Adam Sorokin is nothing short of driven. The son of drag racer Mike Sorokin, of the storied Surfers Top Fuel team of the 1960s, was born with pretty big shoes to fill. He might have opted not to even try, but the desire to race was something he was never able to deny, and years of determination came to fruition when he found himself in the Top Fuel winner’s circle at the Bakersfield March Meet, an event his father had won 44 years earlier.

Sorokin, a regular competitor in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series, drove his Champion Speed Shop Van Dyke Motorsports dragster to a 5.76 to 5.93 final-round victory over Howard Haight to earn his first March Meet trophy at historic Famoso Raceway.

Adam Sorokin runs a 5.764 at 241.64 at win the final round at the 52nd Annual March Meet.

His father’s life, punctuated by a voracious appetite for drag racing, was tragically cut short at Orange County Raceway in 1967, when Sorokin was just a year old. The elder Sorokin, who won the March Meet in 1966, wasn’t able to impress his appreciation for racing upon his son in person, but the gene was most certainly passed on, and replicating the Bakersfield triumph was what the younger racer called “a dream come true.”

“I wanted to win that race before I was ever even in a racecar,” said Sorokin. “I thought about it as a kid, but it was something so big that it was difficult to even conceive it as a possibility.

“It had been cold and cloudy all weekend, and right before we fired our cars for the final, the sun broke. I thought, ‘I sure hope somebody is up there looking down on me. I really want to win this.’ Winning that race was like winning the world series or the Daytona 500. It was huge.”

The journey that led to hoisting the March Meet trophy began before Sorokin even graduated kindergarten.

“I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I always knew I was going to be a drag racer,” said Sorokin. “When I was about four or five years old, my mom started taking me to Orange County Raceway to show me what my dad had done for a living, and meeting the drivers and seeing them in their helmets and firesuits sparked an interest pretty early for me.”

Sorokin’s mom, Robyn, handed out the Mike Sorokin Memorial Award to the track’s Driver of the Year, and Sorokin took over the honor in 1972. The regular trips to the racetrack and familiar warmth of the drag racing community fueled his interest in the lifestyle to the extreme, and the youngster visualized himself behind the wheel, bringing his visions to life in drawings of himself in stick figure form driving dragsters and Funny Cars. At 10 years old, he was the recipient of a monumental gift that exacerbated the dream; his mom gave him a box packed full of memorabilia from his dad’s days of racing.

“The box had every magazine article that my dad had been in, photo albums, 8×10 pictures, racing t-shirts, and even one of his helmets,” said Sorokin. “It was all given to me, and those 8×10 pictures were on my walls for years. I would just stare at them because they were the only way I knew my dad. I was in awe of him.”

The growing desire to walk in his father’s drag racing footsteps was countered by his mother’s strong wishes to keep him out of the profession. When Sorokin was 18, his world was changed by the news that his mother was terminally ill with stomach cancer, and in her final days, Robyn Sorokin gifted her son with a blessing to follow his heart.

Barely an adult and suddenly completely in command of his own destiny, Sorokin worked steadily towards his goal of becoming a racecar driver. Eventually, he had saved enough money to enroll in Jim Russell’s Racing School at Laguna Seca. Over the next few years, Sorokin tried his hand at everything from road racing to go karting, and in the late 1990s, he enrolled in a Super Comp course taught by Frank Hawley at Hawley’s drag racing school.

“That was the catalyst,” said Sorokin. “As soon as I got into a drag racing car, I felt like I was at home, and I knew it was what I should be doing.

“One of the reasons I wanted to drag race was because I hadn’t really known my dad, so I wanted to experience the things that he had experienced. Once I started doing it, I understood the man and why he had a love for it, and then I developed my own love. I wanted to do the work to be good at it.”

Sorokin returned to Hawley’s for an inter-school competition and tucked a slew of laps under his belt, all the while weighing out what his next step should be. Soon after, he got a glimpse of his future when Hank Bender, a close friend to his mom and dad, offered Sorokin the opportunity to take a few spins in his Junior Fuel front engine car. Gaining valuable and diverse experience behind the wheel was a plus, but Sorokin took a logical approach to his mission that might have seemed to some a step back.

