After a morning that started well before sunrise, the Champion Speed Shop made it down to Bakersfield and clicked off a successful launch. A subsequent pit side teardown of the small block Chevy revealed everything was go for a second test pass in late afternoon. Bobby McLennan reports the car ran straight down the quarter mile with driver Adam Sorokin shutting off early for a smooth 6.42-second ride through the lights at 224 mph. Next stop South San Francisco, and a return to the March Meet to put the coals to it. Photos by way of Cole Coonce and the Top Fuel Wormhole

With the 1-Shot pinstripe enamel still curing on the freshly painted scallops, the Champion Speed Shop Special is on the ground and ready for testing runs in Bakersfield, California. All roads of nostalgia drag racing led this morning to Famoso Raceway for a testing session less than a full week ahead of the official running of the 51st March Meet. Bobby McLennan, driver Adam Sorokin, Crew Chief Tony Bernardini, Dave Carkuff, Dennis Barazza, Tom Homer, and Sparky are heating up the oil and ready to put some nitromethane into the holes of the small block Chevrolet. A few shots of Rory Pentecost laying down the pinstripes on the Special from the top secret South San Francisco Champion Speed Shop location after the jump. (more…)

After a successful day of shakeout passes at the Sacramento Raceway, the Champion Speed Shop Special is on its way to Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield this weekend for further testing. Driver Adam Sorokin reports his experience from behind the canopy at Sacramento at the top secret testing session was a good one, saying that “it’s not unlike what a funny car feels like – only a bit smaller”. Follow through on the rest of the entry for a few more shots from the testing in Sacramento. (more…)

The Champion Speed Shop has been a name synonymous with velocity and innovation for over 50 years. Founder Jim McLennan built his first dragster in 1953. By 1957 the Champion Speed Shop legend was born. It has been a little over two years since the “Smiling Irishman” motored onto the great dragstrip. The Champion Speed Shop lives on in celebration of his pioneering spirit. This video was produced in honor of Jim’s induction into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. For more information on the IDRHF head on over to the Big Daddy Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. 

The Champion Speed Shop Special is set to run the March Meet at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California. The 51st running of the premiere nostalgia drag racing event will mark the official end of a six year hiatus of the legendary nitromethane powered Chevrolet dragster from the nostalgia AA/FD drag racing ranks.

The latest incarnation of the Champion Speed Shop Special continues the tradition of lightweight small block Chevrolet powered dragsters set in motion by Jim McLennan in 1953, and carried on by son Bobby McLennan into the modern era. The Champion Speed Shop Special will be driven by Adam Sorokin, whose own father Mike Sorokin drove The Surfers front engine top fuel dragster in the sixties.

While the small block Chevy is itself an anachronism in the hemi fueled AA/FD field, the Champion Speed Shop Special furthers the innovative evolution of the front engine top fuel dragster with a streamlined carbon fiber canopy that envelops the cockpit.

“The genesis of the car started long ago with cars like the Glass Slipper and other streamliners. If the engine had stayed out front, this is where the class may have gone”, said Bobby McLennan.