Adam Sorokin has taken the Champion Speed Shop Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered dragster to victory at the 2010 Bakersfield March Meet with a 5.76-second at 241 MPH run. Sorokin charged on Howard Haight’s 5.93-second 246 MPH challenge, and tripped the win light for the first ever March Meet win for the South San Francisco crew. Co-crew Chief Bob McLennan was wearing a smile in the staging lanes, as the team waited to roll the car into the Winner’s Circle at Famoso Raceway.
“We haven’t been in the Winner’s Circle for so long, our Champagne has aged”, said McLennan jokingly of the win.
The triumph has been a long time coming for the team, who brought the all-new hemi-powered dragster to the March Meet with but a single test run completed only one week before the race. Once at the March Meet the car went quicker and faster with each pass.
Winning the March Meet is the realization of a dream for driver Adam Sorokin, who said he has always wanted to follow on the legendary lines of his own father Mike Sorokin, who took the 1966 March Meet win in The Surfers hemi-powered AA/Fuel dragster.
“It is almost too big of a dream to actually realize”, said Sorokin fresh from the winning charge that brought his longtime dream into reality.
With Sunday running out of daylight and the heat wicking out of the drag strip, the decision was made to carry the 52nd Annual March Meet one more day onto Monday at Famoso Raceway. Driver Adam Sorokin was suited up and in the lanes ready go up against Brad Thompson when the loudspeakers crackled with the news that there was no more nitro drag cars running on Sunday, but that there would be free drag racing for all comers on Monday when the gates re-opened at 8AM. Top fuel semi-final eliminations are scheduled to get going a few hours later at 10AM. While the day may have ended on an unfinished note, the good news is Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop took the new Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered dragster into the semi-finals with two successively quicker runs. A 6.03 ET with a 230 mph trap speed in round one against Mike McLennan was followed up by a 5.85 blast at 218 mph in the second round of eliminations at the March Meet. Sorokin grabbed the second round win light with a hole shot against Rick White, and feels the new car has strong potential.
“This thing pulled as hard as anything I’ve ever driven”, said Sorokin of the new dragster.
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Actually there’s about twenty or so seconds of video with the team handing over the car to Adam Sorokin for the second full qualifying pass on the hemi-powered dragster. For the second time in as many rounds, the car in the other lane suffered mechanical breakage, handing Sorokin a second single qualifying pass at Famoso. While these occurrences may give rise to unsubstantiated rumors of some sort of mechanically disruptive secret weapon hidden under the carbon-fiber body panels, the new car may in fact be so incredible that it simply disables worthy opponents before they even get a chance to run. What really happened though, is what you see here. Sorokin took the car down track and into the show with a 7.63 second ET pass at 207 mph. Click on the video above or head on over to the Champion Speed Shop YouTube channel for more videos.
Round one of top fuel qualifying at the 52nd running of March Meet at Famoso is a wrap. With the track temperature dropping quickly as the day wore on, Adam Sorokin joined the majority of the AA/FD field in a struggle to find traction in the late afternoon top fuel session. After a broken reverser stalled the Birky Bunch entry on the backup, Sorokin took a single run - in and then out of the throttle of the hemi out of the gate in an attempt to grab some of the chilly tarmac. With one rear tire out of the groove, Sorokin got back on and out the throttle and at least five times, flat tracking the car into a nine-something second run in the first official pass on the all-new ride. The second round of top fuel qualifying is scheduled for Saturday at high noon at the March Meet.
South San Francisco, California USA – More nitromethane through the pipes is always a good thing. Just ask the Champion Speed Shop, who will field not one but two supercharged front engine top fuel dragsters for the 2010 drag racing season. The South San Francisco crew will run with an all-new Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered Retroliner entry in the NHRA Heritage Series points battle, and retain the Chevrolet-powered flip-top canopy Special for select vintage drag racing events. This unique situation makes driver Adam Sorokin the only man in drag racing to have a choice between a top fuel Chevy or nitro-huffing hemi to hammer down the full 1320 feet of the quarter mile.
The latest Champion Speed Shop creation features a Rodeck hemi engine between the Neil and Parks frame rails. The Guy Ruchonnet body panels wear a paint treatment that only Art Himsl himself could create. The car is ready to put the twist to the Hoosier tires, and driver Adam Sorokin is ready for twice nitromethane behind the wheel of a machine that hearkens back to the late sixties while running quicker, faster, and safer than ever before.
“This thing is really beautiful”, said Sorokin of the new hemi-powered car.
The psychedelic-era Art Himsl paintwork was still curing on the panels when the team rolled up to Sacramento Raceway for testing just one Sunday before from the final round of top fuel eliminations at the 52nd running of the Bakersfield March Meet. The team and car will descend onto the legendary patch this weekend March 5th, 6th, and 7th 2010.
