In the world of Pingel Top Fuel Motorcycle (TFM) drag racing, there are the Brothers McBride (rider Larry “Spiderman” and his mastermind crew chief / brother Steve), and there is everyone else. Amazingly, it’s been that way for over 25 years.
That’s how long ago it was that Larry rode the first ever 5 second motorcycle quarter mile pass at Houston. And other than the occasional step back to take five steps forward, it’s been pretty much all-McBrides ever since.
Their formula for all these years has been to bring a trailer full of nitro motors and break whatever it takes to shoot for records. “If you’re going to race me,” Larry once said about a team that wasn’t so aggressive in their approach, “You’re gonna have to work on your motorcycle!”
But this was a new deal, the first year of racing for an NHRA championship in a Pingel sponsored series. And after blowing off the tire and giving up the first round of eliminations in the first-ever NHRA Pingel Top Fuel Motorcycle season to Elmeri Salakari at Route 66 Raceway, the seriousness of their situation to claim this first NHRA championship with only three races left out of four must have become apparent to the McBrides.
“We thought we’d try some new stuff to run to the 1000 foot and it bit us in the butt,” Larry said about that first weekend in Joliet. “We got behind the 8 ball in points. All it would take was one mistake and we would have lost the championship.”
No such mistakes were made. From then on, the McBrides ran their Pingel-sponsored machine like the world’s baddest nitro bracket bike, maintaining a clear advantage while clicking off 4.80s to the 1000 foot seemingly at will to sweep the rest of the season.
And guess what—they were racing entire weekends on one motor. The planned obsolescence and aluminum shattering hunt for ultimate performance was put on the shelf—for now, at least. McBride swept the rest of the series and took that well-deserved first NHRA championship.
“We just got back to what we knew worked and just left it alone and let it run the number. The 1000 foot has definitely let our motors last, for sure,” said Larry, who is expecting more of a dogfight when the class returns in 2025.
“Everybody started picking up. Mitch (Brown) and Bobby (Malloy) picked up drastically in the last race and I think you’ll see them pick up a lot more the second year. It’s gonna be a lot closer, I’ll tell you that.”
McBride will also tell you how much that Donna and Wayne Pingel and their Pingel Enterprise performance motorcycle parts business mean to the class and motorcycle drag racing as a whole.
“They really support Top Fuel Motorcycle and drag racing in general. They are one of the few companies that are all in with drag racing. They go all the way back to when it was IHRA, NMRA, Prostar and others. What they do for the sport is absolutely incredible. They’ve supported the sport from the grassroots level on up.
“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, Dave Dunigan and Jimmy Brantley.
“Also, my crew chief and brother Steve McBride, Chuck Stuart, Roland Stuart, Charley Lynch, and Braylon Rooker.”
That first event win at Route 66 went to McBride customer David Vantine after Salakari’s bike failed to start for the final. Racing McBride in match races at Maryland International Raceway and then again at NHRA national events, Vantine seemed like the heir apparent to McBride’s winning legacy.
But the Joliet win was the lone highlight for Vantine as his Vantine Nitrosports bike—tuned by Greg Pollard and Joe Taranto—lost first round at the next three races. The high cost and low results combined to gut punch Vantine and—even with a brand-new, long-awaited bike delivered to Virginia—caused him to email his team that the end was upon them.
As it turns out, end may be a strong word for what’s going on at Camp Vantine. But the desire to simply be a competitor has left the building, and Vantine expects more. His accountant expects more. Team members have responded accordingly and the death of the program may have been prematurely announced. Although not really announced, since it’s been closely held news amongst the TFM family and you the reader are probably just hearing about it now.
“Never say Never” is something Vantine might be comfortable going on record saying, and we’ll see what happens with this exceptional team as the successful Hamilton, New York businessman considers the advice of his “internal accountant, lawyers and outside accounting firm and officers of the company (Vantine Imaging).”
A few years ago, the McBrides were considering another one step back, five steps forward move by switching to a FuelTech system. The weight savings alone on a nitro bike are considerable. But at their ages (Larry is 66 and Steve 68) with a sizable performance advantage already in hand, the brothers decided to shelve that plan and stick with tried and true.
“We can already go faster than what we need to go and want to go with what we have,” noted Larry.
Not so for slightly younger racer Mitch Brown (57), who co-owns his bike with Dennis Bradley. Their bike is FuelTech controlled and fired, with Pro Mod racer and Tulsa Dragway owner Todd Martin helping to program the beast.
