Autoclub Famoso Raceway, 3-19-2011–After two sessions of qualifying for the 53rd March Meet, the Van Dykes Motorsports/Champion Speed Shop fuelers are provisionally qualified 11th and 12th for Sunday’s 16-car eliminator, with Adam Sorokin posting an elapsed time of 6.22 seconds at a top end speed of 219 mph in his Chrysler-powered machine and Larry Gotelli residing a notch behind at 6.41, after clicking it off early in his Chevy-powered streamliner.
On the down side, during Friday’s qualifier, the Chrysler mill is completely deconstructed. The catalyst? A rod through the block.
“The first hit was real soft on the clutch, as we are trying get a baseline on (Famoso’s) new track surface,” Adam explained. “So it left soft, and never really pulled—never really got up on the tire… I kinda plugged it on through, and when I shut it off, it kicked a rod again.”
The Champion pit after first round of qualifying
He’s only had one swing of the shovel, but Sorokin said it’s been a long day in the proverbial salt mines. “The salt mines would be a step up,” he said. “This has been more like a bad day in the blood diamond mines in the heat of the day….”
On a more positive note, after a long hiatus, Larry Gotelli Jr. is playing catch-up with driving a AA/Fueler, but, according to Sorokin, is making impressive strides.
“After six years out of the saddle, Larry’s coming up to speed pretty quickly,” Adam noted. “You have to realize the small-block Chevy has a different sound and a different power band. And then you take a driver used to fresh air and stuff him into a canopy… well, SFI hasn’t made a snorkel long enough for what he’s used to.”
Qualifying resumes Saturday at noon, PST, with the first round of eliminations this evening. All the action can be streamed on bangshift.com
Larry Gotelli and Adam Soroking discuss driving a streamliner
March 8, 2011, South City, CA–Step aside Hollywood: In what is arguably the most anticipated interview since Charlie Sheen explained the new definition of the word “winning,” tonight on the Speed Scene Live podcast defending March Meet Top Fuel champ Adam Sorokin will grab the microphone and explain the word’s more traditional meaning, while also discussing his chances at “re-winning” this year’s upcoming March Meet in the Van Dyke Motorsports/Champion Speed Shop dragster.
Besides revealing whether or not the Champion team runs on the same “tiger blood” that Sheen has credited with his success, this will be an opportunity for Sorokin to publicly reflect on last year’s conquest, a feat that had a special, familial resonance for him as his father, the late Mike Sorokin, claimed the same event title in 1966, an event that some historians claim was the most epic Top Fuel drag race ever.
Held annually at Bakersfield’s AutoClub Famoso Raceway, the March Meet is the first event for Top Fuel in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series 2011 season, and has the entire Champion team wringing their hands in anticipation, as last year’s triumph propelled them towards eventually claiming the NHRA Heritage Series 2010 season title.
Adam Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop launched the Van Dyke Motorsports Retroliner to the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series win over worthy opponent Jim Murphy at the California Hot Rod Rod Reunion. Sorokin clicked off an astounding 5.63 for the win, pushing the Retroliner to victory at 252 MPH. The team stepped up on the win incrementally over the weekend. Co-Crew Chief Bob McLennan thought Murphy had loaded the gun for bear at the burnout, but quickly saw Sorokin pushing straight around Murphy. Sorokin hit a quick light and was traveling 210 MPH at half track.
“To have the car run that hard in the round that decided the championship was pretty cool. The thing was a rocket ship, and pulled all the way to the lights”, said Sorokin
With the points win in the bag the team was ready to reload and come back out for the final event battle. The weather had other ideas. A raindrop decision on Sunday postponed the racing action until Monday. The new day brought more rain, and the event was called once more. The remaining top fuel racers decided to pick things up again in Pomona, California at the 2010 NHRA World Finals on November 11-14th. Adam Sorokin will go up against Brett Harris in a race to decide the winner of the rained-out California Hot Rod Reunion. The team is back in South San Francisco preparing the launch vehicle for the final round, less than a month away in Southern California.
