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.

Tonight’s show runs live at 6 pm PST and can be accessed at www.SpeedSceneRacing.com

Listeners with any questions for Sorokin can call in to the talk show at 1-800-809-0802.

Van Dyke/Champion shoe Adam Sorokin gauges the pressure at Pomona

November 16, 2010, Champion Speed Shop HQ, South San Francisco, CA—The 2010 AA/Fuel Dragster wars culminated in a fiery bang Sunday at Pomona’s NHRA Finals, as the postponed, deciding round of October’s California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield—rescheduled for Pomona last weekend because of inclement weather last month—saw a see-sawing donnybrook of a drag race between Adam Sorokin at the helm of the Van Dyke Motorsports/Champion Speed Shop Top Fuel Dragster and Brett Harris’ Utah-based Nitro Thunder machine, with Harris claiming the belated CHRR Event Title against a burst-panel bursting Sorokin.

For the Van Dyke entry, the loss was disappointing yet somewhat immaterial, as the rescheduled match served as a punctuation mark to the Champion team being crowned 2010 NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel Champions last month, by virtue of their eliminating Jim “Holy Smokes” Murphy and his WW2 dragster during CHRR’s semi-finals in Bakersfield.

In that heat, Sorokin posted a stunning 1/4-mile elapsed time of 5.63 seconds, with a fearsome terminal speed of 252 mph. Champion’s nitromaniacal braintrust of Tony Bernardini and Bob McLennan decided to keep that tune-up intact for Pomona’s postponed-Reunion final round—albeit, perhaps to their own peril…

Sorokin in a pre-race nitro bath (photo by Cole Coonce)

Moments before the season’s final customary warm-up and leak test, when asked about the specifics of the Bakersfield-cum-Pomona tune-up, McLennan replied: “98 percent”—a nitro/alcohol mixture good for then-current  atmospheric conditions of 3000′ altitude and Pomona’s superlatively-prepped race track. After the warm-up the sun set however, and temperatures cooled while the adjusted elevation dropped to 2500′.  The improved air—and increased oxygen—was tantamount to more nitromethane in the tank, all of which added up to an explosive situation—and a shorter fuse.

At the hit, Adam cut a quick-as-cat’s-feet .016 reaction time and had a wheel out on the Nitro Thunder machine. Sorokin’s stellar starting light was inspired by the ambiance and intensity of the NHRA’s season-closing race:  “The opportunity to run in front of that many people, on that caliber of race track was a very savory prospect,” he noted. “After the burnout and moving my car forward in preparation of the run, was the first time I became aware of just how many people were watching. It was a very cool sight.

“The car felt strong going down the track,” he explained. “I had strong, high header flames all the way until a rocker arm broke at around 1000′, followed by a burst-panel explosion.”

The engine damage slowed the hard-charging steed, enabling Harris to blast by Sorokin and take the event win.

“They won it with a 5.74 to our 5.88,” Sorokin concluded. “But I could not be more proud to be a part of the team—we made a valiant effort. The ride back up the return road blew me away. I could not believe the great reception we received from all the fans! It made the whole journey worthwhile.”

Perhaps the fans’ accolades were in recognition of the notion that—as the drag-racing punditocracy has already noted—Champion and Van Dyke Motorsports may have lost Pomona’s battle, but they had already won the war. They are the 2010  NHRA Heritage Series Top Fuel Champions.–Cole Coonce-

“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.

Photo Sean Work of the Bakersfield Californian. Click here for tickets and information on the upcoming 2010 NHRA World Finals

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

South San Francisco, California USA – More nitromethane through the pipes is always a good thing. Just ask the Champion Speed Shop, who will field not one but two supercharged front engine top fuel dragsters for the 2010 drag racing season. The South San Francisco crew will run with an all-new Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered Retroliner entry in the NHRA Heritage Series points battle, and retain the Chevrolet-powered flip-top canopy Special for select vintage drag racing events. This unique situation makes driver Adam Sorokin the only man in drag racing to have a choice between a top fuel Chevy or nitro-huffing hemi to hammer down the full 1320 feet of the quarter mile.

The latest Champion Speed Shop creation features a Rodeck hemi engine between the Neil and Parks frame rails. The Guy Ruchonnet body panels wear a paint treatment that only Art Himsl himself could create. The car is ready to put the twist to the Hoosier tires, and driver Adam Sorokin is ready for twice nitromethane behind the wheel of a machine that hearkens back to the late sixties while running quicker, faster, and safer than ever before.

“This thing is really beautiful”, said Sorokin of the new hemi-powered car.

The psychedelic-era Art Himsl paintwork was still curing on the panels when the team rolled up to Sacramento Raceway for testing just one Sunday before from the final round of top fuel eliminations at the 52nd running of the Bakersfield March Meet. The team and car will descend onto the legendary patch this weekend March 5th, 6th, and 7th 2010.

Information on the 52nd running of the legendary March Meet March 5th, 6th, and 7th at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield can be found here: Be There!

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Photos Dennis Barraza, Adam Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop lens crew.

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.

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