Wow seems so inadequate.
On Saturday, May 14, 2022, during an exhibition run between two of the leading inline four-cylinder Top Fuel racers at the NHRA Virginia Nationals, Larry “Spiderman” McBride and Dave Vantine delivered the finest side-by-side performance in the history of two-wheel drag racing.
McBride now stands as the fastest in the world with a 268.38 miles per hour blast and 5.618 elapsed time, beating out Vantine’s 5.892, 252.90.
The run at Virginia Motorsports Park was exactly what McBride was shooting for.
“We tuned exactly for that,” McBride said. “We put our 260-mile-per-hour tune-up in it, and we fully expected it to give us a 5.70 or 5.60 something, so really, we performed right where we wanted to be.”
McBride confided on Saturday that these bikes are certainly capable of running upward of 270 miles per hour.
“I see 270 miles per hour as doable,” McBride confirmed. “Not that we want to do that kind of speed on a motorcycle, but that is reachable. As for the elapsed times, 5.40’s are not out of the question.”
While a 5.89 is no pushover, Vantine said he came loaded this weekend for McBride.
“We ALWAYS get up for a race against the McBrides,” Vantine said. “Larry and his brother Steve are the toughest in the business; you must be ready for a fight if you’re going to race against these guys. We were shooting for a 5.80-ish run at close to 255, we’ve been as quick as 5.71, so we knew we were in the ballpark. Our 5.89 at 252 was about right.”
Being the quickest and fastest motorcycle racer is nothing new to McBride. His 5.50 elapsed time pass run in 2019 was at 265.96 and stood as the benchmark for Top Fuel motorcycles. It is clear that McBride’s mentor, the late Elmer Trett, is smiling big right now.