I spoke to Kiyomi Waller on the phone a few days ago. Said he started racing again. One of those races was in Las Vegas. I completely forgot how he did, but out of the two nationals, he's made all but one main.

In case you didn't know, Kiyomi won about five Pro Cruiser national number 1 plates in the 90's.

A lot of you guys may think him as a mid school BMX racer, but he actually started racing in 1979 and raced a blue and gold Diamond Back (David Clinton era, pre invention of the Diamond Back factory team).

Good luck Kiyomi!

[ May 12, 2005, 09:15 PM: Message edited by: JohnnyJohnson OMAS DirtSlinger ]

Kiyomi Was great when I raced him as expert
It will be great to race him as vet now

Vet just got a whole lot tougher with Yo-Yo in the mix.

Man, he must have been a really young sprout to have been racing as early as '79. Seriously, Johnny ... isn't he just like ... in his early 30's now?

Kevin O'

Kiyomi is a month older than me.
He's 37 and will be 38 in December.
I always tell him, "I remember you as a novice!" Hahahaha!" It's true. I first saw him at Rancho San Diego in 1979. The NICEST 11 year old in the World.

I will never forget doing a gate with him at Rancho during practice back in 1979. Yo-Yo was 11 Novice and I was 11 Expert. He totally stuck me down the first straight. I shut down, let him win the corner, followed him, and watched all his lines. I remeber very clearly thinking to myself, "I'm going to have problems racing this guy when he turns expert". It was very apparent he was going to be a very tough compettitor.

By the way. Kiyomi's childhood neighbor from about three houses away was San Diego Charger/ Miami Dolphin/ NFL Pro Bowl player Junior Seau. Little Yo- Yo trivia.

He's always had that "elbows out, supercross" riding style too. Looks like he was influenced by 70's/ early 80's AA Pro Clint Miller (JMC, Torker, Kuwahara, GHP).

[ May 13, 2005, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: JohnnyJohnson OMAS DirtSlinger ]

He's also running flats at the races!

Hey Thumper,
Can you get him a pump for those flats, if he got those flats fixed he might be fasat then he is. hahahahahaha, just kidding, Yo Yo is still fast and still a great guy!!


Buntster

Sweet someone not scared to run flats

Man the Rancho track was gnarly.
not the jumps, but the turns.
I only rode it once when i moved to California in 1981.

Back in about '97 Kiyomi was racing at the Cajun Nationals in Baton Rouge, La. My kid got hurt in practice and was not able to race...(fast forward)....after winning the pro crusier main, Kiyomi walked straight over to my son and handed him his number plate! How cool was that for an 8 year old kid?? He is now 16 and still has the number plate up in his room. Kiyomi is the type of guy that I love to see come back to this sport!