“The FuelTech system works great,” said Brown. “It’s so reliable and much more flexible than the old Racepak/magneto/EM box set-up. We have more opportunities with the ECU then we did with the EM box. The future is going to make the FuelTech system even more valuable with the new electronic all valve technology.”
Brown went to the last three finals against McBride and was still in the hunt for the championship until midway through the last raceday at zMAX.
“I’m very proud of our team,” said Mitch. “I thought we did an excellent job. I’m getting the bike down the track consistently and getting a little bit better each time. We had a good solid 4.91 run at Charlotte the last event of the season and we’re excited about running even quicker next season.
“I’m also very proud of the class participants. I thought everybody put on a great show. We had good solid runs. The NHRA was very pleased and said they had a lot of emails and text messages about how much the fans loved the Top Fuel Motorcycles.
“I would like thank the Pingels, NHRA, and everybody involved in making the 2024 season happen. We had a great time traveling to four tracks that we had never run at before and seeing new and old friends. Looking forward to doing it again in 2025.”
Like Brown, Bob Malloy races a Sam Wills chassis with a FuelTech ECU. Malloy is the current record holder for NHRA Top Fuel Harley, a class that thrives at AMRA but petered away at NHRA when sponsor Mickey Thompson was acquired by Goodyear and funding dried up.
The veteran rider of nitro Harleys started putting out feelers for a blown inline 4 ride, eventually landing on this bike originally built for veteran racer Terry Kizer.
It’s the first supercharged, inline nitro bike ride for Malloy since he rode Elmer Trett’s titanium bike in 1986. “We raced each other in the final at IHRA Rockingham in the first ever race we went to,” remembered Malloy, who lost to Trett that day. He later raced John Sands’ injected nitro Honda before settling into the seat of his own, high-gear only, record-setting Top Fuel Harley.
Malloy’s current NHRA bike (owned by Chuck Redfern) is a clone to Damian Muscat’s former Wills ride that just ran 5.80s in the quarter in Australia.
“It’s taking me all year to get where I think it might have a chance to be competitive,” admitted Malloy, who also noted that the inline is “Way smoother” than his Harley.
“My goal is to run with Larry, and my ultimate goal is run better than him,” continued Malloy, who’s backed up his talk in the past by claiming records on many combinations. “We ran 3.86, 3.84, and 3.83 to the eighth mile, and that’s running with Larry. Now I gotta figure out the rest of it. We’re up against a lot of experience but we’ll keep plugging away at it.
“The Pingels are wonderful people. They could have easily just helped Larry, and instead they’ve helped us all. And Larry’s wonderful. He’s done so much for the class singlehandedly. He could’ve kept all that funding himself. Larry’s also helped me tremendously.
“Now we just need younger guys like Elmeri (Salakari) and GT (Tonglet) out here.”
Despite ECU differences, these bikes are all the traditional roller-bearing crank, Suzuki GS-based, supercharged inline 4s that have dominated the class since the days of the late, great Elmer Trett. The other two bikes that saw action in ’24 are clean sheet designs.
Sticking with the inline 4 layout but ditching the GS-based stud and bore spacing—and roller-bearing crank—for a Hayabusa-based layout and plain bearing design is the John Alwine designed ATF-1 powerplant fielded by Massachusetts racer Micah Fenwick.
“We have a Racpak for data and EM to control the clutch,” said Alwine, who points to the bike’s fuel pump as it’s current limitation. “The bike currently has a small fuel pump and the fuel system is set up much like we had in the very early days with Korry.”
That would be Korry Hogan, a near mythological figure in the sport who posted big numbers and even bigger crashes in a relatively brief career. Hogan retired while his brain and neck were still intact after one final wall-pounder at Valdosta.
“So we have maximized the pump this summer,” continued Alwine. “The only real fuel control is at idle. The rest is full pump. No timing control at all.”
Also different is the chassis, originally built for a Harley by the Race Vision shop. “Micah purchased it and Jeff Scott and myself cut the front half off and built new to fit a four cylinder in it.”
So a program that seemed mothballed after Hogan’s retirement is very much alive, and Alwine is suitably proud. “The bike runs so straight and has good short times so far. The engine is running great as well.
“We are talking about a larger fuel pump and some controls over the winter. It should run much like Korry’s 255 (MPH in the quarter mile) set-up. We just need to be cautious for a while longer until Micah is ready, then we can start stepping it up.”
