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.

More: Champion Speed Shop YouTube Channel

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, 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 Champion Speed Shop has gone out of the running with a blazing 240 mile per hour blast in eliminations at the March Meet. “It hooked up and went, but we didn’t have enough for him”, said driver Adam Sorokin of his 6.12 second run against opponent Shannon Stuart. The loss followed a valiant effort in which the team brought the completely new streamlined Special from testing to first round eliminations with methodical precision, only three days after landing on the hallowed ground of Famoso Raceway. The South San Francisco crew will certainly refine the small block Chevy combination in the coming racing season. While the weekend may be over, the saga of the Champion Speed Shop has clearly begun again.

Bakersfield, California – The Champion Speed Shop Special lit up the clocks with a 6.15 second run at 234 miles per hour in second round March Meet qualifying. “It’s getting better every time. The car hasn’t slowed down yet”, said hotshoe Adam Sorokin after the clean and straight run down Famoso Raceway. One more round of qualifying is on deck before eliminations begin on Sunday. Update: The team is in the number eight slot with a 6.06 second run in final round qualifying. 

With but a few days to go until the 51st March Meet, the Champion Speed Shop presents this prequel to the drag racing hootenanny even now descending on Bakersfield. This video was edited down from a one-day testing session at the Patch last Saturday, with a dusk run featured for wings on goodness. All systems are currently go for more nitro huffing small block Chevrolet action this weekend. Be there!