I looked around and couldn't find a thread on South East Virginia. Several tracks in the area like Hampton, Va. Beach, Portsmouth. I mainly raced Hampton from 80-85.

Hampton Super track always had a great program racing 3 times a week (rain or shine) run by some great people like Mr. Rich, The Stack family, Mr. Bailey and Mr. Hobbs. The track was always perfect on race day and they always had a great turn out. And unlike my local track in Tennessee, it was open for practice riding anytime.

Fun people to ride/race with included;

Rich Bros.- Mike always had a tricked out bike (my fave was the quad w/ graphite tuffs)
Jessup Bros.-Ronnie had great style--he should have been famous.
JD Mertens (popeye)--nobody has more roots that still races. I remember sleeping in his van at a state race in Fairfax
Billy Feamster--"Ultimate BMX" great guy.
Bryan Bailey--always had great bikes. Fun to go to out of town races with.
Dana Meredith--Nobody had more fun or told better stories (who cares if they weren't all true.)
Chris Kuzma--He was a man at 14. Super fast.
Gary Hovan--when he was 12 -13 he was awesome.
Clayton Denny--old man team mate and several Nat'l #s, but I still remember his daughter better.
Nick Trombetta--He raced the Hampton national in the early 80's with a cast on his lower leg/foot.
Jeff Reid--Team mate of mine on Feamster's team. Super fast.
Steve Zanetti--only guy I ever saw wreck 3 times in one moto. Raleigh National.
Jerry Farmer--Cool aide mustache for the entire time i knew him.

I know I missed a ton of people. I hope some posts will jog my memory.

Brian Boyle

I raced Hampton a few times bitd. We'd go down for state races & a national or 2. Hampton is STILL running races. They were supposed to have a double header this weekend, but the track was wet. And Popeye is STILL racing down there.

I think Mike rich is still living in northern Illinios. I think I remember Ronnie telling me that Steve lives near Winston-Salem NC.
Jeff Jessup started racing again earlier this decade but stopped after breaking his feamer at the hip. Ronnie is famous as he won the ABA worlds several years ago. He also Won NBL #1 in cruiser and #2 on 20" missing the win by 2 points. He did win both Grands mains and had perfects for the race.
I still have that van but use it to work on the track and haul my welding machines with. Kinda like the Stack van on steriods.
Billy feamster is a rep for Fuji bikes/SE racing and can still be seen at the track once a year.
Bryan Bailey has his own glass repair business and can be seen around every now and then. Mr. (Ken) Bailey had a stroke several years ago and lost a lot of his memories. Brian brought him to the track in 2002 and he lit up like it was his birthday. He didn't lose a bit of his BMX memories and recognized me and Ronnie instantly. was a great reunion.
I don't know where Dana is, but I work with his cousin and could find out.
Kuzma moved to Colorado in the early 90's and haven't heard from him since.
Gary sadly is messed up with drugs(crack) and still is seen living in and out of his parents house.
Clayton Denny is still around(retired) and Carl's oldest daughter was married last summer.
Nick Trombetta is still married to his old girlfriend(last I heard) and was working for NASA.
Jeff Reid is still a VA. state trooper as far as I know.
Zanetti, wow haven't heard that name since way back.
Jerry Farmer was injured in a car accident when he was in the military and broke his neck. He fully recovered and had a business selling stuff in mall Kiosks. He also went back to school and has a masters degree in something. Go figure. I still see his dad in his red hotrod dodge van/truck thing every year or so.



Scott Booth raced again in the late 90's early 2000's. We were on Coastal racing together and finished #3 team one year with all southeast Va riders (and Monica Kelly and Michele Cairns girl pros)
He developed leg pain and they did back surgery to fix it. On new years eve that same year Leslie (Roberts) Booth talked him into going to the ER for a bad headache and the next day he had a six hour surgery to remove a brain tumor on his brain stem. He has recovered but Leslie says no more bmx. He has been golfing and playing softball since. He has two kids (boy and girl) and I have been known to babysit them from time to time. We both work in the shipyard together. He is a welding supervisor.
Chris Messick works there also in the Nuclear refueling area. Were you in that parade when he and Billy Feamster were catching that HUGE air on that quarter pipe?
Gordon Bros. Mike is still around and Lester moved to upstate PA.
Earlier this year, Dave Stevens fom Va. Beach came to watch a race. Remember the old guy with dark hair and top notch bikes. He looks exactly the same.
Monty Monteith came by earlier this year to visit. He is still in the area, married with children.
Couple years back, I went to a race in Dothan Al. and both Scott Mayhorn and Snoopy Williams showed up. Snoopy lives in Fl., Scott in Tenn.
Forbes Bros. .. Jon and Tim. Tim works in the shipyard but I don't know about Jon.
Theodores .. Bobby, Kathy, Cindy. Bobby was working at a car dealership last I heard.
Paul Crist was working as an electrician last time I saw him.
Jeff Grenier is a accident investigator for the NTSB and lives in Texas.
Andy Sharpe(or Drew as he likes now) comes out to the track to help work on it about once a year. He was friends and use to ride with Kuzma.


