AA/FD SET TO BATTLE FOR TITLE AT CHRR

Adam Sorokin takes direction from Champion Speed Shop owner Bob McLennan.With NHRA’s Heritage Series Points Title on the line, Top Fuel drivers Adam Sorokin and Rick Williamson will lead a field of 15 AA/Fuel Dragsters into battle this weekend at the 21st California Hot Rod Reunion in Famoso.

Sorokin, driving the Champion Speed Shop Chevrolet, is leading the series by 61 points -- less than three round of racing. Number 2 in points, Williamson, manning the Team Craig machine, will be gunning for the Champion Speed Shop dragster in hopes of upending Sorokin’s title quest. All of which matters little to East Coast and Midwest drag racers towing to Bakersfield looking to prove to Left Coast racers and fans that the baddest fuelers aren’t from California. Of those, strongman Tony Bartone and the Bartone Brothers car from New York is the fastest of them all, clocking a 274-mph top end speed earlier this year. Similarly, Midwest racer Paul Romine, taking the place of Jimi Young in Frank Ousley’s “Crop Duster” dragster out of Illinois, will attempt to post more 5.50-second elapsed times like those that his team recorded en route to winning this year’s Bakersfield March Meet. Moreover, for the first time this year accomplished journeyman Howard Haight will be racing the “Mr. Boston”car out west.

As always, consistently-fierce competitors Jim Murphy, Rick White and Rick McGee will all play a major role in setting the pace for the 21st Reunion in their Chrysler 392-type powered dragsters. In contrast to their approach, among entries sporting the 426-hemi powerplant are young gun Terry Cox, Brendan Murry and Dan Horan Jr.

Also competing will be “the World’s Fastest CPA,” Mendy Fry, the lone female of the group, piloting Mike Fuller’s explosive “Forever Young” car. Rounding out the field is respected wheelman Bill Dunlap in the “High Speed Motorsports” entry, as well as John Rasmussen driving for Bob Richardson’s “Circuit Breaker” machine and El Segundo peacenik beach-bum Jim Boyd and his vintage-perfect "Red Turkey."

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