The California Hot Rod Reunion is a wildly popular event that features all things old school drag racing. The kings of the nostalgia drag racing scene are the front engine top fuel dragsters.  These cars are semi-period correct with modern advancements, feeding on nitromethane, and run it out the back door the full 1320 feet like the racing Gods intended. This March, Adam Sorokin not only got the win in the Top Fuel class, he reset the record for the quickest small block Chevrolet-powered vehicle ever with a 5.67 at over 240 miles per hour.

Sorokin is no stranger to success in drag racing behind the wheel of the Champion Speed Shop AA/FD dragster. The team has a trophy case full of hardware and series championships that shows they know how to turn on the win light in the competitive world of nostalgia drag racing. What really sets the Champion Speed Shop machine apart is its choice of power plant, which isn’t the commonplace Chrysler-inspired Hemi, but a small block Chevrolet. The engine uses a big block-style, splayed valve head design from Alan Johnson Performance Engineering. Yes, the same Alan Jonson that’s won everything there is to win in NHRA Top Fuel racing.

In this great video from Les Mayhew at Nitro America you get to see Sorokin make the Hemi-powered racers in the field sweat in epic fashion. The Champion Speed Shop team dialed up the big boy tune and let the mouse out to play laying down an insane 3.77 at 211 to the eighth-mile and ran it through the boards with a 5.67 at 247 MPH in the back half to finish off the run, just edging out what’s believed to have been the former small block record of 5.68, set by Top Alcohol Dragster legend Rick Santos nearly two decades ago.