Top Fuel Motorcycle drag racing legend Larry “Spiderman” McBride has again made history.
At an event dedicated to the Spiderman’s late mentor, the AMA Dragbike Elmer Trett Nationals from Atlanta Dragway, April 4-5, McBride lowered the motorcycle quarter-mile elapsed-time world record to a 5.793. McBride previously held the mark at a 5.799.
“It’s really unbelievable because we honestly were not trying to set any records,” McBride said. “The conditions were great. The track was awesome all weekend long and everything fell into place.”
The run was the second quickest of McBride’s illustrious career, behind his unofficial 5.74, recorded at the end of the 2008 season in Valdosta, Ga.
McBride was awarded ten bonus points for making his 5.793 an official record with a back-up pass of 5.84.
“It was cool to take it from a 5.799 to a 5.793 because that means maybe we can do it again this season,” McBride said. “It’s always nice to break your own record.”
McBride’s speed on the record run was relatively low at 232 mph. In the past the nine-time champion has gone as fast as 244 mph on the Atlanta dragstrip.
“The back-half wasn’t as good as it should have been. We had great 60-foots but we were down on speed,” McBride said. “We are still trying to dial in our new supercharger.”
In the final McBride scored his second event win of the season by defeating Nitro Harley rider Armon Furr with a 5.93 at 210 mph to Furr’s 8.49 at 102 mph. Despite the victory the final round proved to be costly for the Spiderman.
“We broke a crankshaft before we got to the 1,000-foot mark. It let go at about 4.8 seconds into the run,” McBride said. “We ran 207 mph to the eighth and only 210 mph at the quarter.”
Fortunately for McBride the engine failure did not present a dangerous situation.
“It could have been bad but it wasn’t,” McBride said. “The motor locked-up but everything kept free-wheeling. The type of clutch we run keeps the wheels from locking-up.”
McBride joked about Armon Furr’s .069 reaction time compared to McBride’s .217.
“Those young guys made it tough on an old guy like me,” laughed McBride.
Overall McBride couldn’t have been happier with the consistency of his record-breaking machine during the first half of his runs. Throughout the weekend he recorded consistent 1.00 60-foot times and stopped the eighth-mile clocks at 3.83, 3.83, 3.77 and 3.84.
“As long as the track is good, you can get the short numbers and you don’t have to run the big speeds,” McBride said.
McBride is pleased to announce that XXX Racing Fuels has joined Team Spiderman’s quest for a tenth championship in 2009.
“XXX Racing Fuels has a great product,” McBride said. “I’m excited to be running their fuel and I’m really happy to have them on-board with us.”
Next up for McBride is the AMA Dragbike Spring Nationals from Memphis, Tenn., May 2-3.
The team thanked; Pingel Enterprise, Trim-Tex Drywall Products, Drag Specialties-Parts Unlimited, Red Line Synthetic Oil Corporation, K&N Air Filters, Web-Cam and XXX Racing Fuels as well as his other sponsors.
Vance & Hines Motorsports, PR Factory Store, Muzzys Performance, Ferrea Valves, Kibblewhite, Precision Machine, World Wide Bearings, Vanson Leathers, Performance Machine, Belt Drives Ltd, Street & Competition, Simpson Race Products, Nitrous Express, APE, EK Chain, Arias Pistons, R/D Spring Corp, Autolite, MSD, Protect ALL, Whipple Industries, Cometic Gaskets, B&J Transmission, Carolina Cycle, L.A. Sleeve, PJ1, Mickey Thompson Tires, Valco, Goodridge, Carlisle Belts and Gates Belts.
