Sadly, no. I was too buys listening to The B-52s 'Wild Planet' between the motos. (We traveled to the race w/Scott Clark, who introduced us Midwest hicks to new wave that weekend...everything changed at that point.)

Tim, Grubbs and Raurments...were you guys friends before BMX, or because of BMX?

Adding captions and titles:
I plan to as I find time or if I can find time.

John, I became friends with Greg and Joe because of BMX. There were a core group of riders from my neighborhood in Omaha including Brad Fanshaw and the Heyden brothers. We were the driving force in Omaha. Then Lincoln, NE had a core group that included Grubbs and Baumert, Randy Gibson, Rex Reason. We all met in 1976 when we competed on rival teams. We had the Bill's Bike Barn team in Omaha. They had the Mr. Bike team in Lincoln. We would race, then head to the local trails in whatever town we were in to hang out, jump and take pictures. By about 78 or 79, we were all like brothers. The Lincoln riders would stay at our houses one weekend, we would would stay in Lincoln on other weekends. I think Joe's mom would still have a full breakfast buffet out for me if I were to show up this Saturday morning in Lincoln!

Some people go to their High School re-unions. I would much rather have BMX re-unions with Greg, Joe and the rest of the gang.

Greg, Joe and many of the early NE riders are my closet, lifelong friends and I would do anything for them.

G Rubber, I remember being a little kid riding with you n joe at Taylor Meadows I remember hating it when you guys showed up cause you always were giving me a hard time..lol.. Then later on when I got older and you had fallen out of the sport for awhile you were still my bmx hero, shoot your still my bmx hero today as far as that goes, but when me and Swade came over to your folks place over there on normal, and you busted out the old light blue zeronine and we went down the street to the fish bowl and hit that jump, and I was talking to you about racing again, man I was so STOKED when you started racing again in the early 90's, it was sort of a dream come true for me just to see you back out there, then when you blew your knee out in colorado, that was a bummer for sure.


hey I saw some dave cech pictures on this thing, he's got to be the only nebraska bmxer to ever ride in the tour de france, i think when he was on the celestial seasonings team. the cech's they are the people who got me started on this madness we call bmx racing.

grubbs tell us some rental car stories, I remember some that were funny as hell, like when joe pulled up and taped your bumper so you threw it into reverse and hit the gas. I remember you always having the most funny stories. How bout the one where you and Stuart as you called him were at the resturant and some kid came up and was like your Grubbs, then he said to Stu and your Harry Leary, now that was a funny one. LOL

I showed this thread to Dave Czech's little brother Tony. He was digging on it for sure. We were having fun going through the pics. He was closer to the scene than I was, so it was cool to hear him talk about some of the places and pics.

In referance to Grubber spinning his brains out, thats Grubbs, he's the only guy I ever met that considered 43-16 to big, he used like a 43-17 maybe 42-16 if it was downhill... Seriously when greg came back to racing in the early 90's it was a dream come true to get to ride with him again and to actually get on the gate with the guy was a blast. OH BY THE WAY... GRUBBS IS THE SIT DOWN WHEELIE KING OF THE WORLD.......SERIOUSLY

I have a lot to say and will considering this fine thread, hey Gabe.

Greg, that pic of you on the Mongoose is in Pershing. A classic indeed. Leave it to me to figure it.

Bot then again it could be KS. Look at the ice hockey boards. KS?

Its the Kansas Coliseum Joe. Remember, that was the Super Bowl weekend and the KAOS on Highway 136 between Highway 81 and Beatrice! We had raced the Kansas Coliseum that weekend and were on the way back to Lincoln. Fanshaw, the Heydens and a few others were with me in my 1970 Buick which was starting to smoke and was low on oil. We pulled into a lone gas station on Highway 136. The Super Bowl was still going and the old guy at the station was glued to his set. I asked if he had an oil spigot and he basically told me no and to leave him alone. I bought the oil and tried pouring it in without a spigot. Oil went all over the engine in a huge cloud of blue smoke. I went back in the station and noticed a spigot in clear sight. I was, let's say, more than a bit angry. I had words with the old guy and went back to my car to clean up the problem. There were other BMX'ers in our caravan who had all pulled into the same station. When they saw my confrontation with the old guy, they took things into their own hands. The next thing I saw was the Gavin brothers rolling tires down the driveway. Other guys were throwing things onto the roof of the station. I can remember Woodruff, Gibson and Reason joining in the fun. It was KOAS! I'm surprised we didn't spend the night in some county jail! Joe and Greg...fill in the gaps to this classic moment.

Tim I laughed out loud reading that. Joe had brought it up once and I was foggy on the details but it all jogged my brain. I remember the guy yelling at Mr. Gibson to control his kids and he said " They're not my kids." He had never seen anything like that. What about the shenanigans we pulled at the Rock Island, Armory race in the Quad cities ? I told you a few years after racing a kid came up to me on the beach in Chicago and recognized me and he said it was HIS dad that was going to beat us up that day. Small world, I told him we apologized but it was classic. Once we Nebraskans crossed a state line it was all for one and one for all. I'm still so proud to be from Lincoln I mention it any time I can.

Easy Sponge, we'll start pulling out the Gabe stories soon ! The rental car thing needs it's own thread. I learned from McNeil and Breithaupt.

theres no good gabe stories grubber..

Nice pics Tim of the Downs Arena prior to ABA sanctioning, you even got a pic of Ed Bonderant the evil promotor and Mark Denton's Brother Ralph who made our tracks near the Bobcat ! Lot's of good memories there, even when you guys came down to rape and pillage us noobs in KC.

Those were the days! Now the Downs is a Machine Shop.

