3 South Florida riders that have passed on are Clayton Lonon, Red Ballager, and Laurie (Tigger) Romine RIP

Man what a bad deal, I first met Dana Griffin when he and Darwin were racing for Wade Nomura. Dana was a cool dude, never had a bad thing to say about anyone.

As a young kid in the 80's, these were 3 people I looked up to and can still remember thier faces..... RIP

Kyle Flemming and Todd Kingsbury are the earliest passings I recall in the sport. I can still remember the issue of BMXA when they were doing the article about the Oakley and the little sidebar about the car accident. I always felt they should have done a bit more for Kyle Flemming like at least devote a couple of pages to him instead of the little paragraph. (I think) Super BMX had a tribute to Kingsbury and his Mother remarked that her son was laid to rest in his Powerlite uniform. I know these guys would have made great fathers, great husbands, great everything, etc. RIP

Just like to pay some respects to two NJ guys.
Charlie Litsky
and
Bob Warnicke.

Really great promoters and ambassadors of BMX, and riders to boot.

Peace.

Chris Engel was a freestyler from Florida. He competed in the Hoffman B.S. series in the early '90's as a flatland rider. In 1995 he won the title in the "need to be" class (below the "stuntboys" class). In the mid '90's he moved up to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He took his adopted dad Charlie Sasser's last name around that time. Chris Sasser passed away around 1999 or 2000 I believe. He was an awesome rider and one of the coolest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

John Owens d. 2002, Owner of BEAR Development, Grass Valley, CA. When John got interested in BMX in the early 80s it was all or nothing and although BEAR Development was only around for a short period of time they made quite a name for themselves.

Ohio boy, I grew up with. Killed racing his MX at Loretta Lynns last summer............RIP Ray

No doubt.

Former NorCal boy Rob Sears. Rode for Boss, went on to a very successful DH MTB career. He was a big part of the DH scene in CO. Photos from Feb. 1987 issue of BMXA, Thorland:



Mark Owen out of Farmington, NM. Factory Nomura, was super fast and a great jumper (won the amature distance jumping contest held at an ABA national, the KOS won the pro division). ABA NM-1 district top 5 many times. One of my heros BITD.
ABA Grands, 1981.


Another one of my heros, Leo Rantanen out of Albuquerque, NM. ABA NM-1 district #1, rode for GT and Diamond Back. I acquired the Phil Wood hubs that're on his GT in the photo in 1982, and still have 'em.
ABA Grands, 1981.

Visit Tomac Home Page

One of the worst days of my life was the day I showed up to work at GT and found out Richard Long had been killed in a motorcycle accident. Everywhere you went that day in the building, people had tears in there eyes. Unfortunately it didn't end there. Not too many years later, his eldest son Jeff Long passed away from what best could be described as a broken heart. He may not have been famous for his racing, but he was an inspiration to his father and he raced in the very early days of WSA. I knew Jeff for a long time, he was a good kid and wanted nothing more in this world than to be like his dad. RIP JL & RL.

Kevin Stephens of Clem Twin. Super nice guy that died too young.

Still not confirmed but it has been mentioned that Jeff Watson, skatepark pioneer, was taken from us a few years back. Still trying to find out for sure. Does anyone know his family?
He was and still is a major inspiration to my riding.

My friend Isaac passed away 23 years ago this day. He died to young, but was an outstanding rider,good friend and stood out from the rest of us as someone unique! I did a replica of his bike he had back then right before he passed, unfortunately he just built the bike up only a few months and no one took pics of it or him riding it. I do have some pics of him getting rad on a friends halfpipe and dirt jumping, but will have to pull them out of storage tomorrow to post, but now I'll just post these pics I took today. Just the bike alone shows what kind of person he was, remember he had this set up in 1986!

So many names... So many great riders... I found this pic from Waterford Oaks. I think that's Doug Jicha in the lead, I'm in 2nd. I always liked racing Doug allthough he beat me more than I beat him. I remember he was big for his age and allways fast. RIP Doug... we remember...

Not a rider but an inventor BItD. I recently got back in touch with my old childhood best buddy and his dad who invented the "tickstand" a pocket sized foldup kickstand that went on the rear axle nut, passed away last year. I'll find a pic of the ad in an old BMXA and post it for memoies. I remember helping with his prototypes in their garage in 82 or 83, geat man. Like my second dad.
rip Bill Holleron, you are missed...
DJ

Dan Rutherford a original stingray racer and jumper from socal in the early 1970's passed away in new mexico this year. When i was a young bmxer Dan took an interest in my racing and took time to encourage me. I will always remember him fondly.

