Vantine near lane, McBride far side has become the norm at MANCUP races in the final round.  Larry knows if he spins the tire during elimination rounds, he’s got company.

His initial driving instructions by Larry McBride were simple.  Larry said to him “If you fuck with this it will kill you.  I’m not kidding.”  Larry got down to business, “Make a hit, take it out there a bit, and shut it off.”  This was Dave’s introduction to racing a Top Fuel bike for the first time.

Dave remembers the rest of the day very well “My first pass was just what Larry asked for, I took it out there, opened it right up, and then I shut it off clean.  Stevie McBride wanted to know where I was when I shut it off and I told him.  He smiled, because that was where the computer showed I chopped it.  Having awareness out there is everything in piloting a fuel bike.”  With a 1.00 recorded 60’ time on his maiden voyage on the bike, Larry quipped openly, “for a first pass on one of these things, that’s downright amazing.”

When Dave drove the bike onto the return road for the first time, he dismounted the bike and now recalls what that first pass was like: “When my hands stopped shaking, or at least when I thought they had, I tried to take my helmet off.  Couldn’t do it.  So I took off my gloves and took a few breaths and removed the helmet.”  Readers should note that this was the result of an adrenalin rush of the highest order, not fear, that had his hands quivering like a lose clutch lever on a chopper.

This was it for Dave Vantine; there was no turning back now.

His debut in Top Fuel bike competition was storybook.  Five months later in August of 2013, Dave piloted the bike to an excellent 6.17 elapsed time on what was really only his fifth full pass on the bike.  He qualified number three at the MANCUP, Pingle, Thunder Nationals.  He went out to Larry McBride in the first round of eliminations but his 6.17 qualifier proved Larry right; Dave could definitely pilot a Top Fuel bike and race it to its potential.

The ultimate confirmation of Dave Vantine’s capabilities as a T/F bike pilot came about one year later.  On Sunday July 27th, 2014, while match racing with his Top Fuel bike mentor, Larry McBride, the pair recorded the sport’s first ever side-by-side five second elapsed time runs.  They were doing exhibition passes during the MIROCK WPGC Bike Fest race at MIR in Budds Creek, MD.  Larry stopped the timing clocks with a fine 5.791 elapsed time with Dave Vantine right on his tail with a 5.974.

After this, there was no doubt left in anyone’s mind, Dave Vantine had stepped from the shadows and was now a Top Fuel bike racer capable of wining and contending for a championship.  In November of 2014, Dave qualified number two at the MANCUP World Finals, behind McBride, and in the season ending points for the year, he was again, right behind Larry McBride in points.

Does Larry feel Dave is a creditable threat for 2015?  Larry stated, “If I’m not on my game 100%, I’m in trouble.  Dave is quite capable of racing that bike, he’s proven that.”

With the 2015 MANCUP season being a four event series, and Vantine posting five second elapsed times, the answer speaks for itself.  Mr. Vantine is no longer a shadow warrior.