A few of the Kansas City kids like Mark Denton, George Austin, Todd Dean and Tim Edwards raced some ABA events but they never discussed it. In large part it was due to Chris, Tim, Rex, Joe, Greg and the rest that grabbed our interest in the ABA.

My first ABA was at Kansas Coliseum 1/20/1980 and I still have the Green Program from the event which has a tidbit about the 1979 event and a holeshot by Chris Heyden.


Last month we had a get together of sorts, George Stewart, Mark Denton, Doug Prather, Tim Applegate were there and the Nebraskans were a good portion of the conversation.


We had a lot memorable times with you.

Could it be the one and only Drew Jamison? How are you old pal?

Aren't these old photos great? I only wish I had more shots from the Downs Arena...they take me right back in time. So many great memories riding with the KC crew.

How is George? Is he still a firefighter? That guy came on so strong in the mid to late 80's in PRO. He really had the power and pull!

How about Doug Prather? He was so smooth...as smooth as Richie Anderson. He helped put Patterson and Skyway on the map. Weren't you a big Patterson fan too, Drew?

Speaking of Chris Heyden, I had Chris look at these photos a few weeks ago and I they practically had him in tears. He's one of the best human beings I've ever met and I'm lucky to have him as a life-long friend. There should eventually be a place for him in the Hall of Fame. Chris played a major role in bringing ABA to the midwest. His grandmother lived in Tempe, Arizona and that's how he discovered Merle and ABA in 1977 - 1978. He would spend a few weeks each winter in Arizona and race at Chandler, Union Hills and other ABA tracks. I'm serious about this. Chris planted the ABA seed by coming back to Nebraska with info on the ABA. We switched from NBA to ABA by early 1978. Ron Holman (who later went to work for ABA) switched his track to ABA, and Ron's sprint car racing friend Mr. (first name? - Tim's dad) Richardson switched the Wichita, KS track to ABA around the same time.

There have been some remarks here and in other threads about a midwest BMX reunion. It would have to include the KC crew to make it real!

Cheers Drew!

After 2.5 decades of doing our things and rarely if at all seeing each other we had a get Kansas Team Patterson get together in June, those you would remember George, Doug, Me and maybe you might remember Mark Denton. The little kids (now adults) Mark Fuqua, Norman Jones, Trevor Litten and Steve Shope. Missing Gene Cook, Allen Wiliams and Tim Setzer.....and Tim Sparks who passed at age 19.

Thanks to a guy named Dave Mazepink who my Mom knew from her business we found Papa Vance. Dave was originally from California and had something to do with a bike shop called Cyclepath and he knew the Pattersons from the early days of BMX. I didn't believe him or my mom so brought over some early 8mm BMX movies to prove it.

That said, Dave made a call to Vance, I called called Vance and we were in business so to speak. Vance never forgot Doug Prather, where is Doug Prather was one of Vances first questions to me.

The beer and stories flowed.....and we did discuss a Midwest Reunion and it was pretty much unanimous that all would attend if possible. George would have to schedule it around his Fireman duties and Prather does a lot of work out of town.

Those pics of the Downs, I was about in Chris's state. And in comparison to now and then in Kansas City......it is totally abstract. And yes, Chris did a hell of a lot for the sport in the Midwest!


And to think, none of it would have happened without all of us in varying degrees.


Despite all the fun we had and varying degrees of success I find it ironic that with the exception of George Stewart none of us had involved our kids in the sport and our new families knew little if anything about what we had done....all that ended at the June Party!

On a Prather note....he had no Pics or Magazines of himself, I found an ABA Action cover with him in Skyway garb (up on his Facebook now), but I recall another around 1979 of him and Ritchie slugging it out either in ABA Action or BMXA. So if you have any Prather pics or Mags Uncle Doug would much appreciate any photocopies or originals you can come up with.

Drew

Forgot to add,

Doing well thanks!

And Tim, there is another Nebraskan/Midwesterner deserving of accolades synonymous with Chris, the one who helped his fellow hicks in the Midwest. Which in varying degrees surely opened doors for others.....the Racer, Photographer and Journalist Tim Lillethroup.

Here's the picture of us from a month ago.

Thanks to Drewel, here's the Vintage Flyer from the Down's Arena. In the late 80's and earley 90's Drew and I raced Road bikes. I remember we were at a road race in Iowa and saw Rex Reason there. If I remember right he was a Cat-2 road racer. Does anyboody have information on Rex?

Tim,
Awesome stuff! This was a little before my time in racing but it sure does bring back memories. The names on this string are even better. I think I raced the Study Brothers every weekend for 3 years! My biggest nemesis' were Doug Prather and John Copeland. Matter of fact, Mike w/ Cycle Shack, my sponsor at the time, gave me my Bell Moto 3 for beating Prather at Spinning Spokes.
Living in Tampa, FL now with a wife and 9 & 11 year old boys. Guess what sport we are fully engrossed in? That's right, BMX. Zack, the 11 year old just finishes 2nd in the state and won the state championship race. Logan, the 9 year old just finished 5th in the state and finished 3rd in the state championship race. I put close to 30k miles on my truck last year just driving to race tracks all over Florida.
I still fool around on a cruiser I bought. It's fun to still have the "snap" out of the gate, I just have a harder time making it all the way around the track now!
Anyway, thanks for the blast from the past!
Take Care.
Roger Frakes (1982 #2 in the state)

Hey Greg,
Here's a shot of you at the '82 World Cup race.
I have a Greg story to tell as well, but it'll will have to wait till next time.

Been quite a while since I have checked this thread....Roger Frakes! I hope you come back here. Great to hear you are doing well! Team Powerlite Nebraska all the way!