Re-Posted from www.hotrod.com
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.
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