Jim McLennan
Probably no one can tell you when Jim’s love affair with cars and racing began. As far as he can recall, it was always a part of him. In 1957 Jim opened the doors on Champion Speed Shop in South San Francisco and introduced one of the very first speed equipment stores into the area. His goal was to help the local hot rodders get quality speed parts at fair prices, which he did.
In 1958 Jim built and began campaigning his Champion Speed Shop, blown small block Chevrolet-powered Top Fuel dragster, which he ran until 1963. 1961 was the car’s best year for performance, during which time Jim captured the #2spot in the Drag News Top Ten list and narrowly missed out for the #1 spot held by Vance Hunt at the time. Jim and his dragster were also crowned the California State Champions in 1961. During the fuel ban NHRA and some of the local race tracks, Jim campaigned a twin engine Chevrolet powered dragster that was popular and successful at that time.
Jim was one of the very first drivers in any class to wear a fire suit, his first one being a proximity suit he borrowed from the nearby San Francisco airport fire department. After Rod Stuckey was burned so badly at Half Moon Bay, Jim required all of his drivers to wear this type of fire suit until the newer and improved ones were introduced into the sport.
Not content to just be a speed shop owner, a car builder and a driver, Jim opened Half Moon Bay Drag Strip in 1957 and not long afterward opened Cotati Drag Strip. Half Moon Bay ran on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month, and Cotati ran the 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month, which allowed Jim to personally oversee them. Jim’s racetracks maintained some of the best safety records of any racetracks open at this time. However, he didn’t stop with just safety; nearly every name driver/owner competed at his tracks over the years and managed to set a lot of speed and ET records along the way. The main reason Jim retired the Champion Speed Shop Fuel Dragster in 1963was because that was when he opened Champion Speedway, a 1⁄2 mile oval track near Candlestick Park in San Francisco. In 1967 Jim took over the ownership and operation of one of the nation’s best-known racetracks, Fremont Drag Strip. Not content with just the oval track at Champion Speedway, in 1973 Jim added an NHRA sanctioned 1/8 mile drag strip. The opening event featured a match race between Don Prudhome and Don Garlits, both of whom were still competing in front engine fuel dragsters. Still the consummate racer, in November of 2006, Adam Sorokin drove Jim’s Bryan Van Dyke/Champion Seed Shop nostalgia Top Fuel dragster to the quickest Nostalgia Drags ever run with 5.70 ET.
Not ready to completely retire from racing as a car owner, in 1985 Jim and his sons enlisted the help of Roy Brizio, recreating and updating both the single engine and twin engine Champion Speed Shop cars, which he now enters into all of the nostalgia drag races he can possibly make.
Jim was inducted into NHRA Hall of Fame along with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, California in 1993. Champion Speed Shop was chosen for the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion spotlight.