“I knew that I really needed to show that I wanted to be there, and that just because I was somebody’s son, I didn’t expect that I would get to drive,” said Sorokin. “I realized that I needed to crew for somebody to get into the circle, so to speak. I did a few one-off deals, but I was a horrible crew guy. I could do what they told me to do, but I wasn’t mechanically gifted.”

Pushing through the self-described imperfection at the task, the aspiring driver put in his time with the wrenches and got lucky when a chance meeting eventually led to the opportunity to drive Dave Smith’s then-new alcohol Funny Car. With no experience in that type of a car, Sorokin made a phone call to Frank Hawley’s school and asked if they had a booklet that the students enrolled in the course used. The school was kind enough to send him a copy, and Sorokin studied it relentlessly, going through the procedures over and over again in his head.

When his firesuit was ready, he and the team headed to Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, Calif., where he earned his license upgrade in three runs. The next week he was the No. 1 qualifier in his first race. Sorokin lost first round, but he was off and running as a drag racer.

In his first season driving for Smith, Sorokin earned the CIFCA Rookie of the Year award, and he won the championship the following season. When the Smith deal ended, Sorokin claimed a position as back-up driver for the CIFCA Funny Car of Jim Broome for a brief spell, and then a chance at driving John Blanchard’s Nostalgia Top Fuel car came around.

Sorokin drove for Blanchard for a year and a half before being offered a ride in the Brian Van Dyke-owned Champion Speed Shop Top Fuel dragster, a seat he has occupied for the past five years.

Working his way up to his dream provided Sorokin with appreciation for everyone who contributes to the program, from car-owner Van Dyke to co-crew chiefs Bob McLennan and Tony Bernardini and the entire crew, along with his girlfriend, Jenni, and his son, Mikey.

“So many people have been influential in my life,” said Sorokin, who recently was runner-up at the second NHRA Heritage Series event of the season at Firebird Raceway in Boise, Idaho. “Pat Foster has been like a dad to me, and guys like Tom Jobe and Bill Alexander, back when I was starting to drive, a lot of these guys would talk to me and let me pick their brains. There are so many guys who were involved in this in the 60s and 70s, more than I can name, who were all very helpful, and the value of what they’ve done for me is so much more than I could even say.

“I love driving, and all of the little nuances of what makes you good at it; it’s neat to always be a student. I truly enjoy being in a car, being strapped in, and knowing that the car is mine once it starts but that it’s about teamwork. You have to have all of these guys who are each very good at what they do to make the car go down the track. This is an amazing family, and I’m very fortunate to be a part of it.”

The 2010 edition of the famous late-winter pilgrimage to the Famoso quarter-mile began with three CRX clients competing at the historic event. James Day entered the March Meet driving the “Foothill Flyer” Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster. Adam Sorokin competed in the same category behind the wheel of the brand new Champion Speedshop / Van Dyke Motorsports hemi-powered dragster. Jesse Adams raced in his 1969 Camaro in the very competitive Hot Rod category.

Jesse Adams drove his K&N Filters Camaro to a final round victory with a dead-on 11.23 et.

Jesse Adams drove his K&N Filters 1969 Chevrolet Camaro to a victory in the very competitive Hot Rod category with his final round victory, recording a dead-on 11.23 second elapsed time in the money round to take home the coveted March Meet title. “Tim, I just won the March Meet,” was the text message Adams typed to CRX Director of Communications and Marketing Tim Charlet only 4 minutes after he crossed the finish line.

“Winning this race had nothing to do with the money, it was about the history and prestige,” noted Adams. “Several drag racing legends have won races here at the March Meet. To be included in the same category as those guys is a huge honor. I’m just glad the K&N Filter’s Camaro was on fire this weekend. And the driver didn’t do that shabby either,” Adams said with a chuckle.

Adam Sorokin runs a 5.764 at 241.64 to win the final round at the 52nd Annual March Meet.

