Five-time AMA/Prostar Top Fuel champion Larry “Spiderman” McBride added yet another event win to his already lengthy resume at the Pingel Thunder Nationals from Indianapolis, IN, August 12-13.

“It was a beautiful weekend,” said McBride, who claimed his fifth victory of the season. “The weather was great and the track was really good.”

McBride defeated his teammate, defending AMA/Prostar Top Fuel champ Jimmy “Hulk” Brantley in the final with a 5.99 to Brantley’s 6.14. Indy marked the sixth consecutive event that McBride and Brantley have respectively advanced to the final.

“It hasn’t been easy. We got some real good bikes out there. Korry Hogan ran an awesome 6.17,” McBride said. “We definitely had to earn it.”

McBride and Brantley displayed remarkable consistency throughout the weekend by running no slower than 6.14 all weekend. McBride had low elapsed time and top speed of the meet with a 5.99 at 237 mph.
“It was lot of hard work,” McBride said. “We were actually having some problems with the tune-up. We have a great crew and they were able to stay on top of it. We decided to just take baby steps instead of jumping around. The worst 60-foot time we had all weekend was a 1.05.”

Brantley agreed that the weekend was a tremendous success thanks to the knowledge of the team.
“Indy is an awesome track and we ran some really good numbers there,” Brantley said. “It’s due to a great crew, and Larry has years of experience at IRP. Steve (McBride) and Roland (Stuart) really know how to set the bike up for this place.”

Next up for team Spiderman will be its long awaited return to Atco Raceway in N.J., for the 40th annual Orient Express US Nationals.

“Atco has always been one of my favorite tracks,” McBride said. “Me and Elmer (Trett) used to match race there all the time.”

Current AMA/Prostar Top Fuel Points
(After 6 of 8 events)

Larry McBride 622
Jimmy Brantley 530
Korry Hogan 250
Tommy Smith 168
Ron Webb 157

The team thanked; Pingel Enterprise, Trim-Tex Drywall Products, Drag Specialties-Parts Unlimited, Red Line Synthetic Oil Corporation as well as his other sponsors:

Vance & Hines Motorsports, PR Factory Store, Muzzys Performance, Web-Cam, Kibblewhite, Ferrea Valves, Precision Machine, Vanson Leathers, Performance Machine, Belt Drives Ltd, Street & Competition, Traci Dynamics, 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 Nology Engineering, Mickey Thompson Tires, Corbin Seats, Stark Masonry, and Valco