“Looking back at last year as my first time racing anyone in Top Fuel, it certainly was a great experience,” added Fenwick. “And although our team finished last in points, I feel we all learned a lot with each race. Even though we were only able to get one round win in the four-race series, we feel we’re headed in the right direction and hope to get a few more wins next year. All these guys are extremely tough to beat, we just need to go out and give it our best shot.
“We plan on making a few updates to the bike over the winter and hope to get out in April to do some testing. We all look forward to doing the series again next year and hopefully we can keep this going and get some more guys racing with us, and more sponsors to come on board.”
If the Alwine-designed bike is different, then the Jaska Salakari bike ridden by his son Elmeri is from another planet. But then again, the Salakari’s home country Finland sometimes seems otherworldly.
There is much to be read about Salakari’s blown, dual overhead cam, 4 valve per cylinder, hybrid fuel “Harsh” V-Twin in Race Engine Technology magazine and elsewhere, so we’ll steer clear of too much detail here. But one look at this completely FuelTech-managed and fired, chain-in-frame beast, and you know it’s something else altogether. Salakari often refers to the bike as a KTM—how’s that for different in drag racing?
Also different is the tragedy this team had to deal with when the rig they were using was smashed into while alongside the highway in Oklahoma on the way to the Virginia race. Elmeri was injured, but crewman Ari “Nitro Jesus” Lapiolahti was crushed between the truck and trailer, losing a leg and finger.
After missing the Virginia race, the Salakari team relocated to Jonnie Lindberg’s shop in Brownsburg, raced in Brainerd, and even Lapiolahti was on-hand for the final race at zMAX. Coupled with the opening round Joliet win over McBride, the team’s mid-season tragedy was bookended with triumphs.
For Elmeri, the highlight of the season was racing on NHRA tracks in front of NHRA crowds. “We started the season great, then the crash happened and everything went South,” said Elmeri. “It ruined the whole season for us. The frame bent and our last two races went bad because of it.”
The team then put on a solid performance making exhibition passes at the AMRA Jim McClure Nationals at Rockingham.
“Rockingham was great for us because we had a chance to test our new tuning program. Overall the season was amazing and we are looking for next season.”
Elmeri noted that the bike is for sale. “We are looking to someone to buy it (for themselves to race) or someone to own it and me to ride it.
“We have two more bikes here that we are putting together to send them to there (the US).”
Whether the bike they raced this year sells or not, the Salakaris fully intend to race NHRA again in ’25.
Malloy mentioned GT Tonglet, the former NHRA Pro Stock racer and member of the Tonglet motorcycle drag racing family. GT made a couple of successful launches (and then some) on Chris Hand’s legendary “Redneck Express” at the recent Man Cup finals in Valdosta. For a rider with absolutely no Top Fuel experience on a bike that hadn’t been on track in two years, the test really couldn’t have gone any better despite Hand not being able to get the fresh fuel at Valdosta that he was expecting.
There are a lot of details left to be resolved in any such pairing for 2025, but the test proved two things: Hand’s bike is ready to race and GT is ready for licensing.
Then there’s the new bike built by the McBrides for “Second in the 5s” racer Jim Brantley. Will the 69 year old Brantley ever race it in competition?
The rules for 2024 stipulated nitro and superchargers, but the class wants full 8 bike fields in ’25. Normally aspirated Top Fuel Harleys are under consideration, but there are several blown V-Twins available that fit the original rules structure.
Frustrated with the pace of development of his ProCharged traditional 45 degree Harley, Jay Turner is building a bike centered around two cylinders cut off the end of a Top Fuel car Hemi block and heads.
Tak Shigematsu is said to be shipping his ProCharged bike—built by the late, great Don “DJ” Johnson—back to the US. And then there’s the ProCharged bike of Finnish racer Juha “Sushi” Hintukainen. So there are lots of available contestants that just need to make themselves available.
And thanks to the Pingels, the class is available again for 2025 and the NHRA has repeated the 2024 schedule.
“The 2024 NHRA Top Fuel motorcycle class was a great success,” said Donna Pingel. “The race teams worked very hard to be the winner, with the Larry McBride Team taking first place. We are very pleased with all the racers performance and look forward to the 2025 season.”
Don’t we all!
This story was originally published on December 30, 2024. 
The post NHRA Pingel Top Fuel Motorcycle Season in Review first appeared on Drag Illustrated.