Bob Stack and Ellie were split up last I heard. Bob was having some problems, but what a great guy he was. Ellie Stack was working for the VA. Living/Mariners Museum last I heard. Leslie Booth saw her at a store a few years back. I need to look her up. I think about her and Dan every Halloween.(same birthday)
Bill Hobbs was working for Hampton Cheverolet and making some funny comercials. Yea he one of those crazy car salesmen now. I'm sure you can just imagine.
Mr Rich moved back to Minn. after he sold Powerhouse bikes to the Stacks and Howard Jefferson. Howard retired from the Airforce and has a painter business with his older brother. He was also coaching soccer.

There were a lot of south-side riders. Dave Stevens, Tommy Petrehn, Warren Riggs, Herbie Smith, Bob Davis, Bryan Fuller, Bobby Lake, Neal Scott and all the guys from the Fullhouse, Colley Ave. and Freewheelin bike shops. Charles "P-Nut" Shortridge is racing again and getting better every week. You might remember him as one of the last riders from the old Eastern Virginia BMX Assoc.

I'm gonna set up a comp. with a scanner soon to post some pics on this thread.
Good to hear from you Brian.

Popeye,

Thanks for the update. I have often wondered where and how everyone is doing and for the most part it sounds like everyone is doing great.

I was going through some pictures and found a great one of Chris Messick doing a HUGE air on the last berm at Hampton. One footed, short shorts, no shirt--classic.

Also saw a photo of booth over the 1st turn double in the old Ratz Bmx jersey.

Dan and I met up with Dana Merideth back in '97 for his 30th birthday back in Hampton. He had just graduated from (i think) Central Florida and was working in a technical field for NASA??? Dan, Dana and I all hatched a plan to start racing again and bought bikes. I raced a bunch of ABA nationals that year (98) and Dan raced a TN state qualifier once. Dana never did, but he followed some of your results on line. Last I heard, he and Jan split up. I had a great time, but the local scene here is too small (6-7 motos) and my kids never really got into it, but have each raced a few times.

I hear that Nick Trombetta is pretty invoved in drag racing.

I still have BMX bikes....Free Agent Limo 20" and 24" and occassionally take them out. Its just as close for me to go to a couple tracks outside of Asheville, NC as it is to go to Morristown (which is locked up during the week anyway.)
I also have a Azonic DS bike which is fun and ETSU has a nice Mountain Cross track on campus with occassional races. No glory, but still fun.

I am actually bidding on a OS vector now on ebay. I live only a couple miles from where the Martinos made Vectors and CycleCraft bikes. Their son Mitch now owns a boat dealership on the same property, so this area has some of your kind of roots.

Dan and I just sold our CRF 450's as we decided that we just weren't healing up fast enough anymore.

My parents and Dan and Sue all moved hear (TN) a couple of years ago, so I don't get down to Tidewater much.
Glad to see you are doing well and keeping with it.

Brian

I recall Bryan Bailey, Trombetta, Scott Moore coming down for some NC state races. All very good riders, think Moore won that Asheville Nat. (14x) before the sleet came, beating Nat. #1 Kurt Esser.

Scott Moore wasn't known as the Glen Allen Flash for nothing. He was from Glen Allen Va., just west of Richmond. He left bmx to start drag racing with his dad.

I think I was at that Asheville National. I was with Feamster's "Ultimate BMX" team then. Clayton Denny drove the van and we took myself, Scott, Jeff Reid and Justin Shepherd. Justin had just left CW and Feamster was happy to help him out.

That was a fun weekend. We stayed with some of Reid's relatives in the mountains. I think Justin and Todd Corbitt(?) spent a lot of time talking about VW bugs.

Also, if my memory is correct, Crit plate was brand new then and doing some heavy promo and the Martino's showed up in CycleCraft stuff instead of Vector for the first time.

