When I was 14, I used to race against this kid named Chris who I hated. It seemed that everytime we raced each other he did something to annoy me. He would cut me off or T-bone me in a corner or somehow make me crash. I hated losing to him more than anybody else. I remember after one moto storming over to where my mother was sitting in front of a crowd of people and yelled at the top of my voice "Did you see what that f*&#$%^ a*&hole did to me?" and threw my shiny black Bell BMX 3 helmet (one of my favourite posessions) to the ground in anger. My mum was so embarrassed she couldn't look at anyone. I didn't take losing well back then, especially to Chris.

Anyway I did the only thing I could do to resolve the situation with this guy, I became friends with him. We would catch up before race meetings and have a chat and then ride some practice laps together. We definately tried to beat each other in races but afterwards we would just ride together. Funny huh?

Craig Trebble and Scott Towne.

Scott was a stuck-up bike shop owners son, yea, he was fast, had the coolest bikes but we coulda been friends had he lost the attitude. Let me know if you see him around

Craig was a putz, anyone in Michigan will attest to that.

probably, sean portman..

hackman

[ July 11, 2006, 05:47 AM: Message edited by: Ringer ]

Brad Birdwell

Ken Decker from Reno. It didn't matter what I did, he could always beat me (and usually would)

MIke

I wouldn’t say I actually had a nemesis BITD; I may have been the nemesis. I didn’t have much competition in my district in the mid 70’s (NBA “C”) and the local guys I raced never really talked to me, other than asking when my birthday was.

However, there were four guys who I raced when I traveled (or they traveled to my home track) who gave me some good battles. I wouldn’t call these guys nemesis’s though, they were good rivals. Because of birthdays we weren’t always in the same class.

Scott Clark
Brent Patterson
Stanley Robinson
Jeff Utterback

My arch nemesis BITD was Jeff Davis! Factory SE rider and fast! Very intimidating to line up next to him especially at his own track! Anyone remeber Toronto Raceway in Springfield, Ill.? Jeff's dad built that track, so no wonder he was fast! But he was fast everywhere!!!

No real "nemesis" to speak of, but definitely one of the hardest classes to race in, especially locally. I had guys like Doug Davis, Mike King (1 day older than me!), Lonny Lierley, Shane Wimberley, Brent Hayward and Rob Severins ALL in my age group/class BITD.

I was classmates with all but Mike and Lonny so that made it even harder to go to school on Monday mornings!

-HinkDog

Some guy who looks like Carlos Franco and another with sharp "elbows"!

Joe Baumert

My neighbor down the street. We built our practice track together, and then raced in the same class during the week. He was better on some of the local tracks, and I was better on others.

Early on:
Many with elbows flyin'

Later on:
Jason Johnson (Hutch)

Kevin Hull, always hated seeing that GT trailer pull in from Austin. Had alot of great races in Texas 17x back in 84' with the likes of Cody Smart, Cowboy Slavic, Rusty Cable, and Kevin Hull.

Whoever the third guy was when there were four guys in a race...

It's all in good fun.

Brett, you mean the trailer in these pics?
I think alot of people felt that way back then.
GT Trailer 1
GT Trailer 2

Makes me chuckle...

King Koopa (while I was in my alter ego of Marion on Nintendo).

I would have to say that would have depended on the given week.
It seemed someone was always mad at somebody and that became the story. Then the next week it was someone else's turn.
For me it was always the one who crashed me in the semi the week before.
Greg Esser

yep, thats the one, love those 2 pics
hey Billy, were you on the team when Craig marsh was on it? I used to hangout with him and his step-brother Jeff Sanders. There is a pic of Craig and I doing 1 hander cross-ups side by side in my tex-4 pics.

Yeah, I'm actually in Both Pics.

Riders in order L-R.

Pic #1 - Mark Patterson, Scott Patterson, Billy Patterson, Robbie Neely, John Benson

Pic #2 - Brad Sather, Jay Fischer?, Craig Marsh, Billy Patterson, Trey Walden, Misty Price

Obviously Kevin Hull jumping over us. He was Co-Factory GT in the first pic and Factory GT in the second pic.

