NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

In the comic books, Spiderman’s nemeses include Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus, but for Larry “Spiderman” McBride, the face of the Top Fuel Motorcycle class for four decades, it’s Mitch Brown who has his attention as the inaugural four-race Pingel NHRA Top Fuel Motorcycle Series rides to its conclusion this weekend at the NHRA Carolina Nationals.

McBride is leading the points after a dominating season, but unheralded Brown is just a round and change behind him in the points heading to zMAX Dragway.

Although Brown is not the household name that McBride is, he became well known in the motorcycle racing community as the owner and race director of Professional Motorcycle Racing Association for 17 years and, more recently, as the man behind the Monster Race Products four-valve billet cylinder head that has been run by top Suzuki teams, including Matt Smith Racing, Steve Johnson, and Chris Bostick in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle class the last several seasons.

Brown began drag racing motorcycles in 1987 and was the 2007 and 2010 PMRA Top Gas champion before moving to Top Fuel Harley with multiple wins to his credit. Brown competed in the NHRA Top Fuel Harley class during its seven-year run that ended in 2022 but has dedicated himself to the much faster brother known as Top Fuel Motorcycle, with supercharged inline four-cylinder engines instead of the largely unblown V-Twin pushrod engines of the Top Fuel Harley class.

The Top Fuel Motorcycles are almost two-wheeled versions of their four-wheeled cousins, with superchargers, clutch cannons, and clutch and fuel system management system. Instead of four wheels and 500 inches, the Top Fuel Motorcycles brew their 1,500 hp of power with just 91 cubic inches.

“I machine my own engine,” he said. “I build the engine case, the block, the cylinder head, the whole thing, but it still uses the same Suzuki bore spacing and this head stud pattern as the original Suzuki GS engine.”

Brown has been to the final round in two of the season’s first three races, both times in Richmond and Brainerd, finishing second behind McBride, who owns a clear-cut performance edge over not just Brown but the rest of the field. While McBride regularly covers the 1,000-foot distance in the 4.80s and 4.90s, none of his competitors have even been in the 5.0s. Brown’s best run this year is a 5.10 in Chicago, where he was a semifinalist at the season opener.

Mitch Brown, left, with Larry "Spiderman" McBride

“It's simple. I mean, Larry’s done it for 45 years, and his team works seven days a week, 16 hours a day, and have a big budget,” Brown said matter-of-factly. “I've got a $40,000-a-year budget. It's just really hard to catch up with experience and money.

“But I have to hand it to him; he’s earned everything he has. Larry's really good at what he does, and he's very meticulous. For example, if you spin the front wheel on his bike, it’ll spin for 10 minutes; you spin anybody else's and the brakes drag, and that’s just one example of how meticulous he is.”

With just three engines at his disposal – five less than what’s normally in McBride’s inventory – Brown tends to run his bike more conservatively.

“If we run a full quarter-mile pass with these bikes, it will melt the exhaust valves, and then it’s just easier to change an engine than it is to take a motor apart and try to do a valve job at the racetrack,” he explained. “So, I spend most of my time making short runs in qualifying to keep my engines together so I can race on Sunday because I can't really afford to hurt anything. But we’re getting better, and I made it through Chicago and Richmond without taking the engine out of the bike, which was awesome for me. It really helps with money and helps on labor and time.

Brown, near lane, has two runner-ups this year, both times in McBride, including most recently in Brainerd.

“We've just been slowly getting a little bit better. I don't have a lot of experience at nitro racing, so I put a lot of [cylinders] out, at the hit and going across the finish line on two or three cylinders. I have a great mentor in George Bryce, and he has been so helpful to me and has introduced me to so many great people that have made me smarter and stronger. George introduced me to Rob Flynn, the gentle giant, last year, and he has been a great resource for Todd Martin and me to understand things better. We finally got the bike where it's running on all four cylinders; we just keep trying to get better and be consistent. You can’t win if you don't make it to the final.

"Todd Martin, who’s been one of my best friends for 30 years, helps me tune the bike and used to race Funny Bikes. We've been buddies forever, and Todd's a lot more aggressive than me, so we work very well together, because he's aggressive, I'm conservative, and we usually get down the track. We are doing a little trailblazing as well, Jaska Salakari was the first, but we are using FuelTech ECU, FT Spark ignition, and data logger on our Nitro bike instead of the conventional EM box, Racepak, and magneto. We are a very small team with a very small budget like most privateers, but we have a lot of passion and work ethic."

With little hope of slicing McBride’s lead to less than a round in qualifying, Brown knows he has to hope for some misfortunate or breakage for McBride and a long day for himself, winning on perseverance or holeshots or whatever it takes.

“I think we can run 5.0s and maybe 4.90s in Charlotte because it will be cooler,” he said, “but Larry will still be that much far ahead of us, but I would be willing to nuke a motor if I have to. I look back at the Chicago race, where I was conservative against Dave Vantine in the semifinal race and I lost, where maybe I could have won, and I regret that because I would have been less than a round behind Larry, so, yes, I would melt it down to try to win this last one.

"I feel very privileged to be racing at the NHRA national events with my team. I’m just a kid trapped in an old guy’s body in a wheat field in Kansas, racing with my heros and friends in the NHRA. I am thankful for so many friends and companies that have helped our team to be able to live this dream.”