After a trouble-filed 20-hour drive to St. Louis, Larry McBride made history on day one of eliminations of the PR Factory Store Nationals by recording Gateway International Raceway's first five-second motorcycle pass. This blast of 5.995 seconds in qualifying was the 12th sub six-second run of McBride's career.

"To be able to come to a track we have never been to before and unload out of the box with a five on the first day was unbelievable," McBride said. "On our first pass we went 6.02 and smoked the tire in the middle of the track. We came back to the pits and decided to soften it up a bit. The air and the weather really came around for us in the second session."

Heading into eliminations McBride had won 16 of the last 20 AMA/Prostar races dating back to the 1999 season. After veteran Tommy Smith failed to qualify, McBride was awarded a bye in round one. Alongside an "exhibition only" Tommy Smith, McBride clicked off a 6.00 to get to the stripe first.

"I was disappointed Tommy couldn't race but I think it was great that he came out and put a show on for the fans," McBride said. "The 6.00 was a really clean run for me. Gateway International is the smoothest track I have been on ever. I'm really looking forward to coming back next year."

In the final McBride met up with his long-time nemesis Ron "The Ice Man" Webb. Webb had improved to an impressive 6.13 in the semi-finals, so the McBride crew knew they needed to get aggressive with the tune-up. The end result was a smoke-filled final with both competitors spinning the tire. McBride reached the finish line first to pick up his 27th career AMA/Prostar victory.

"We got a little greedy on the set-up," McBride said. "We were a little worried about Ron because he had been running very well and we knew he was plenty capable of going even quicker. We put some more fuel to it and took a tooth away from the blower. Unfortunately the track just couldn't hold it."

McBride was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief in the winner's circle after nearly not making it to the race.

"I didn't finish the last motor until 6:30 Thursday afternoon," McBride said. "We drove all night to make it in time and ended up blowing out a tire and tearing the shocks off our trailer. We were working alongside the road at 4:30 in the morning. A lot of people don't realize we aren't like the big NASCAR and NHRA guys. We have to do all of the work ourselves and I am just thankful I have such great sponsors and a wonderful crew."

McBride expressed gratitude to all of his sponsors and looks forward to seeing them at upcoming races. McBride thanked; Pingel Enterprise, Trim-Tex Drywall Products, Drag Specialties-Parts Unlimited, RedLine Synthetic Oil Corporation as well as his other sponsors:

Muzzys Performance, Web-Cam, Kibblewhite Precision Machine, Vanson Leathers, Performance Machine, Kawasaki USA, Belt Drives Ltd, Triton Corp (Kool-Bak), Street & Competition, Trac Dynamics, Simpson Race Products, Nitrous Express, APE, EK Chain, Arias, R&D Spring, 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 Vance & Hines Motorsports.