Larry McBride defies the conventional wisdom that a stable upbringing and formal education are the pathways to success. McBride blazed his path to multiple quarter-mile world records on a Top Fuel motorcycle with common sense, hard work, talent and (his brother’s) genius.
McBride, a 63-year-old Poquoson native known to the racing world as “Spiderman,” said he’ll attempt this weekend to break his quarter-mile world record of 5.50 seconds (265 mph), set more than two years ago on his four-cylinder Top Fuel bike.
The occasion is the NHRA Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park and a series of match races against rising star Dave Vantine. It marks McBride’s return to his “home track” for the first time in more than a decade and will be his first NHRA event in more than 20 years.
He’s been racing a lot longer than that, 47 years to be exact, becoming the first person on the planet to run a quarter-mile under 6.0 seconds, then 5.9, 5.8, 5.7, 5.6 and 5.5. For the past 42 years, he and older brother Steve have operated from their motorcycle repair and fabrication shop, Cycle Specialists in Newport News.
They have built some of the fastest bikes in history from the ground up there, for themselves and top drivers in the sport, often engineering the parts themselves. McBride has earned well in excess of $1 million racing, $250,000 in a single season, and continues to race thanks to generous sponsorship from Pingel, Trim-Tex, Drag Specialties and Final Swipe Merchant Services.
All of that is remarkable on its own, but even more so when you consider that McBride dropped out of school after eighth grade and moved from Alabama to Newport News to escape a bad home life — “the best move I ever made.” Things were not much better with his Newport News relative, so he moved into his own apartment at 15, when he would walk to work pumping gas at Windsor Park Exxon in Denbigh.
How did he survive?
“If you don’t have the opportunity to get an education, you better have some common sense,” McBride said. “Do I wish I had gotten a high school education? Yes. Do I think a college education is important? Absolutely, and I’m proud that I put one of my children through college and the other through high school.
“But I had to work, and you can go a long way in the world with common sense and passion.”
McBride’s passion began at age 14, when he got his motorcycle license in Alabama. “You can’t do that anymore,” he said.
Little more than a year after he got the job pumping gas, Casey Cycle City in Newport News hired him to work on motorcycles, and months later he raced one for the first time. He took his motorcycle education very seriously, going to any “school” his employers would pay for to learn about the various brands.
McBride opened Cycle Specialists in 1980, and the business has thrived since. Older brother Steve, who dropped out of school in 10th grade, has been by his side every step of the way, in their shop on Jefferson Avenue and at the racetrack, manufacturing most of the parts that have made McBride the fastest motorcycle driver on earth at a quarter-mile.
“He is a genius as a machinist, mechanic and engineer, super-, super-intelligent,” McBride said. “He taught himself and he can make anything, so he designs every piece.
“He understands the physics and how everything places in the chassis.”
McBride provides the talent and courage. He’s rebounded from 15 broken bones racing and third-degree burns suffered when an engine blew seven years ago and he was airlifted to a hospital.
“I love racing as much as I did when I was younger, and I love winning,” McBride said. “Winning is the only thing that matters.”
World records matter, too. So when the light turns green on the tree for his match races against Vantine, a former crew member on his team, it will be all business — particularly racing at “home” for the first time in a decade.
“There ain’t nothing better than racing at your hometown track,” said McBride, who hasn’t raced in almost two years because of the COVID-19 stoppage and some personal health issues. “It would mean the world to set the record there, so I’m definitely trying to do it.”
Marty O’Brien, mjobrien@dailypress.com, 757-247-4963, follow on Twitter @MartyOBrienDP
