McBride Goes 5 for
5 in Virginia
Six-time
AMA/Prostar Top Fuel champion Larry McBride made history at the Lucas
Oil Spring Nationals from, Dinwiddie, VA, where along with winning the
race, the champ also blasted out five sub-six second runs in as many attempts.
McBride, the only rider to eclipse the six-second mark, is now the first
to complete an event with all five-second elapsed-times. McBride’s
cluster of crowd-pleasing runs ranged from 5.99 to 5.89.
“It was awesome. Everything lined up,” McBride said. “To
run fives we have to hit the tune-up and have the right track. We had
both. I give my crew all the credit in the world. To unload and run fives
right out of the box is pretty special.”
McBride recorded the quickest 60-foot time of his career, launching his
1,000-plus horsepower nitro-guzzling Kawasaki to the first 60-feet in
a mind-boggling .998 seconds.
“I’m thrilled anytime we can get the bike to the first 60
in under a second,” McBride said. “It was accelerating very
hard.”
McBride ran into the fives for the first
time in 1999 at an NHRA race in Houston. Since then he has lowered the
national ET mark several times, and currently holds it with an impressive
5.86.
McBride’s weekend was made even more special by the dozens of friends,
family, and sponsors that were in attendance at what McBride considers
his home track.
“It was great to see everybody there. It’s like a family reunion,”
McBride said. “We knew coming in that we wanted to put on a good
show for everybody. We really appreciate the support.”
With the victory, his second of the year, McBride has regained the points
lead and is 46 points ahead of second place Chris Hand. Of course that
doesn’t mean much to the McBride.
“We’ve never looked at points,” McBride said. “We
just go out and try to race the track each run. We have great racers in
this class and things are getting very competitive. I think Chris Hand
going 6.12 is a good example of that. We try to just stay focused on running
our own race.”
Next up for Team McBride will be the AMA/Prostar PR Factory Store Nationals
from St. Louis, MO, June 4th-5th, at beautiful Gateway International Raceway.
This is the same venue where McBride set the 5.86 mark last season.
“We’re excited,” McBride said. “St. Louis is another
great track. We’re going to take the bike all the way down to the
frame and get ready to go do it again.”
McBride 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, Muzzys
Performance, Web-Cam, Kibblewhite Precision Machine, Vanson Leathers,
Performance Machine, Belt Drives Ltd, Street & Competition, Trac 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.
