2 x 5 = Top Fuel History at MIR

Words and photos by Tim Hailey and Genie Muldoon

For the first time ever at a Mickey Thompson MIROCK Superbike Series event, Top Fuel motorcycles took to the meticulously prepped quarter mile at Maryland International Raceway. It was the WPGC Bike Fest this past weekend, July 25-27, and while just being there guaranteed a certain amount of history for both the series and the sport, no one was expecting a significant milestone moment. So when the scoreboards lit up with the world’s first ever side-by-side, 5 second motorcycle pass, pandemonium spread through the record-setting crowd.

Larry “Spiderman” McBride is also known as “First in the 5s,” a now 15-year old achievement for the Virginia racer and his tuner/brother Steve. But although the McBrides have run more 5 second passes than they can count, few have followed and the MTC 5 second club just closed its membership (limited to the first eight to do so) this past April with Ian King. And even though McBride and Korry Hogan sparred quite a bit with their 5 second bikes a few years ago, they’d never run 5s at the same time.

Nitro newcomer David Vantine had raced with King for that last spot in the club but come up short. Riding Greg Pollard’s low-slung yellow screamer, Vantine was at MIR to run four match races with McBride. After running a 5.97 shakedown pass on Saturday, McBride slipped up into the 6s and Vantine was running between 6.10 and 6.34.