    rag Racing ace Larry “Spiderman” McBride opened the 2007 season with an undefeated streak as he sets his sights on an unprecedented eighth AMA/Prostar Top Fuel championship. Winning the first three events of the season, McBride now has more than 100 points on the current #2 rider, veteran Tommy Smith. “Three in a row is awesome,” said the always-energetic McBride. “This is a great way to open the season.”McBride is the unquestioned king of the sport, elevating past the positions held by the late Elmer Trett, the father of the modern Top Fuel bike, and Tony Lang, who won five championships in the 1990’s. Larry’s machine is the most ferocious motorcycle on the planet. Weighing in at over 1,000 pounds wet, the bike accelerates from a standing start to 100 miles per hour in less than 1.3 seconds. Propelled by a 1,500 horsepower, 1,325cc, supercharged nitro-breathing inline four-cylinder engine, McBride runs a quarter mile in 5.80 seconds at almost 250 mph. The visceral experience of witnessing him run the bike is one of the most unique and thrilling in all of motorsports. The pull of four G’s awaits him as he opens the throttle. With the front wheel in the air, McBride steers the bike by “crawling” over it–a technique that earned him the moniker “Spiderman.” He makes one shift and guides the bike through the quarter mile traps sometimes hanging off the side of the machine. All this while a supercharger is spinning at 16,000 rpm 12 inches from his chest. And as he will tell you, the hardest part is stopping the bike. At the opening event in South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, GA, McBride took advantage of a short field, qualifying number one at 6.01 seconds at 229 mph and winning the final round in a tire-smoking duel over the Nitro Harley of Ray Cason with a 6.74 elapsed time. “The first race of the season is difficult,” said Larry. “Typically we make changes to the motorcycle and the first race is like a test session. We set a baseline but we went too far off the tune-up in the final. But if you come away with a win and no one gets hurt you can’t complain.” The next event, at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, GA, McBride struggled with a 6.21 to qualify second in the field. He ran a 6.01 in round one of eliminations before rain postponed the remainder of the event until the next event on the tour, which would be at McBride’s home track of Virginia Motorsports Park. McBride’s racing operation is true family affair. Wife Kathy doubles as the team manager and team chef, preparing lavish meals for the crew, his aunts sell merchandize, but the key figure is brother Steve who is the engineer of the bike and makes the tuning calls. Longtime crewman and ex-Top Fuel pilot Roland Stuart fills out the team. The high-speed antics of Larry and Steve McBride go back to childhood where Steve–the mad scientist–was always constructing some sort of contraption that Larry–the daredevil–would gleefully pilot. They went from sand drags to nitro Harleys to their current world-class fuel bike. Together they run Cycle Specialists in Newport News, VA, supplying Top Fuel motorcycle components and complete motorcycles to clients worldwide. Cycle Specialists is also a Certified Sealed Engine Rebuilder, preparing Yamaha FJ1200 engines for the Legends oval track car series. Virginia Motorsports Park is less than two hours from the shop. The event is always well attended by family and friends and McBride has been undefeated at the track since it was added back to the Prostar schedule in 2002. It is also where he established his e.t. record of 5.809 seconds. “Our motorcycle loves that racetrack,” said McBride. “The event is a very important race for me. A lot of local friends and family only get to see me once a year and this is it. It is more pressure on me but it is better if you win.” McBride opened the 2007 event with his quickest run of the season, a 5.88 second blast. The event continued with the conclusion of the postponed Atlanta event where McBride got by former Funnybike champion Korry Hogan in the final with a 6.11 second charge run under the lights. “The best way for me to describe what it’s like to race Top Fuel at night is to tell you to get on your motorcycle or drive your car down the interstate and close your eyes,” said McBride. “It’s a pretty scary deal at 236 mph.” The next day McBride faced Hogan in the Virginia final. It almost didn’t come about as Hogan was out of parts but the McBride team loaned him what he needed and helped get the bike ready. “We wanted to give the fans a side-by-side show in the final,” said McBride. “We didn’t want to win on a bye.” McBride ended the weekend with a 6.01 victory over Hogan to stay undefeated for the season. As always, McBride is quick to shout out to his sponsors. “It costs a lot of money to do this,” he said. “I am very lucky because I have had great sponsors that have been with me for years. The Pingels, Joe Koenig from Trim-Tex and Drag Specialties are very important to this program. I really have to thank Fred Fox from Drag Specialties and Parts Unlimited for his personal involvement. He has been very supportive of our efforts.” After teammate Jimmy Brantley, the 2006 Top Fuel champion, was forced on the sidelines due to business responsibilities, McBride is once again the unquestioned performance leader of the class. An eighth championship is an almost foregone conclusion. “We are fortunate to have the performance advantage right now,” said McBride. “I don’t feel it is always going to be like that. We help everyone, even our competition. I love this class and the only way for it to survive is to have more people racing in it. We do whatever we can to help that situation.” Brantley’s championship machine is currently for sale. For $250,000 you too can be a Top Fuel Motorcycle pilot. Anteing up to purchase the bike is the easy part. The real challenge comes when you open the throttle! Matt Polito is a photographer and journalist specializing in motorcycle drag racing. We now feature his monthly “Straightline” column on PartsMag.com. He is also one of the owners of the motorcycle drag racing website www.DragBike.com.   In about six seconds, Larry McBride will have covered the quartermile race distance, and likely sent another hopeful challenger home. |
