Top Fuel Motorcycle legend Larry “Spiderman” McBride was rained-out of his final two exhibition passes at this past weekend’s Night Under Fire from Norwalk, Ohio.
Before the event was called, McBride gave the thousands of motorcycle and drag racing enthusiasts in attendance some quality entertainment with an impressive 6.01 at 222 mph.
After crossing the finish line, McBride did something he has never done before. He pushed a button on his handlebar to deploy a parachute.
“It worked flawlessly. It was very smooth and really slowed the bike down,” McBride said of his new stopping apparatus. “It worked so well, that I waited too long to start applying the brake and ended up going off the track, 20 feet into the gravel pit. Fortunately nothing was damaged.”
After a heaving rain forced the cancellation of the remainder of the event, the 10-time champ spent the rest of the evening signing autographs.
“What an amazing event! I give Bill Bader and the staff at Summit Motorsports Park a ton of credit for putting on a great show and packing the stands with fans despite the rain,” McBride said. “I signed autographs for over three hours and went through over 3,000 hero cards. We sold a ton of tee-shirts and gave away a lot of great stuff. It’s very fulfilling to be able to give my sponsors such great exposure.”
McBride thanked sponsors; Pingel Enterprise, Trim-Tex Drywall Products, Drag Specialties-Parts Unlimited, Red Line Synthetic Oil Corporation, K&N Air Filters and Web-Cam 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.