Anyhoo, Scott was incredible and his dad was a great guy.

That wouldn't be the Asheville National that snowed now is it?

Mike

Yea the Asheville National was cold.

I made the main there and drew gate 8. I remember thinking to myself... You gotta jump the gate a hope you don't get called if I'm gonna have any shot at the win. The lights went and I jumped it perfect, then looked right and everyone was in front of me. Geeez, I guess everyone else thought the same thing. It was all I could do to eek out a seventh place. We left so late from that race and we were so tired that Nick Trombetta drove the last five hours home and he didn't even have a learners permit cause he just tured 15. Great memories.

I remember sitting in the Scruggs-Mr. Stixx mobile home at that race hearing about his future team/bike plans and talking about sponsoring his team with my plates, I think it was is son David and I think Rob Hughs as well?

Mike

Scott still lives in Hanover and is still drag racing. Got a couple nice fast cars. I work with him and he is doing good.

CJ

I could have this Asheville race confused with another one. I think it may have snowed, I know it was cold, but the details are shaky. I don't remember Trombetta being at this race, though I know he had logged more wheel time than most prior to getting his license. His age of 15 would have been about right though.

I remember we ran into Jarrett Justice on some mountain road and they had lost low gear in their car.


I've got a ton of Hampton pics that I need to get posted. One thing I am noticing is that my brother always had way better bikes than me...and dialed in.

Asheville North Carolina, Oct. 10/11 1984. Friday practice day was like 75 degrees and the parking lot was a dust cloud. Saturday the race started but was stopped due to rain. rained most all night. Sunday the cold air moved in and they raced the first day race in the morning. The second race started with freezing rain coming down most of the afternoon. By the time the mains started at nearly 10:00pm it was snow flurries.
Our Va. State final was originally scheduled for that date in Hampton but when the NBL added that race we moved our final back a week. That took Casey Deshon(sp) out of Nick's class and up into our 16 and over class. He moved into our class with 15 more points than the rest of us and thus won our class. I had to beat him all three motos to win but I choked out of the gate in a moto and came out last from gate 8. I passed everyone but him and over the last big double right at the finish, he tried to move over to block me and wrecked us both. My body crossed the finish line first but my bike was knocked clear and he still had his bike. Thus he was scored first and I got fifth by the time I scrambled back for my bike. You must remember that. was a lot of controversy at the finish line and Ellie Stack had to make the call against me. He won fair and square but if they didn't move the race due to Ashville, it would have been mine.
Good thing about Ashville was I met a chick (Melissa) who used to go to school with Booth and we dated for about a year when she moved back to Hampton two years later.

I just remember haveing ice cycles hanging off my visor while lined up for the semis that Sun. night at Asheville. Dia-Compe was sponsor for race, wasn't their business somewhere in that area? All the main makers got a gold MX-1000 brakeset.

Finally started scanning pics

Nick Trombetta and Dan Boyle heading for staging at Winchester Va. state race. Check out my van in the background. I still have it after 27 years. That van is all about BMX.

Tommy Petrehn(in blue), Warren Riggs(CW uniform) and Jeff Reid(back turned in white shirt) hanging out between pro motos at the same Winchester state race.

Dave Stevens from Va. Beach. The old guy in the early days. He came out to watch a race a Hampton last year and he looks exactly the same but with shorter hair.

1980 Hampton state championship race day(I think). We were part of the Eastern Virginia BMX Association Inc. in those days, which included the tracks of Churchland(Portsmouth), Norfolk(northside park) and Virginia Beach(somewhere in the woods).


Look at that killer technical track back then. One jump in each straight and lots of room to pass. That's how Hampton got pegged with the Supertrack logo cause it was said that you could race cars around like Daytona or Talledega.

I knew i had at least one pic of Brian Boyle. This is the first one I found. I think this was from 1985 at Hampton. We had a special medal race (maybe 1986 olympic special) with medal ceremony and all.
That's Scott Mayhorn with the win, Brian Boyle to the left and Clyde Jefferson on the right. Far left is Jeff Grenier with mongoose jersey. Marty Blankenship with the UVA cut-off and far right is the Richmond "Legend" Randy Daugherty.

More pics from that same race to show the track then.

Ronnie Jessup(IBMXF world#2), Jeff Reid (Bandito) and Warren Riggs out of the gate.

From the same point on the starting hill of the first and last turns

Carl Denny and Nick Trombetta going into the last turn. You can see the second turn in the background.

View from same spot on last turn of the last straight and starting hill.

