While it takes a team to win a drag race, the crew chief leads the way. Steve McBride of Cycle Specialist has play a vital role in Larry’s many championships.

While the actual numbers produced by the bike are highly classified at this time, I can say this about the new bikes performance: of the handful of passes the new bike rendered during two days of testing, the McBride brothers were not unhappy when they packed up after the testing session. In fact, after one run, you could hear Steve McBride's impressions of the new bike’s performance with or without headphones on, no matter where you were in the pit/starting line area. He liked it – with gusto.

The McBride's previous Top Fuel bike "Blue," was the culmination of twenty plus years of refinement. This new bike is everything they learned from racing "Blue" with the latest in modern technology applied to the new creation. It's to be expected they will re-write the record books with the new bike and set a new standard for T/F motorcycles the world over.

Incidentally, Blue's best numbers, historically were a quickest of 5.74 and a top MPH of 248. I predict one if not both of these numbers will fall before season's end in 2016.

FNGs: In a recent phone call with Dennis Bradley during the first week of March, Dennis confirmed that his new T/F bike built by Sam Wills of Oklahoma, at Innovative Frameworks, is slated to begin testing by mid March. "Yes we plan on being at the opening race for the MANCUP series if all goes well."

While fans are likely to see the new Bradley bike in competition early in the season, the new bike that Terry Kizer is set to pilot is close, but not quite ready for competition just yet. This new T/F bike, another Sam Wills creation, is in final stages, but fans will have to wait until later in the year to see this bike in full competition.