Back when race cars and association with motor sport worked to sell motor oil and go-fast parts, advertising success hinged on successful creative. Getting the right shot meant doing whatever it takes. In this case a cowboy photo shoot on the streets of San Francisco had Jim McLennan holding onto the brake of an injected version of the Special on a famously steep San Francisco hill. Jim had called upon Gene Icardi just hours before the photo shoot to motor over in his Shelby Mustang. That’s Gene himself blocking traffic between the Champion Special and the cable car. The photographer got the job done almost as quick as the crew appeared for the shoot. Jim and Bob McLennan loaded the dragster back onto the trailer. Gene dumped the clutch and mashed the throttle in his 4-speed pony car and made like Steve McQueen. The cable car clanged its way over the top of the hill. The photographer packed up his gear and took the film off to the lab to produce the shot. The resulting Castrol print advertisement is seen here, even though there might have been a little Valvoline in the crankcase of the small block Chevy. [Click on the smaller image for a larger view, click again to close the image.]
Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield - Despite a hard charge out of the gate and a stout one flat sixty-foot time by Adam Sorokin, Rick McGee made it over the stripe first and took the win light in round two eliminations top fuel eliminations at the California Hot Rod Reunion. McGee said he watched Sorokin get out on him at the green, but then kept his eye on the stripe and his foot in the throttle of his hemi-powered top fuel entry in the attempt to catch up to the Chevrolet. Sorokin was out keeping his own eyes on the finish, but heard the the high unmistakeable sound of a high winding top fuel engine at maximum volume off to his right on the top end of the racetrack, and watched as McGee crossed the stripe just ahead of him for the win. In the end Sorokin’s 5.93 ET at 209 miles per hour was not enough for McGee’s 5.81 ET and 249 mile per charge in this battle of top fuel hot rods.
Adam Sorokin took a round one top fuel win with a 6.02 ET at 218 miles per hour against Terry Cox 6.03 ET at 216 miles per hour. Sorokin deep staged and cut a light against Cox, who fought hard and close to keep his hemi-powered dragster with Sorokin and the Chevy down the full quarter mile. Both drivers knew it would be a close race even before the run, as both hot rods have been coming around and hitting their stride. Sorokin got out of the hole ahead of Cox after a deep stage, and charged the quarter mile straight with all eight lit.
“It went right down the track”, said Sorokin of the run into a hazy dusk at Famoso.
Cox kept his foot in the Cheetah until sparks flew from the headers along with flames, but in the end it wasn’t enough to take the win light. The Champion Speed Shop will move onto round two of top fuel eliminations, scheduled for Sunday at 11:30 AM.
Famoso Raceway – Adam Sorokin took the Champion Speed Shop streamliner to a number seven qualifying spot with a clean 6.04 second ET at 225.11 miles per hour. The crew is busy turning the car around for first round of top fuel eliminations, currently scheduled for 4PM – just hours from the final qualifying round. Brett Harris set low qualifying ET with a 5.80, while top speed went to Rick Rodgers with a 255.75 mile per hour run.The 16 car AA/Fuel dragster ladder is set, and Sorokin will take up the fight against Terry Cook in the Cheetah II in what promises to be a heavy round of nitromethane racing action at Famoso.
Adam Sorokin has taken the Champion Speed Shop Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered dragster to victory at the 2010 Bakersfield March Meet with a 5.76-second at 241 MPH run. Sorokin charged on Howard Haight’s 5.93-second 246 MPH challenge, and tripped the win light for the first ever March Meet win for the South San Francisco crew. Co-crew Chief Bob McLennan was wearing a smile in the staging lanes, as the team waited to roll the car into the Winner’s Circle at Famoso Raceway.
Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield - Despite a hard charge out of the gate and a stout one flat sixty-foot time by Adam Sorokin, Rick McGee made it over the stripe first and took the win light in round two eliminations top fuel eliminations at the California Hot Rod Reunion. McGee said he watched Sorokin get out on him at the green, but then kept his eye on the stripe and his foot in the throttle of his hemi-powered top fuel entry in the attempt to catch up to the Chevrolet. Sorokin was out keeping his own eyes on the finish, but heard the the high unmistakeable sound of a high winding top fuel engine at maximum volume off to his right on the top end of the racetrack, and watched as McGee crossed the stripe just ahead of him for the win. In the end Sorokin’s 5.93 ET at 209 miles per hour was not enough for McGee’s 5.81 ET and 249 mile per charge in this battle of top fuel hot rods.
Adam Sorokin took a round one top fuel win with a 6.02 ET at 218 miles per hour against Terry Cox 6.03 ET at 216 miles per hour. Sorokin deep staged and cut a light against Cox, who fought hard and close to keep his hemi-powered dragster with Sorokin and the Chevy down the full quarter mile. Both drivers knew it would be a close race even before the run, as both hot rods have been coming around and hitting their stride. Sorokin got out of the hole ahead of Cox after a deep stage, and charged the quarter mile straight with all eight lit.