Second generation driver Adam Sorokin accomplished a life-long goal of winning the same historic race his legendary father, Mike Sorokin won in 1966. 44-years after his dad’s greatest victory, the “son of the surfer” has his own March Meet AA/FD championship. Sorokin’s final round 5.764 second elapsed time at a speed of 241.61 mph was the winner over Howard Haight’s 5.93-second 246 MPH effort. The triumph has been a long time coming for the Champion Speedshop / Van Dyke Motorsports team, who brought the all-new hemi-powered dragster to the 52nd March Meet with only a single test run complete, recorded one week before the race in Sacramento. Once at the March Meet the car went quicker and faster with each pass.

“It was an unbelievable race weekend for the entire team,” said Sorokin. “My mom told me I was conceived at this race track during this race when my dad won and to come back after all these years and win it is too big a dream to be true.”

The weekend did not end up as veteran nitro-pilot Day would have wanted, as cold track conditions threw the ‘Foothill Flyer’ crew a curve-ball and the make-shift team went home after a first round defeat. “I was simply honored to race this weekend,” noted Day. “This deal came about so quickly for us and the entire crew did a fabulous job, we just were not able to lay down a representative run. Hopefully, we’ll be able to compete at future events with this team.”

All-in-all, this weekend will go down as a historic one for the CRX Promotions team. It marked the first time two CRX Clients captured victory on the same day. The wins by Sorokin and Adams are victories number 2 and 3 for the CRX team of drivers while under the CRX banner. Tony Bartone and Rick Jackson Racing became the first clients to bring home a trophy for the CRX team when they captured the NHRA Division 4 LODRS event in Belle Rose, LA last year.

If this weekend is any indication of future performance, several other CRX clients will be adding to our team win total shortly.

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 Retro-liner entry in the NHRA Heritage Series point‚s 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 and 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.

Be There!

View Adam’s Team Page

For more info on the March Meet, March 5-7, 2010 at Auto Club Fomosa Speedway in Bakersfield, CA click here

The Juxtaposition Of Adam Sorokin, Born Into A Nitro Family And Carrying On The Legacy Of The Legendary Surfers Top Fuel Team

By Scotty Gosson

Photography by Darrell Conrad, John Durand, Courtesy Adam Sorokin Archive, Chris Graves

Drawn into the karmic vortex and spit out the other end, Adam Sorokin finds himself strapped into the slingshot and staring down a dragstrip about to swallow him whole in an insanely violent 5-second bite. Yellow flashes and he’s on a journey he had no choice but to make. Luckily, Adam is right where he wants to be: simultaneously going forward and backward at more than 260 mph.

In the Oct. and Nov. ‘98 issues of Hot Rod, Cole Coonce presented “The Epic Saga of The Surfers” (“How three bucks-down geeks single-handedly put Top Fuel on its collective head”-see it on HOTROD.com). Cole’s gonzo account of the unlikely heroship bestowed on The Surfers Top Fuel team ended with a clutch explosion and the tragic death of driver Mike Sorokin in 1967 at Orange County International Raceway. Cole wrote, “It was perhaps drag racing’s darkest moment and at the very least, an ugly punctuation to the legacy of The Surfers.”

He goes on to mention Mike Sorokin’s widow, Robyn, and son, Adam, leaving for Spain shortly after the funeral; notes that Surfer Bob Skinner vanished from the hot rod scene altogether (except for a hilarious sighting at The Surfers induction into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame); then wraps up the story with a quote from Surfer Tom Jobe on the state of Top Fuel: “Rules create a funnel, and at the end, this just creates red dragsters and green ones and blue ones. Rules end up defining the vehicle: the wheelbase, the height, the width. The only thing left is the color, and that is taken care of by the sponsor. That’s evolution.” All three of The Surfers understood evolution, but none of them could have seen Adam Sorokin in the rearview mirror.

Read full article at hotrod.com

Adam Sorokin

From HotRod.Com

For second generation Nostalgia Top Fuel driver Adam Sorokin, The 18th running of the California Hot Rod Reunion, presented by Automobile Club of Southern California, is more than a drag race, it is an opportunity to pay tribute to some of the legends who created the sport of drag racing. The fact Sorokin will do this driving the Champion Speed Shop’s potent nitro-methane powered slingshot at the legendary Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield is icing on the cake.

