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.

Become a fan of the Champion Speed Shop on Facebook for quick updates from the free Monday session of the March Meet at Famoso Raceway.

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.

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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.

Information on the 52nd running of the legendary March Meet March 5th, 6th, and 7th at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield can be found here: Be There!

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Photos Dennis Barraza, Adam Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop lens crew.