There are a myriad of reasons for the keen interest in Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragsters (N/TF) these days. Some enthusiasts have a blinding interest in nitromethane, but a state-of-the-art NHRA fueler is out of reach. Others love N/TF for its own heads-up merits. Or, for Bob McLennan, it has just been a meaningful part of the family legacy.
“My dad, Jim McLennan, opened up Champion Speed Shop in 1958 in south San Francisco and then started Half Moon Bay Dragstrip when I was four years old,” McLennan recalls. “I was towed to the dragstrip every weekend, which quickly expanded to owning Cotati Drag Strip.”
As Bob grew up with his father, he was all about the motorsport business. They ran the McLennan-owned Champion Speed Shop/Machine Shop, Fremont Dragstrip, and Champion Speedway. Jim also had his hand in nearly every Nor-Cal racetrack and car club, plus plenty of other speed-related businesses, not to mention having his son in tow during it all.
Bob McLennan spent his youth beside his father, Jim (left), who was prolific with everything speed in Northern California, from Champion Speed Shop to founding multiple dragstrips and car clubs. Jim’s Champion Speed Shop dragsters were cutting edge over the years, including the body stylings shown here that still carry on with Bob’s current reincarnation.
“During those years, I was in dragstrip operations,” McLennan says. “We ran the three tracks, and I was either running the ticket booth, building a new ticket booth somewhere else, cooking hamburgers, or taking tickets…you name it. It was wonderful.”
With all this involvement in the sport, Jim was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, and their Champion Speed Shop Top Fuel dragsters are a key part of that drag racing history. We could more than fill this single article with the family history around everything McLennan and drag racing, but we’re showcasing the present day and where Bob “Bobby” McLennan has carried the Champion Speed Shop name.
McLennan’s entry is unique compared to the multitude of Hemi-powered dragsters in N/TF. His father always believed in the small-block Chevy as a competitive nitro combination. Bob follows that belief, using a billet 377 cubic-inch setup with a CN billet block and Champion Speed Shop/Alan Johnson-developed heads. Even the N/TF guys are not afraid of pushing their engines to the point of massive destruction, as you can see at right.
This generation of Bob’s dragster is a leading…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at DragzineDragzine…