“I have attended 14 of these events and every year the show and history gets more surreal,” noted Sorokin, the Glendale, Calif. driver who is competing in his fifth reunion. “From door cars to our Nitro Nostalgia front-motor dragster, there is a class for everyone to watch and enjoy. Everywhere you look legends from the golden age of drag racing as well as present day players are walking the pits and checking out the scene. It’s an event like no other.”

Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop team, who campaign the only small-block Chevy entered in Nostalgia Top Fuel, head into this year’s reunion after a final round appearance at the recently completed Governors Cup held at Sacramento Raceway. Sorokin and his team are confident their little mouse motor will match up well against the hemi contingent. “I’m excited to race at the Hot Rod Reunion with a car capable of running with the Hemi’s,” stated Sorokin. “The car ran really well at Sacramento last month. It had its best numbers to 60-foot and half track yet. Bobby McLennan and the team have really improved the performance of our car and it’s rapidly becoming a player.”

The reunion also gives Sorokin the pleasure of mingling with several of the legends of the sport who competed with his father, the late Mike Sorokin, who drove the Southern California based ‘Surfers’ legendary Top Fuel Dragster of the mid-1960’s. “I would love to do well at Bakersfield. It’s my favorite track and it’s the same track my father had his biggest success at (winning the ‘66 March Meet in Top Fuel). I really can’t stress how amazing this event has become. The Reunion is one of the best races of the year and it’s a thrill and an honor just to participate in it.”

The Nostalgia Top Fuel class will hit the Famoso Drag Strip on Friday October 16th at 2 p.m. for their first of two qualifying sessions. The second session will commence Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. with the first round of eliminations occurring later that afternoon.

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Bakersfield, Calif. – For second generation Nostalgia Top Fuel driver Adam Sorokin, The 18th running of the California Hot Rod Reunion, presented by Automobile Club of Southern California, is more than a drag race, it is an opportunity to pay tribute to some of the legends who created the sport of drag racing. The fact Sorokin will do this driving the Champion Speed Shop’s potent nitro-methane powered slingshot at the legendary Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield is icing on the cake.

“I have attended 14 of these events and every year the show and history gets more surreal,” noted Sorokin, the Glendale, Calif. driver who is competing in his fifth reunion. “From door cars to our Nitro Nostalgia front-motor dragster, there is a class for everyone to watch and enjoy. Everywhere you look legends from the golden age of drag racing as well as present day players are walking the pits and checking out the scene. It’s an event like no other.”

Sorokin and the Champion Speed Shop team, who campaign the only small-block Chevy entered in Nostalgia Top Fuel, head into this year’s reunion after a final round appearance at the recently completed Governors Cup held at Sacramento Raceway. Sorokin and his team are confident their little mouse motor will match up well against the hemi contingent. “I’m excited to race at the Hot Rod Reunion with a car capable of running with the Hemi’s,” stated Sorokin. “The car ran really well at Sacramento last month. It had its best numbers to 60-foot and half track yet. Bobby McLennan and the team have really improved the performance of our car and it’s rapidly becoming a player.”

The reunion also gives Sorokin the pleasure of mingling with several of the legends of the sport who competed with his father, the late Mike Sorokin, who drove the Southern California based ‘Surfers’ legendary Top Fuel Dragster of the mid-1960’s. “I would love to do well at Bakersfield. It’s my favorite track and it’s the same track my father had his biggest success at (winning the ‘66 March Meet in Top Fuel). I really can’t stress how amazing this event has become. The Reunion is one of the best races of the year and it’s a thrill and an honor just to participate in it.”

The Nostalgia Top Fuel class will hit the Famoso Drag Strip on Friday October 16th at 2 p.m. for their first of two qualifying sessions. The second session will commence Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. with the first round of eliminations occurring later that afternoon.

For more information about this year’s California Hot Rod Reunion, please visit the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum website