Anyone Race Central PA early 80's Options

[deluxx bmx]

I was/am from central PA,we raced Reading,Phoenixville,Hickory Run and Lebanon..all were NBL..there was a track on the west shore near Dillsburg that was ABA..some of those tracks were not around to long(Dillsburg,Hickory Run) there was also a ABA track right along the PA Turnpike,also not there anymore..Pine Grove had Sweet Arrow,already talked about...also a short lived track at Sleepy Hollow MX park..they now use whats left of it for lil MX'ers...We mostly raced in Jersey cause the racing in the early 80's was much better..i think P-ville was the only one to have any NBL nats at it but Reading had PA states alot..York also,but that was ABA i think too..we did not race alot of ABA other then Nats...There was also some indoor stuff around that time frame in Harrisburg...and in Valley Forge at the Military school that Suburban put on....that should be it i think for South Central PA...ask Lopes, he never forgets....deluxxy

[DRAGULA]

I raced Woodward a lot. And the North and South Park nats in 85. Any one here know Spanky from York? If so how is he?

[raybeard]

Spanky is the same person as Spang, John Spangler. We eased up on the nickname after high school. I talk to John all the time. Tried to Nextel him tonight but he didn't answer. Give me a name and I'll tell him you said hello.

[DRAGULA]

Thanks Raybeard. Mike Meckenberg. We were coming back from South Park one time with his dad driving ( painfully slow) and had oreo races. We would drop em outa the back windows of the van and which ever one went the farthest won. Good times.

[raybeard]

Funny story. I went to many races in the back of that old Ford work van. Was his old man wearing the black beanie. In 25 years I don't know if I've seen him without that beanie. LOL! I'll talk to John tonight.

[DRAGULA]

I forgot about the beanie!!!!!

John took me to the skate park in York. He jumped into the halfpipe which has about a foot of water in it. He sees it mid air screams like a girl gets his feet off the pedals and sends a wall of water up 20 feet. I still laff at that.

[raybeard]

That would have been the Thunderdohm. We rode at the skate park alot back in the day. The park was abandoned almost as long as I can remember. Some areas had standing water all the time. There is some film footage of Thunderdohm in some of the Dorking in York videos that Mark Eaton has done.

Where you from the York area back then? I would assume that was back in 1985. Everyone that I rode with back in the day with the exception of Spang quit riding in late 84 or early 85. We all got cars and bikes were a fading memory.

[DRAGULA]

No I was in Vienna VA. with vabmxdad tearing up the streets. I stayed with spang for a few days after a national. Yes it was in 85

[WILD ZEBRA]

Glad to she this topics got some of y'all membering the the good ole ones. Pine Grove that had to be the closest track to us. Ole Pine Grove. We used to go to Magic Skate park in Reading also, those were some fun times.

[MarkAidan]

There was an ABA track (still is) in York, PA where I raced for a few years 83-84 and Joe Swords raced there too. I transitioned into freestyle in 84 but Joe stuck with it & continued to rip at least til the late 80's maybe early 90's.

I am new to the boards and have not previous posted, but this page certainly caught my attention. I raced against Joe a few times in some "trophy dashes" at my local track, but we never shared the same gate 'in class' cause he was a year older than me. Yeah, Joe absolutely dominated anyone and everyone that lined up beside him at B-N-B. (from what I recall, his dad owned [still owns?] the York track, Bumps-N-Berms). I only raced at B-N-B a few times due to them having a similar race schedule as my local track.

My local track was in Dillsburg, PA, (called the Greater Harrisburg Area BMX or just Dillsburg to the locals) just a few miles from Joe's home track in York. I raced mostly from '84 to '86, but I did run a few races in '87 as well. I raced a few different bikes over the years, as did most everyone on this site, but my last two seasons were on a Profile Champ Pro and/or a pink Hollywood f/f with a full compliment of Hutch goodies. Unfortunately, both soldiers are long gone now... I sold the Profile in the early 90's and the Hollywood was stolen while I was at a local mall in 1987. A$$holes... 20+ years later and i still get upset when i think about it!!!

That is also the reason I came across this page... I am looking at getting back into the collector side of things, and will definitely ride them too, but I wanted to see what's out there and how much $$ it'll take to recreate my last and stolen racer. Yeah, I almost choked when I started seeing the costs associated with such a venture. Oh well, I gotta start somewhere. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Sorry for digging out a page from years past, but I'm glad I finally found some racers that may have shared a few gates with me in south-central PA in the mid-80's. Some of the fast guys that I can remember from that era and area:


1) Mark Keller
2) Joe Swords
3) Rich Stetz
4) Tad Fleshman
5) Craig Kelly
6) Scott Blumanstock (sp?)
7) Todd Wyant
8) I can still see their faces, but cannot remember the names of all the fast ones. Sorry guys!

Oh, yeah... GREAT SITE! There is such a wealth of knowledge, superb bikes and good people in here!

- Mark