Green and Red Lights at Governor’s Cup
The reward for a hot day in the sun at Sacramento Raceway is a long cool night of top fuel drag racing. Eight cars lined up in the field from afternoon qualifying set first round of eliminations at dusk. From eight would come only four, then two in the final round at 10 p.m. Adam Sorokin took a round one 5.88-second quickest ET yet at 215 mph victory over Williamson, who crossed over the center line for a foul. Second round eliminations appeared at first to be the last for the Champion Speed Shop against Brett Harris, but again the center line was breached. Sorokin would challenge Rick White for the top fuel Governor’s Cup.
Both teams tore their cars down to the engine block in a thrash to get their machines back together again for a final round slated for 10 p.m. On one side was the small block Chevy, on the other was a Chrysler hemi. Adam Sorokin and Rick White paired up under the stars where a fraction of a second can win, or in this case, end a race before it starts. One thousandth of a second was all the clocks needed to turn a green light to red for Sorokin. Rick White took his hemi-powered dragster downtrack for the win light with a 5.72 elapsed time at 264 mph blast.
Making it to the final against the record-setting Neil and White entry was a victory in itself for the Champion Speed Shop team, who clicked off the best yet elapsed time at the same race track where only months before the crew made the first ever shakedown runs with the all-new small block Chevy combination.
“I feel like we left here winners big time”, said Adam Sorokin of the weekend spent reaching for the Governor’s Cup. Next stop South San Francisco, for a return to Bakersfield for the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion.
Tags: Adam Sorokin, Champion Speed Shop, Governors Cup, NHRA, NHRA Heritage Series, nitromethane, Sacramento