Getting thousands of horsepower through a clutch, down through the tires, and onto the track is a precarious and explosive balancing act. Variables that make for the right combination can shift in split seconds and overpower the grip of the tires just as fast. While the Champion Speed Shop went out in the first round on Sunday with a 7.08 against Howard Haight’s winning 6.09, the racing action could not have been better for the on their feet crowd at Beech Bend Raceway Park. Adam Sorokin was in, slightly off, but never out of the throttle as he grabbed a few handfuls of the 3000 horsepower small block Chevy. Sorokin got out on Haight, lost traction, but kept the car in the lane – driving sprint car style for some flat track sideways top fuel thunder out on the drag strip. The race was over for the Champion Speed Shop, but the crew prepared the Streamliner for a return time-only run that followed Round Two of Top Fuel Eliminations. This time Sorokin ran an arrow straight 6.05 second quarter mile at 239 with-a-five miles per hour. The team was ultimately one run short the pack, but brought the combination closer to getting out in front of it. Next stop, South San Francisco, California.

Oil is an inevitable part of the front engine top fuel dragster experience. The answer to the question of what happens when the oil hits the windscreen of the Streamliner was answered by Adam Sorokin and unparalleled high velocity driving prowess at 236 miles per hour. Sorokin said the car was on a hard charge and wanted to keep going, when a sheet of green slime on the windscreen got him out of the throttle and shutting the show down. Sorokin kept the Streaminer in a straight line on the top end of Beech Bend Raceway by looking out the left side canopy porthole and maintining close, but constant distance away from the passing guardrail. At 236 miles per hour. Sorokin got the chutes out and lit up the clocks with an oiled-in 6.11 elapsed time, besting the morning qualifying session run of 6.27 at 199 mph. When in Beech Bend it’s not the humidity that gets you, it’s the nitromethane.

The Champion Speed Shop has made it to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the NHRA Reunion, and clicked off a 6.15 at 204 mph in the 90-plus degree heat during a an afternoon qualifying session at Beech Bend Raceway Park. With one eye clouded in with humidity and nitromethane and the other on the track, driver Adam Sorokin left a hair early on the tree in the right lane. Howard Haight is shown here on his way to a 6.07 run at 245 mph blast in the left lane. The Champion crew is now readying the car for the second round of qualifying for the top fuel dragster field, set to run on what is forecasted to be a slightly cooler Saturday top fuel qualifying session.

The Champion Speed Shop is fine-tuning the Chevrolet-powered Special in preparation to motor far further south than South San Francisco for the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green Kentucky, June 19-21. Putting together an all-new race car and getting the fresh clutch and tire combination to mesh with almost three thousand horsepower can be a little tricky – especially when races last a mere 5.96 seconds each. Even with two test sessions and two races in the past, the Special has had less than five minutes of actual on-track measured run time. Bowling Green, Kentucky will be the next stop on the road towards quicker and faster quarter mile assaults. The entire crew is geared up for the drag race, and will once again bring a Chevrolet and nitromethane to the lush grounds of Beech Bend Raceway Park.

“It’s like going to Churchill Downs to drag race. Bowling Green is truly beautiful, and unlike any other drag strip. It’s one of my favorite races of the year”, said driver Adam Sorokin.

For more information on the 2009 Holley NHRA Hot Rod Reunion head on over to the NHRA Motorsports Wally Parks Museum. Note: That’s Jim McLennan wearing a suit and tie in the cockpit of the circa-1966 Champion Speed Shop Special in a photo shoot on the streets of San Francisco.