The Champion Speed Shop has grabbed the Governor’s Cup victory at Sacramento Raceway in the Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered AA/Fuel dragster. The stunning Retroliner is back in South San Francisco getting set up with the accumulated wisdom of an impressive top fuel season – and it’s not over yet. The team is honing in on the last runs of 2010 at the 19th NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion. Adam Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop team are heading into the AA/FD points race finals with a number two slot against Jim Murphy’s number one standing.
Grabbing the Governor’s Cup at Sacramento Raceway quickly overshadowed the mechanical mayhem that plagued the car at the 2010 Nightfire Nationals in Boise, Idaho. Chicago Style drag racing action dispensed with the usual qualifying runs in Sacramento, and put Adam Sorokin up against Rick White for the final round. By the time the header flames went dark and the smoke cleared, it was Sorokin who took the win along with the elusive Governor’s Cup.
The team is staged for the launch sequence to begin again at the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, on the same track that Sorokin marked the debut of the race car by winning the 2010 March Meet with a 5.76-second at 241 MPH run against Howard Haight just slightly over six months ago. Sorokin feels confident that lessons learned over the course of a half year of racing with the new machine have already begun the countdown to fierce competition for the win out on the legendary 1320 feet of the patch.
“We’re trying to start the win happening at the shop”, said Sorokin.
Co-crew chiefs Bob McLennan and Anthony Bernardini have come to the same consensus. The last race of 2010 will be counted, and the South San Francisco crew are making sure of that reality with just days before the big drag race.
“We’ve got six passes left in the year, and we’re going to make the absolute best of those six”, said Bob Mclennan of the upcoming 200-plus mile per hour quarter mile nitromethane confrontation.
MORE INFORMATION:
As hard as it is to believe, 2010 marks the 19th running of the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield. Top fuel action starts Friday October 15th, and wraps up about five seconds after they fire the last pair on Sunday the 17th. For more pics and a roundup of all the action at the Governor’s Cup head on over to All American Fuel Dragsters Inc. For more information on the 19th California Hot Rod Reunion consult with the NHRA Druids. Photo by Steven Wallace – courtesy of AA/FD INC.
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.
Actually there’s about twenty or so seconds of video with the team handing over the car to Adam Sorokin for the second full qualifying pass on the hemi-powered dragster. For the second time in as many rounds, the car in the other lane suffered mechanical breakage, handing Sorokin a second single qualifying pass at Famoso. While these occurrences may give rise to unsubstantiated rumors of some sort of mechanically disruptive secret weapon hidden under the carbon-fiber body panels, the new car may in fact be so incredible that it simply disables worthy opponents before they even get a chance to run. What really happened though, is what you see here. Sorokin took the car down track and into the show with a 7.63 second ET pass at 207 mph. Click on the video above or head on over to the Champion Speed Shop YouTube channel for more videos.
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.
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.
Adam Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop launched the Van Dyke Motorsports Retroliner to the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series win over worthy opponent Jim Murphy at the California Hot Rod Rod Reunion. Sorokin clicked off an astounding 5.63 for the win, pushing the Retroliner to victory at 252 MPH. The team stepped up on the win incrementally over the weekend. Co-Crew Chief Bob McLennan thought Murphy had loaded the gun for bear at the burnout, but quickly saw Sorokin pushing straight around Murphy. Sorokin hit a quick light and was traveling 210 MPH at half track. 
The Champion Speed Shop has grabbed the Governor’s Cup victory at Sacramento Raceway in the Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered AA/Fuel dragster. The stunning Retroliner is back in South San Francisco getting set up with the accumulated wisdom of an impressive top fuel season – and it’s not over yet. The team is honing in on the last runs of 2010 at the 19th NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion. Adam Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop team are heading into the AA/FD points race finals with a number two slot against Jim Murphy’s number one standing. 
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.