Competitors loved to hate us

[ July 11, 2006, 07:23 PM: Message edited by: Billy Patterson ]

Hmmmmm....
I would say Kiyomi Waller....
But we were good friends and he always rode clean.
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Tony Denham (CW) hated me for a while.

It was over me (an expert) being set back to novice twice at two different ABA races
by ABA Gene Roden.

Tony Denham thought I was a cherry picker riding an easier class. I had no choice in the mattter.

I remember him yelling at me, calling me a cherry picker an refusing to let me explain myself.

This happened at both the 80' Cook Bros Classic at Irvine and the 81' ABA Fallnationals at Devonshire Downs.

Eventually we worked it out.
He was a very fast rider in my class in 80' and 81' (born in 1968).
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Eric Braegger (co- DG, CW, and Robinson) was a very cocky rider I hated racing against.

He would talk trash cause he always won. He really didn't have an riding style, but he got the job done. Very strong rider.
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Funny thing, both Tony Dennham and Eric Braegger got full page color pics in SUPER BMX.
But neither got their names mentioned in those pics. LOL!

[ July 12, 2006, 05:51 AM: Message edited by: JohnnyJohnson OMAS DirtSlinger ]

Around the neighborhood it was a pud named Rich Frank. He was a little older than me and figured he could bully us around. We built a ramp in a friend`s yard, and after Rich rode it for the first time we had to put a "negative air" measure that led UP TO the coping . We were all going right up over the 5 foot height stick, but Rich could barely hit the coping (it was a 6 foot quarterpipe). That bunghole did learn 360`s before me, though.

At the track it was a guy I only knew as "orange pants guy". He was about to turn expert, I had just turned novice. He beat me for almost a whole season, then moved up. I raced him in open and won, and he shot me the dirtiest look and never spoke a word to me.

In my early years... it was not doubt Jason Jensen. If you were born in 1971, and raced nationally in the late 70's/early 80's, he was the guy you wanted to beat the most. Had some good battles with Jason Wharton, Monte Gray, John McNeal, Jeff Moten and Sam Arellano as well... but JJ was 'everyones' nemesis.

The last couple of years of my career, it was the Blizzard of Oz. I always had a healthy respect for Mike, but we did not always see eye to eye. When I had my wreck in late '86, he was one of the first to call and check in... and this site has allowed us to re-connect for the first time in 20 years.

Bird

Re-connect is right...just not with the elbows this time bud...our time toghther will always be with me, all I have to do is look at the 2nd place trophies in my trophy room...and the 8th place ones are for the moves that didn't really work on you...good stuff bud, I hope alll is well.

Yeah, I'd say Jensen was definitely one of my biggest comps, but we were good friends...Bird was always up there - grabbed quite a few first places from me too!
Crehan - when did you start racing? You must have come into it right when I was getting out. I raced until mid '83 or so but by that time mostly just around VA or MD. I don't remember racing you but the name sort of rings a bell.

Lex Luther....

John I started in 80 racing local ABA in Mass, I hit a few ABA nationals from then to 83. Raced NBL from 84-88. You were a year younger that me John. We were at quite a big local races and nationals in NJ,MD,NY,RI,CTand MA..I think that you raced in the Jersey City Armory right??

[ July 13, 2006, 02:48 PM: Message edited by: Mike'Ultimate Sin of Bmx'Crehan ]

Oh yeah - raced the armory religously...that's actually where I picked up the Hutch gig. Such a weird track but great series. I basically lived in NJ, MD, etc... back then racing-wise.

Recognize anyone? (obviously I'm the hutch dork)
JC Armory circa '82


I still have that trophy somewhere...it's still about as tall as I am.

Ah man, Darrell " Babybear " Hollenbeck who raced for Panda bitd. He'd always take me out no matter what line I went through the berms. He was waaaay bigger than I was. I remember him taking out Bubba Hayes at the Spring Nationals in 80 at Grass Valley, California. I remember Bubba was ****ed at babybear.