NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Joe Sorensen has been a drag racer for decades, but he never even considered a world championship until this year. Midseason, it became apparent that he had a decent shot, and so the Woodburn, Ore., racer stepped into a battle royale with one of the top racers in the nation and played an exceptional game all the way to the final division race of the year.  

“I was running up a pretty good points tally, and a lot of people around me were telling me to do this, do that,” said Sorensen. “I’ve attended enough races the last few years to have a full quota, so I thought, ‘I’m just going to do what I normally do and see how it turns out.’ Fortunately, it turned out very well.” 

Typically, Sorensen starts with the goal of winning a division championship and finishing in the top 10 nationally. He and his brother, Hal, have raced together for many years out of the Pacific Northwest, and they have their routines down pat. Their history stretches back to bracket racing an ’86 Camaro with a 305 V-8 at Woodburn Dragstrip, their local racetrack, where they both became multi-time track and division champions before the NHRA Summit Racing Series Finals were introduced and there was a national title up for grabs.  

Running with the doorslammer crowd, the Sorensen brothers met racers who participated in Stock eliminator-style racing as far back as the 1970s. Intrigued by the class, they decided to put together a Stocker of their own. The first national event they ever attended locked them in for life: Hal was runner-up at the 1993 NHRA Sonoma Nationals. Sorensen reached his own first final at the same event three years later.  

“At that point, it was like, this is something we want to do,” recalled Sorensen. “Consequently, we started making the car better and better – my brother is a very high-level machinist and does a lot of mechanical stuff, and I’m a fabricator guy; welding and metal fab was my deal. We ended up doing pretty well, set national records, and ended up winning a couple of divisional championships back-to-back [1997-98] before we sold that car, and I took a couple of years off from racing.” 

When Sorensen returned, it was in a street car that he and his brother turned into quite a hot rod. He purchased the ’69 Camaro from its original owner with a 307 and a Powerglide transmission, and eventually, it was outfitted with a 350-cid engine rated at 255 horsepower (factory) that he generally runs in G/SA and F/SA.  

“I don’t have the funds and ability to run Comp eliminator or Pro Stock, so my Stock eliminator car is my Pro Stock car, and I do everything I can within the rules to make it the best car I can,” said Sorensen, who stripped the car to a bare shell and built it from the ground up to his liking.  

“The reason I built this car is there are so many different classes it fits in with different engine combinations. Nothing winds my watch more than to go out and test. I don’t run my stuff on a dynamometer. I just love going over to the local track and seeing what we can do to make it faster. I pride myself on an extremely nice car that’s fast for its class, and I believe that the performance of the car is what won me the world championship.” 

Sorensen started the season with a heads-up win in round one over C.W. Hoefer at the Las Vegas NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, and there he raced all the way to the final round. Having a fast car continued to come in clutch over the course of his championship run; Sorensen emerged victorious from several other important heads-up races, including a second-round F/SA match with Jim Beuthel at Yellowstone Dragstrip and a fourth-round square-off with fellow G/SA campaigner Will Kelly at the Seattle divisional. Both races resulted in event wins for a charging Sorensen. 

The most notable heads-up race, though, took place on Monday at the rain-delayed conclusion of the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas. The race prior, the national event in Dallas, Sorensen met with Jimmy Hidalgo Jr. in the quarterfinals – his biggest threat for the championship – in a round that would give the winner the lead and hold weight in the championship chase. Hidalgo managed the finish line better for the high-value win, so heading into the Las Vegas national, Sorensen’s back was against the wall. He had to reach the final either there or in Pomona to pass Hidalgo. 

Sorensen did more than necessary at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as he raced his way to the heads-up F/SA final with Chad Langdon and beat him to the stripe, ultimately moving 23 points ahead of his championship challenger.  

“That was monumental,” said Sorensen, who pulled a massive wheelstand and recovered with a victorious 11.161 to 11.267. “I felt I had to have a win there to have a chance, and fortunately, we didn’t screw it up – although we tried to. [The wheelstand] got my attention, and it would have been less stressful for me without it, but it made for good pictures.” 

At that point, Hidalgo needed to win the fifth round of the divisional to get around Sorensen, and he would clinch the title if he won round six. In an effort to stop the young buck and unable to count points there, Sorensen moved into Hidalgo’s E/SA class and hoped for another heads-up. The clever plan was dashed when they qualified on opposite sides of the ladder, but it proved unnecessary anyway as Hidalgo was ousted in the fifth round by Parker Theobald by .006-second. Had Hidalgo won that round, he would have had a bye in round six and would have won the title. His loss there set the championship trophy in Sorensen’s hands. 

“I was going rounds, too, and I ran in front of him and lost that round,” said Sorensen. “I rolled down the return road, picked up my time slip, and waited to see what happened. The next thing you know, Hidalgo came whipping by me. I didn’t know if that was good or bad.” 

Sorensen soon found out that Hidalgo had lost his race and that he was a world champion for the first time. Ultimately, Sorensen finished with 712 points. Hidalgo finished with 711, just one point back, and became the first driver in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series to earn more than 700 and not win a world title. He did, however, win the Super Stock world championship, though he did so with 655 marks.  

“Winning this thing was a big deal,” said Sorensen. “We’re discussing what the goal is for next year – obviously, we want to win – but I don’t really know what’s in store. We’ve won the Allstars race, multiple division championships, now a [world] championship. I’m just trying to figure out what the next level is. The only thing I know for sure is that I don’t plan on quitting.” 

Sorensen thanked his brother, Hal; Robin Whitcomb; Jim Sigel and family; Karl Sprauer; Jeff and John Wenholz; Dan Hutchins and Hutchins Performance; Todd Rogers and Goodyear Race Tires; Jason Swift and Shelby Goodyear; John Partridge and Bullet Racing Cams; Rick and CP Pistons; the Severance family and Woodburn Dragstrip; Len Schneider torque converters; Ron Henderson and Tarr Oil/VP Fuel; Leo Glasbrenner and REMAC Transmissions; Calvin Elston; and Randy Manns and Fast Shocks. 

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