The Virginia Pingel NHRA Top Fuel Motorcycle race is an annual sun-seared, sweat-soaked drag race of epically hot and humid proportions at Dinwiddie’s Virginia Motorsports Park. In this concrete sauna, men encase themselves in very thick leather suits, Nomex head socks, helmets, gloves and boots, then lay face first atop 1600 horsepower nitromethane bombs emitting throat-searing fumes and fling themselves to 240 miles per hour (MPH) in 1000 feet.
Naturally, it takes a local to thrive in these conditions, and that would be Newport News’s Larry “Spiderman” McBride. But even the old Virginian and his tuner/builder brother Steve took a while to master these conditions.
The first qualifying round on Friday afternoon, June 20th, saw McBride’s massive rear tire go up in smoke. Tune-up too aggressive? “Not really. We didn’t think so,” said Larry. “It was just hotter than hell out there”
McBride was fourth out of the four bikes that were able to make a pass that round. Mitch Brown was shut off with an oil leak, Elmeri Salakari seemed to have all pipes soaking wet, while Bob Malloy and Micah Fenwick both made it down the 1000 foot track somewhat, with Malloy’s 5.90 leading the way.
Q2 offered some relief at around 7:00 pm. “That was definitely the time to run low qualifier,” said Larry. “It was cooler temperature for sure. We knocked some clutch flow down a little from the Q1 pass.”
The McBrides had the tune-up dialed in perfectly, posting a 4.83 at an NHRA 1000 foot record of 242.93 mph. “That would have been in the mid-260s in the quarter mile,” figured Larry.
McBride was back on top, Salakari jumped to second with a 5.38, Fenwick improved to a 5.69, Malloy’s Q1 time dropped to fourth, and Brown got down the track to get a number on the board.
If Friday was hot, Saturday was cast-iron blistering. The McBrides went to the line for Q3 with their tune-up unchanged and smoked the tire.
Behind them the field tightened up. Fenwick’s 5.69 was now the rear of the field, with Salakari’s 5.38 just ahead of him. Brown jumped to third with a 5.29 while Malloy jumped to a 4.91, tucked in right behind McBride. The first round of eliminations later in the day would surely be interesting.
But less interesting for McBride, who had the bye and only the light pressure of fine-tuning their Pingel sponsored machine. Good thing, as the bike smoked the tire at the hit and went 6.23 at only 119 mph. “We took more primary clutch weight off of it,” said Larry.
Salakari redlit against Brown, while Fenwick and Malloy both fought traction issues. Micah nailed a brilliant .026 light but smoked his tire first. The more experienced Malloy started spinning as well but was able to gather it up and apply some more throttle for the win.
“Not a great weekend for us,” said Finnish rider Salakari. “Was looking for a fuel issue but eventually it turned to be ignition issue. Once we got it figured I took the redlight in E1. That sucked.”
“Virginia sucked,” agreed Fenwick. “Hot greasy, never made a clean pass on the bike. Pretty sure we have ignition problems, so I’ve changed the mag and some other stuff out, but I haven’t had a chance to test it yet. Hope to get the bike sorted out soon as this type of racing takes a toll on you for sure, especially when things don’t go right.’
Sunday found the bikes now racing on the very surface of the sun, or so it seemed. “We left it alone and damn it—it smoked the tire and sent me towards the wall,” said Larry. Fortunately for him, Brown also was struggling. Both riders were on and off the throttle, with Mitch closing fast. McBride crossed the line first with a 5.80 at 162 to Brown’s 5.89 at 194. Another 320 feet and the winner would have been different. Great racing!
“This year has been tough for us, which is kind of what I expected,” said Brown. “I knew we would have a learning curve with the all-valve fuel system, but we definitely had some other issues along the way.
“Virginia was a mixture of hot and miserable, and unexpected problems. The track was very tricky to get down and we were all trying to manage the power just to get down the track without losing traction.”
On the other side of the ladder, Malloy had the bye and puttered down the track. Would he be ready to fight Larry in the final?
“We cut all the flows off and just tried to run mainly on primaries,” said Larry, who added “We did have some late clutch flows that we brought in.”
That did the job with an air temperature of 92 degrees, relative humidity at 54 percent, barometer at 30.11 inches, adjusted altitude of 2,968 feet, and a track temperature of 147 degrees. McBride ran a fine 4.98 at 232 while Malloy struggled to a 6.70 at 111.
“That was the end of the day and I was glad,” said Larry. “It was too hot.”
“I’ve got a lot to learn, I’ll tell you that,” said Malloy, who so far this year is still the best of the rest as he learns his way through the labyrinth of his FuelTech ECU. “I’m still working with stuff that was programmed wrong.
“Damian Muscat (Australian racer) helped me tremendously when he was here at the Chicago race. He came here to hang out and I put him to work. He dug into that thing and found several things that were wrong from the initial set-up.
“Runner-up feels better than first round out, but obviously not as good as the winner’s seat. We’ve made great strides. Mitch is building a billet cylinder head for us. That’s our weak link right now. Our cylinder head situation is dismal.”
“Bobby is right there,” Larry said about Malloy’s performance. “I think Mitch is on the right track and Micah—I think they’ll find it eventually.”
And we’ve seen what Salakari’s bike can do when that jewel spins just right.
“Larry’s gonna be hard to beat,” said Malloy. “He’s been the number one guy for 25 years. They have so much experience and so many parts (including eight engines!). He’s got depth everywhere. All one can hope for is someday the planets align.”
“I still miss racing the quarter mile, but a thousand foot is easier on parts,” said McBride. It also fosters a different mindset in the Brothers McBride. Quarter mile records were made to be broken and that was their single-minded focus. Thousand foot racing just doesn’t have the same history and the McBrides seem more content to race for wins than shoot for records.
Although they set that MPH record in Virginia despite the heat. Now everyone is looking forward to what should be more hospitable conditions at Brainerd, Minnesota on August 15-17th.
“NHRA Richmond was a tough race for Top Fuel Motorcycle teams with the high temperatures,” noted class sponsor Donna Pinglel. “Hard to tune, hot track, and tough for the guys in their leather suits.
“Congrats to the Spiderman/McBride team for persevering. Now we’re Looking forward to the next race at Brainerd.”
“I’m looking forward to Brainerd and some nicer weather,” said Brown. “I want to thank all of our friends, family, and sponsors that help us get to the races. It’s very tough and there’s no way we could do it without them.”
“We’re gonna keep swinging,” said Fenwick. “I hope to make it to Brainerd, but that is a 3600 mile trip for me, which means lots of fuel and tolls as everyone knows. So I’m trying to save up all I can and hopefully one of my friends will win the lottery!”
The good news is that both of the ex-David Vantine bikes are scheduled for testing this summer and one of the riders is even ordering a motor from McBride.
“Hopefully they’ll be out racing by September,” finished Larry.
The more the merrier, so let’s get these Pingel Top Fuel Motorcycles to the lanes!
This story was originally published on July 3, 2025.
The post Pingel NHRA Top Fuel Motorcycle Field Tightens Up in Virginia Heat first appeared on Drag Illustrated.