The Pingel NHRA Top Fuel Motorcycles came to Brainerd International Raceway in Northen Minnesota on August 15-17 looking for a break from previous round Virginia’s blazing heat. They eventually found it, but not on Friday. The first round of qualifying was unseasonably hot and humid for Brainerd.
Larry “Spiderman” McBride and his tuner/builder/brother Steve thrived in the heat of their home state Virginia, setting an NHRA 1000 foot record of 242.93 mph there. Ditto on Friday in Brainerd, where they rolled off the trailer with a new NHRA 1000-foot ET record 4.812 at 242.67, once again delivering in the heat.
“That probably would been a 5.70 (in the quarter),” said Larry, who did step it up from their Virginia tune-up. “Brainerd was a better track, so we put timing and blower in. It went down the track and didn’t smoke the tire! The track was so much better and we could definitely give it more power.”
That was considerably quicker than anyone else, with Elmeri Salakari clocking in second with a 5.91 at 152. Elmeri’s dad Jaska took the initiative to install a new set of cams since testing the previous weekend at the AMRA race at Byron Dragway.
The Salakari’s were struggling with the classic internal combustion question plaguing everything from lawnmowers on up: is the problem fuel or ignition? Salakari’s FuelTech fired, supercharged Harsh V-Twin is considerably more complex than a Briggs & Stratton, so the search was real.
Mitch Brown’s team began what would be a weekend long test of perseverance by pushing the head gasket out on all sides. “That was a mistake I made assembling the engine, which I never have done in my 37 years of racing,” noted Brown.
Bob Malloy had new tire blues and didn’t post a representative time.
Micah Fenwick started the round off by spinning the tire, but also getting no time when the NHRA apparently forgot to switch the timing system after the sleds ran.
As the day dragged on, Q2 was postponed to Saturday and there would be no Q3. Saturday morning started with a lengthy rain delay, with the bikes not hitting the track until after 3:00pm
When the bikes returned to the track, Larry ran 4.84 at 239. “Just kind of left it alone, just to see if it would just go out there and repeat. Just trying to keep the tune-up the same. So, it went out there in the opposite lane and I think it repeated fairly close.”
Fenwick rebounded with a 5.21 at 183, and Malloy seemingly put his new tire problems behind him with a 5.08 at 208, Salakari rani 5.17 at 204, and Brown made another slow pass with a Frankensteined back-up head
The first round of eliminations ran at nearly 6:30 pm Saturday with an agreeable air temperature of 71 degrees, relative humidity 79 percent, barometer 29.99 inches, and an adjusted altitude of 2,842 feet.
Malloy’s weekend ended shockingly early when he apparently spun at the hit against Brown. By the end of the weekend, his grip on second in points dropped to only 25 ahead of Brown. “Total disappointment pretty much sums it up,” said Malloy, who beamed confidence in the staging lanes up to that point.
As for Brown, his round win in the other lane was fairly spectacular as his engine flashed brightly at the hit and pumped fuel out of one pipe and the head as he stayed on it to the stripe. “That head was Fubar and we knew it probably wouldn’t make it,” said Mitch. “It was our oldest head that had been repaired about 35 times and we knew that it may only have one more run in it and it actually made two.
“It had a big insert for a spark plug where it had been welded up several times and it torched out a little hole in the insert next to the spark plug and that’s what was pumping fuel out of the spark plug hole. We all thought the spark plug blew out but it was still there. The amount of fuel coming out of the plug hole with the plug in it was impressive.”
That was followed by a great race between Fenwick and Salakari. Micah took the tree .128 to .161 and both had identical 1.070 60 foot times. Fenwick was then quicker at the 330 and eighth mile before going 5.19 at 196 to Elmeri’s winning 5.12 at 222.
“First round against Elmeri was a close one,” said Fenwick. “We left on him and were ahead the whole run till the last 50 feet when he got by me, My bike never shifted into high gear and dropped a hole at 3.8 seconds into the run due to no load on the motor, and we lost by .038. Was a tough loss, but we sure gave the crowd a good race.”
Fenwick has run 5.17 in testing, but this 5.19 was his official NHRA personal best. “Feels pretty damn good,” said Micah.
McBride had the bye and ran another 4.84 at 242—the world’s quickest, fastest bracket bike. “We were just trying to keep up with the air,” reported McBride, who pondered a future running the bike at big money bracket races…
E2 was also delayed when rain started falling as the bikes were two pair of Alcohol Dragsters away from getting in the waterbox. The day was noticeably cooler—69 degrees with a relative humidity of 71 percent, barometer 30.02 inches, adjusted altitude 2,575 feet, and track temperature 84 degrees when the bikes ran at 3:00pm.
Brown borrowed an engine from Sam Wills and had the bye. “We should do much better today with four cylinders,” said Mitch.
But the result was another flash two and a half seconds into the run, another engine failure. “Everyone asked how the weekend went. My answer: sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug. This weekend we were the bug.”
A bug with a costly three engine repair bill. “I think they call it a perfect storm trifecta. Three completely different crazy things. Top Fuel motorcycle racin’ is hard.”
Salakari then put up a good fight against McBride, who took the tree by .007 and led 1.05 to 1.06 at 60 foot, 2.61 to 2.70 at the 330, 3.79 at 207 to 3.99 at 191 at the eighth mile, 4.77 at 245 to 5.10/221 1000 foot. Larry’s 4.77 at 245 set both ends of the record.
“Blast of a weekend, even if it wasn’t the result we were looking for,” said Elmeri. “Set a new personal top speed record at 222.33 mph, and the bike was running clean to the line without dropping holes.
“Unfortunately, the clutch wasn’t working at all. We tried different things, but nothing seemed to fix it. Losing in the semis left us disappointed, but we’ll regroup and come back stronger. Huge thanks to (Nitro) Jeesus (Ari Lapiolahti) and FuelTech—without you guys this wouldn’t have been possible!”
With no motors left, Brown was unable to make the final. Running solo in the left lane, Larry flashed out a head gasket for his first mechanical failure in nearly two full seasons of racing.
“Racing 1000 foot has helped us a whole lot,” McBride said about the lack of destruction other than routine maintenance. “But now it’s probably got a half inch hole in it— at least.”
A cost worth the result of McBride’s second straight Pingel NHRA Topp Fuel Motorcycle championship—secured this year afetr only three of four races.
McBride had his long list of sponsors and team to credit. “I would like to thank Pingel Enterprise, Drag Specialties, Vance & Hines Motorsports, Bill Miller Engineering, Trim-Tex, Web Cam, Worldwide Bearings, A.P.E., Final Swipe, Mickey Thompson Tires, Red Line Oil, Torrence Racing, Simpson Race Products, Goodridge Hose and Fitting, Belt Drives Ltd., B&J Transmission, Beringer Brakes, Boninfante Friction, Brocks Performance, BST Wheels, Cometic Gaskets, D.M.E., Ferrea Valves, Kibbelewhite, LA Sleeve, MPS, PR Factory Store, Valco, Dean Dubbin and DMP Awnings, Dave Dunigan and Jimmy Brantley.
This report was prepared by Tim Hailey. Enjoy everything there is to read, see and watch about motorcycle drag racing and more at https://www.eatmyink.com ;
This story was originally published on August 27, 2025. 
