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.