Scott Moore doing what he did well....Go Very Fast! First straight at a Winchester race. That's a 1985 Va. state #1 on his bike so it is either late '85 or '86. Warren Stapelton keeping him honest.

Gate practice at Hampton somewhere about 1981. Helmets were not required for practice back then, only for racing. The days before insurance worries were kinda crazy.
In the gate from left to right are two kids i did not know, Mike Rich(76R) setting a good example by actually wearing a helmet, Mike Gordon(36G), Greg Stack(49) on his factory Race Inc. ride, last name Stewart(39S), and Jeff Jessup(94) who was dang near the fastest guy from Hampton back in the early days.
The rider in the background with the #9 on his plate is Ronnie Jessup.
All you guys from Hampton, check out the guy in the background that looks like he is scratching his head. What actually is going on there is he just let go of the big pipe we used for a lever to hold the gate up with a cable. We would hold it down, wedged against that board at his feet. All we needed for gate practice was that pipe with the cable on it and we were good to go. That guys name is Major Myron Rich (ret. Airforce). He was the guy whose name was on the orginal proposal to the city of Hampton to build a BMX track in Hampton.He also brought the NBL to our track and was our first NBL state commissioner We all owe that guy a thank you for bringing us this great sport. Along with his family we owe a thank you to the parents of the Jessup's who's mother Charlotte was our first clerk of course.
Greg Stack's parents, Bob and Ellie, were very active volunteers also. Bob became our track director for several years and Ellie was a Clerk, State clerk, and even an NBL vice president in the late 80's early 90's.
A LOT of history on that gate there.

Let's go way back with the Hampton memories. The Hampton track was first built in 1979. I started racing the week after I heard about it in June of that year. The 1979 Christmas school break was a warm one and me and my buddy Brian James rode to the track (about 8 miles) to take some pictures with my new camera I got for Christmas. Thought I would take a picture trip around the track.


This was the view from behind the gate.


Going into the first turn


Coming out of first turn


Turn two looking into long turn three


View of third turn from top of last turn


Brian jumping the big doubles (LOL) going into the last turn


Looking at the starting hill and last straight from on top of last turn. That's my neighborhood buddy Brian on his new Candy red over chrome Torker big bike he just got for Christmas.

I remember catching my pedal on one of those tires that were half buried in the ground once, Man, you stop real fast when that happens.

damn popeye - You are the official mid-atlantic bmx historian!

Those pics bring back lots of memories for sure. I need to dig out some Hampton pics. I have some great shots of Ronnie and myself trying to see who could drop the flattest tabletop off of that last jump.

Many a Hampton race for me was spent holding off Bobby Theodore...he had that home-track advantage!

Dang that Hampton track was NICE compared to what we had down here in NC in 79-80. Great pics!! Popeye you recall any NC riders comeing up there around that time?

hiatt - I remember Chad Wiesenhunt (sp?) - he was an NC guy, there were a couple others that came up sometimes.

Thought Chad probably went up there, he was one of the top riders from NC around then. His father had the Cycle City bike shop in Winston. Dean Thurmond may be another, he later got on RRS. He won alot of nationals and got Nat #2 in ABA one year I think.

Great job Mertens! You wouldn't have any shots of Ronnie Jessup jumping the last berm would you? Great memories.

Just having the riders come over from the southside Va (Norfolk, Va. Beach, Portsmouth, etc.) seemed to me like out of state riders. First guys I knew for sure were from N.C. was the guys that Homer Croom brought up. Tripp Croom, Hoggard and a few others.


I have some of him and a few others. I'll post them soon.

Thanks for the pictures Popeye.

While I didn't race BMX in my teens I raced Road Bikes with Kuzma before he moved to Colorado.

I also know Billy Hobbs from Hampton Chev as my company installed the phone system there about 10 years ago and he was out point of contact. I had no idea he was tied back to BMX.

Do you recall a father/son team by the name of Mike Sands from the late 80's / early 90's? They used to come to the shop I worked at and big Mike and I became friends and riding buddies. Lil Mike was a speed deamon and knew how to handle a bike.

Anyways, thanks for posting the pic's!

-Bobby Powell

Hey Bobby Powell,
Your name sounds familiar, but I'm not sure if we ever met. I tried some crit races in the early 90's riding for JRVS. My girlfriend at the time didn't want me taking time from her to train so I wasn't very fast.
Yea Mike Sands Jr. was on the HDK Schwinn BMX team with me as team manager. I thought he was somewhat underrated as a rider. He always raced in the hardest classes against top caliber riders and he always finished high. He was way better than me before he entered the military. Mike senior won the Hampton national in early 90's in his class against some big names like Shag Shaughnessy. We also rode together as team mates on the Power House team in late 80's.
I've got some great pics of Bill Hobbs in a dress at our awards banquets. That guy is really fun to be around.