Mx Mug

I was a very good friend of Johns and often think about him. I met John when I moved to Tampa and started racing NPSA. His father was our team coach and we travled all over the south racing in many supercroses. John was a super nice guy and rode 20 inch as well as cruiser class. I remember when I had my first ever indoor race at the bayfront center in ST Petersburg. John told me to pour Coke on my tires to get extra traction and I swept all 4 of my races. That was John, always helping others and keeping what he had by giving it away. We miss you John.... R.I.P John. Your friend always, Mark. P

I moved away from the STL just about the time I quit racing and didn't (unfortunately) keep up with many of my buds there. Had no idea about "Rowdy" Dowdy. Remember him as always being one of the fast guys.

The great late Anthony Sewell.

My friend, employer, father figure and first "real" sponsor Tom Derosier. Jan 12 1983

The man who without his help many a kid wouldn't have been able to make it to the races: Mike Carey March 17 2006

A very sad day for me in 1986 was the untimely death of Ronnie Caruso. She was an awesome east coast girl who could fly on a bike. Neat kid!

John and I raced together on the same team in Tampa for a while. Very sad. He was only 14 or 15 at the time. RIP.

I was a very good friend of Johns and often think about him. I met John when I moved to Tampa and started racing NPSA. His father was our team coach and we travled all over the south racing in many supercroses. John was a super nice guy and rode 20 inch as well as cruiser class. I remember when I had my first ever indoor race at the bayfront center in ST Petersburg. John told me to pour Coke on my tires to get extra traction and I swept all 4 of my races. That was John, always helping others and keeping what he had by giving it away. We miss you John.... R.I.P John. Your friend always, Mark. P

it's good to see you guys on here who remember john. he was so fun and way into bmx.
mike

Owen, I rode with him an Bob Hunt in st..louis bitd both are gone.

Utah BMX lost a true old schooler with the passing of Bryan Olbad this weekend. He was a member here & at the Museum.

Here is the link.

http://www.vintagebmx.com/community/index....wtopic=27040981


b.

From what I read, Jeff took his life a few years back

I know my lil brother Adam Bomb Richards was mentioned earlier...just wanted to bring this back.

Re the OwenDawdy post ..duck whats ur name and lou are you the lou i remeber i used to ride with owen all the time and knew alot of his friends......and bob hunt is still with us ..live in colarodo

ryan sheehan
brad finnell
chris corkell

I know this is about a year and a half old post, but if you're talking about Bob Gonzo Hunt he appears to be very much alive.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100...388&sk=wall

Just noticed the post above from 3 days ago. Never mind.

Hey Rob,

Haven't been on in a minute...My name is Donald Williams, I'm still in St. Louis. I started racing in 82. I think Bob Hunt only raced a few more years after that. They just started up a cool Missouri Outlaws page on Facebook. It's only a few days old but there's already close to 80 members. Lots of nice pictures from the late 70s and 80s.

Sorry guys I was told Bob was gone,my mistake.

I raced against Dennis Dayrit back in the day around 1984-85 and he was a tough little racer. He won the World Championship in Vancouver after I stopped racing but I was happy to see that he had gone on to accomplish some pretty big things. It was a sad day when I heard about his passing.

Wasn't a rider but an announcer Carmen Enciso passed away in Sept 09. Announced for State Races,Locals South Park and North Park Nationals, Johnstown, PA ESPN Races as well as the NBL Grands numerous times.

R.I.P Carmen

My little brother Ted Pharo Passed Earlier this year.We used to goto the Track With John Maurer Most Weekends.His Unfinished project that is now finished will debut at Rockford next week.


Another is probably one of the Greatest Team owners to ever enter the sport.Mel Baake from Cooksville.He brought a ton of Talent to the Game.They Finally named the local track in Stoughton in his memeory.

It saddens me to hear that, Ted. We had some good races together, and have the scars to prove it RIP

I think I raced this guy BITD. Was he around 16-17 years old back in 81-82? I sent a letter to Clem Twin when I heard. He was a great guy.

Damn....I had no idea Vander had passed away. Use to ride with him at Twin Palms, and doing practice gates at Mike Carver's house (Mike's folks ran the San Bernardino YMCA track and also Snipes in Norco during the mid to late-80's NBL days) before he made a name for himself. Very sad to hear this news.