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.

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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