South San Francisco, CA – After a stout runner up finish in the race for the Governor’s Cup, the Champion Speed Shop is ready to launch the small block Chevrolet powered entry into the 16-car front engine top fuel dragster battle at the 18th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California. The 402-cubic inch small block Chevy powered Special clocked its best numbers ever in the State Capitol as the team brought the all-new combination in top fuel drag racing into ever quicker and faster runs down the quarter mile.
“We’ve been trying to get our 60-foot and half-track times down. In Sacramento it started to come around. That’s what we were looking for”, said Bob McLennan of the combination hitting a quick step at Sacramento Raceway.
With the car back at the South San Francisco base after the mid night grab for the Governor’s Cup, data and engine component analysis has yielded a plan to match out of the gate performance with a top end charge for lower elapsed times and higher top speeds from the Chevy-powered digger. Driver Adam Sorokin agrees the potential for maximum velocity is in order for the California Hot Rod Reunion – a fantastic place to witness drag racing history in motion and in the making on the very same weekend.
Sorokin clearly felt the car coming into line at Sacramento, and has confidence the team has learned what it takes to run nitromethane with success through the unprecedented engine setup. While the venerable Chrysler hemi has huffed nitro through thousands upon thousands of runs down the dragstrip, the small block Chevrolet nitromethane formula is the sole provenance of the Champion Speed Shop.
“I really think we have a car that can win. We’ve got some of the best people on the team you can possibly have”, said Sorokin mere days before the season finale of the 2009 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage series points battle finale.
The 18th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion takes place at Famoso Raceway on October Oct. 16-18, 2009. For event information please visit the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion. For race track information visit the Famoso Raceway.
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.
Top fuel drag racing is everything but easy. The lead up to a near 11 o’clock p.m. first qualifying session for the Governor’s Cup began a few days earlier, with a Wednesday start up and load up in South San Francisco. The crew descended from onto the drag strip on Thursday and Friday. The mystery of tire shake stymied a test run on Friday afternoon. A full-track oildown and subsequent wreck pushed out Friday night AA/Fuel qualifying almost to Saturday. From the Wednesday shake out and start up session in South City to a long night wait in the staging lanes at Sacramento Raceway, the collected effort of the Champion Speed Shop team paid off with a Friday night half track blast leading into today’s capitol action. Saturday is here. The Governor’s Cup is on.
The Champion Speed Shop is rolling up the barrels of nitromethane and the small block Chevrolet powered AA/Fuel Special into the truck, and heading to Sacramento Raceway for the Governor’s Cup on Saturday September 19th. The team is prepared to put everything into the eight car nitro battle and wrap up the summer. Top Fuel hot shoe Adam Sorokin is looking forward to a return to his alcohol Funny Car stomping grounds, and collecting another Governor’s Cup to stand next to the one he already has.
An eight-car field of AA/Fuel dragsters will join fearsome Outlaw Pro Mods, a grip of CIFCA Alcohol Funny Cars, and four afterburner-equipped Jet Cars for some drag racing action in the sun and under the lights in the California State Capitol. Qualifying action will run on the Friday night preceding the event, for not one but two evenings of header flames lighting up the night sky on the last few Summer nights of the 2009 season.
The legend behind the 40th Annual running of the Governors Cup is somewhat hazy. In an effort to make the drag race more official, promoter Jumpin’ John Durbin sent out an invitation to the Governor himself to cut the ribbon at the track. The Lieutenant Governor showed up instead, and there has been a Governors Cup every year since. The top fuel dragster battle is the last of the summer before fall beckons the vintage drag racing gang south to Bakersfield for the 18th NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion.
WHO: Champion Speed Shop
WHAT: Supercharged Small Block Chevy on Nitromethane
WHEN: Saturday, September 19th 2009
WHERE Sacramento Raceway Park. 5305 Excelsior Road Sacramento, CA 95827
WHY: Nitromethane Under the Lights
HOW: Get to Sacramento Raceway Park
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.
Thanks to the miracle of modern technology we’re able to present this inside the cockpit video of driver Adam Sorokin on a complete run in the Champion Speed Shop small block Chevy front engine Top Fuel dragster at the 2009 Rod and Kulture Dragfest. Seeing is very much believing. This short movie occurs in real time, and covers the entire run. First comes engine start to burn out, backup, and staging into the lights. Once the bulb goes green, Adam puts the screws to the Chevy for the run. 5.99 seconds later he hits the parachutes, and puts on the whoa from 235 miles per hour to make the turnout road.
The long haul to the Bakersfield started before sunrise on Friday at the Champion Speed Shop world headquarters in South San Francisco. The Special and trailer were already under way. The Champion Speed Shop 1934 Ford pickup’s blown small block Chevrolet was idling ready. Crew members motored towards Famoso Raceway from all points on the California map. A little over a month after the return of the small block Chevy on nitromethane to the March Meet, the Destination was once again the same. Bakersfield, California. This time it was Dragfest. (more…)
South San Francisco, CA – After a stout runner up finish in the race for the Governor’s Cup, the Champion Speed Shop is ready to launch the small block Chevrolet powered entry into the 16-car front engine top fuel dragster battle at the 18th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California. The 402-cubic inch small block Chevy powered Special clocked its best numbers ever in the State Capitol as the team brought the all-new combination in top fuel drag racing into ever quicker and faster runs down the quarter mile.
The Champion Speed Shop is rolling up the barrels of nitromethane and the small block Chevrolet powered AA/Fuel Special into the truck, and heading to Sacramento Raceway for the Governor’s Cup on Saturday September 19th. The team is prepared to put everything into the eight car nitro battle and wrap up the summer. Top Fuel hot shoe Adam Sorokin is looking forward to a return to his alcohol Funny Car stomping grounds, and collecting another Governor’s Cup to stand next to the one he already has.
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 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.
