Six-time AMA/Prostar Top Fuel champion Larry “Spiderman” McBride made history at the Lucas Oil Spring Nationals 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 Spiderman. “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 Spiderman 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.”
