SCTA through ARP," remarked Teague. "He was a great competitor, a valued member of the Speed Demon team as well as ARP…such a loss. I struggle to find words that are noteworthy of his years of contributions. Jane and I were so honored when he opened all the doors to ARP's manufacturing facilities. We remain grateful."
Pando pointed out that Raschke may have helped many teams, but he never made anyone feel indebted to him for his help.
"Contenders simply appreciated just being able to come to the ARP trailer and get parts on account, then pay their bill at the end of the month," revealed Pando. "It was the same with customers at the SEMA and PRI shows."
How should this loyal, dedicated man be remembered?
Was Chris Raschke's superpower his mechanical know-how, high-speed driving proficiency, humility, prankster reliability, or was it because he was a tenacious analytical sage who craved walloping problems to help others?
That's for you to decide. And good luck with that.
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