I happen to have a pic of Cindy. She was a hotty but she was my friends little sister so I wasn't allowed to look. She was gonna bring her son out to start racing a while back but I guess he was not into it and never raced.

Yikes! I hope it's just the picture. It looks like she has hairy gorilla arms!

Holy crap Popeye!!!! In the second to last pic on the first page you just so happened to capture me racing also. That was one of my first races as an expert and at the famous Hampton Supertrack. I wasn't looking forward to racing Nick Trombetta as I only raced him a few time a year because of where our birthdays fell. He was one fast cat. There I was sporting all the latest HUTCH componets and gear bring up the rear. Man those were the days. Come to think of it I still have that number plate. Awesome. Thanks for the great memories!!!!

John

I think its my camera I had back then, or the age of the photo. Could be my scanner fix software also. all my scans were coming out with an orange fuzzy tint at first. bought better software since.

If you were at that race and stayed for the picture taking on the podium thing, I should have that one also.

Here's an early pic of Bobby, second turn at Hampton.

I could not find any of the last berm, but I found this one of him jumping the second turn berm coming down from the starting hill. I think I missed what he did by either snapping early or late. You know this was early 80's cause he doesn't even have a Diamondback yet.

Early 80's pic of Chris Kuzma. I think he was 14 in this pic. He already had chest hair and a mustache. A lot of people wanted to see his birth certificate back then. He was racing for Beach Pedaller in this photo.

This is me in the fall of 1990. That's Mike Sands Jr. behind me to the left. Also has Howard Jefferson behind me to the right. They have the new Powerhouse uniforms while I'm wearing the 88-89 uniform.

Hey Brian, Was this when you slept in my van? This was taken at Starlit in Fairfax Va. That's the Stack's camper on the left behind us. That's me working on my bike and with a #5 on my bike tells me it's '83 state race. Gary Hovan walking behind me, Darrell Smith is the red haired guy(I work with him now), That's Jody Linthicum sitting in the chair I think. I don't know who that is with the red trucker hat in the van.

Had to put this in even though my camera skills were not very good. Mike Rich wining his 16 & over Open Moto at the Fairfax Mud National in 1982. He is leading Mike Poulson and Paul Gossrau so you know he was moving.

This pic was from the Team competition race they had in '80. Teammates from left to right: Carl Denny(blue helmet), Mike Rich(no shirt), Gary Hovan(white helmet), Steve Rich(putting his red helmet on), Me with the photo-gray glasses, Two riders(one of them was Wayne Tillet), And Clayton Denny on the 26" cruiser.

I love this gate shot. This was from the ABA race that was held at Hampton. The parents were having a debate as to which sanction we should join, ABA or NBL, so we ran an ABA race at Hampton so the riders could try it out before the vote. As we all know, NBL won the vote.

Not sure who they all are but heres what I know. From closest to farthest: #43 don't know, John Forbes, Gary Hovan, don't know, Davin Moore, don't know, and Brian Bailey with the red helmet. Someone is outside of him but don't know who.

Classic Mike Rich photo.

wonder why he is the only one wearing a skid lid?

the bigger they come...the harder they fall?

I know Mike almost always wore a helmet when practicing at the track. I asked him once and he told me he was trying to set a good example and that you never know when you will need it. Greg Stack has one on also. I also never wore a helmet at practice cause that meant I would have to lug it the whole 8 mile ride each way to and from the track. We never really scheduled gate pratice back then. If a bunch of guys showed up we just said "Hey, wanna run some gates?" Very loose and fun with rules back in the old days.

Funny thing about Mike Rich was that he was big, but he rode with a really high center of gravity. Little guy like me could get under his elbows and push him out of the way pretty easy, made even easier if you ran really wide bars. He was pretty darn fast in a straight line though. He was only a year and a half older than me, but I always looked up to him in somewhat of hero/mentor role in BMX.

Found a couple of pics w/Ronnie Jessup - these were at the Hanover track. Jessup on left me on right.

Dude you win the contest that day! I think I was there that day also. Seems I remember watching that from a distance. Great pics John.
I think this south east thread should include Richmond also. Keep them coming.