Veteran Top Fuel Motorcycle pilot and 19-time world champion Larry “The Spiderman“ McBride stunned the two-two-wheel drag racing world Sunday with the quickest and fastest run in history by a wheel-driven motorcycle at the Manufacturers Cup MTC Engineering Nationals at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina. McBride, the existing world record holder at 5.611-seconds — clocked at the South Georgia Motorsports Park in 2017 — went 5.607 at a booming 263.10 MPH in the final round, in which he defeated rival Dave Vantine.

McBride had, earlier in the weekend, clocked two of the three quickest runs in history, as he went 5.65 at 248 MPH in testing and then carded the second-quickest and at the time, the fastest run ever at 5.620 and 263.00 MPH in the second round of qualifying. His 1.021 60-foot, 3.767 at 212.66 MPH to the 1/8-mile, and the 5.620 were made all the more impressive when you consider the less-than-ideal 2.700-feet of density altitude it was achieved in. 

After pedaling his way to victory in the opening round, McBride was paired up with points leader Dave Vantine in the under-the-lights finale. With improved atmospheric conditions, Spiderman bettered the numbers all the way to the finish stripe, going 1.019 to 60-feet, 3.585 to 330-feet, 3.757 at 212.73 MPH to the 1/8-mile, and 4.755 to 1,000-feet on his way to the magical 5.607 at 263.10. The speed, five miles-per-hour faster than the 258 MPH mark he set in 2017, was undoubtedly validated after backing it up within a tenth of a mile-per-hour in the same weekend.

McBride will have one final shot in the 2019 campaign to push his supercharged, nitro-burning motorcycle into the 5.50s at the traditional Manufacturers Cup Finals at South Georgia, November 21-24.