Awesome Bob, thanks for sharing. I took a drive down to where Supercross "used" to be since it is only about 4 miles away from me earlier this summer. Needless to say it was very depressing. There isnt even a shred of evidence that there was a BMX track there.

Some cool old pictures. I also dont remember PK racing for Race Inc so that shot was very cool.
I saw the Boss racer, wonder who that was , Frank Post?
I didnt know about Boss till mid 80s yet i recently saw a pic of the Boss uniform in like 81 I think. So they go waaay back.

More very cool shots. Thanks Bob. I was at the BMXA show at Mike's Bikes too. I believe that is Mike McLaughlin (Mike of Mike's Bikes) in the cowboy hat in the front row of the Torker team shot. He raced a SWEET Torker 26" cruiser then.

That rodeo barn was actually outside of Belleville between Centerville and Villa Hills. The last time I was through that way the place was still standing.

Any one remember racing at the Convention Center in Springfield, Ill during the winter? That was a really good deal for the kids. We would clean our tires in the pits and carry the bikes to the gate in order to keep them clean for the concrete track. Some racers would spray hair spray on thier tires to prevent sliding out in the turns. I loved the seats there. Took in a few concerts there also. Great times.

Definitely. I went there a couple of times with Dave and Robbie Guinn's family. We did the same hairspray trick thoug I was too slow at the time for it to make a difference.

Where was Mike's Bikes located? He was getting out of it by the time I started racing. I remember Terry Capstick riding for MCS on a 26", and McLaughlin on the Torker 26". It's funny, at the time they seemed OLD but they were probably only in their late 20s or early thirties.

I want to say that Mike's Bikes was in Creve Coeur, but I don't remember exactly where. Mike worked for Creve Coeur Cyclery (part of the group that also was Chesterfield Cyclery and West County Cyclery, which is now Bike Center). I worked for Mike's brother Mark at Chesterfield Cyclery when it was at Clayton and Clarkson.

Excellent thread. Great to hear and see the history of racing here in St. Louis.

I used to live about a mile from Archview Stables and raced there alot. The place is still there and still has the orginal sign. The stables are in my patrol district and i pass it all the time. The indoor horse stables actually burnt down several years back and was rebuilt. They used to have outdoor and indoor rodeos but they have since stopped that as well. The place is grown up in weeds and is not kept up very well. Good memories though!

Five-0

So do you head down the road when you are on patrol to the establishment at the intersection? I used to run into my college buddies who were on patrol in Sauget at the other establishments.

Was the first turn at Collinsville a right hander into the downhill? We came out to race a NBL Nat in '79 (I think it was) and I got disqualified cause me and another rider got hooked up in a moto and my pedal tore out a bunch of front spokes as we crashed. If I remember correctly the week before or after was in Evansville, Ind. We came out from Pittsburgh, Pa. Good times....

It was for sure down hill. I am too old to remember if it was a left or right at the bottom of the hill. I think there was a long straight after the turn.

I was thinking that the start was level for about 20yds or so into a right hander down the hill to a left hander and then the long level staraight. Your right to old to remember...LOL

http://www.bmxhosting.com/is.php?i=783&...Picture_027.jpg Collinsville had a left first turn then a slight right into a ski jump!

The StL area had alot of tracks back then!

Yeah, I remember the left first turn as well. The long straightaway was the last straight, correct?

I might be thinking of the wrong track. We actually may have been in Illinois and not Misouri. LOL To long ago....

troy, wasn't collinsville "supercross", where the '81 grands were? or do i have these all screwed up in my head (which is likely). that pic doesn't look like what i remember. more importantly, is that danny favry in front of you! man.... i didn't think we allowed that:) cool pics guys! cheers, tim

the goose looks like a "good guy" all dressed up in white! yeah he looks too small in that pic. i couldn't remember what number paul had for the '81 season, but it must have been #4. anybody have all the '81 nbl plates for 14, 15 and 16x?

Panda, the Supercross and Collinsville were two different tracks.

I raced at Archview stables in winter '87-'88 when the Finks ran it. Those were the days.

Collinsville is in Illinois, right across the river from St. Louis. A lot of the St. Louis riders rode there since it was so close.

That's not the Goose, it's Tim Kakouris. I'm not sure what Paul's number was for that year. Maybe 2 or 3?

duck, that's what i thought too (2 or 3). he was in the running to get that #1 plate back that year... was tim kakouris younger than paul.... i don't remember racing him.

Yeah, Tim's younger than Paul, maybe by a year or two. Locally I'm pretty sure he used to go up against Mike Goeddy for most of the year. Tim might have been a few months older. Nationally he was racing against Richie Anderson, Mark Lopez, Curt Gardner, Jon Anderson, etc. A very tough class. By the time Tim was 17 he was pretty dominate. He can correct me but I'm pretty sure he had the chance to ride for Hutch at one point and opted not to, I'm not sure why. I think it was around the time Gregg Liggins refused to go to South Africa (apartheid and all that). I think Tim would have been amazing on Hutch, he would have gotten to even more races and a lot more exposure which could have possibly helped him out later on. Maybe he could have turned a later sponsor into a mountain bike sponsor (like Tomac, Lopes, Carter, and King did.) He still races mountain bikes and road bikes.

At one point him and another guy from here, Travis McGhee, both rode for Vector. I think Travis was 17 and Tim was 18. There were several nationals where Travis won his class, Tim won his class and then they took turns beating each other in the open classes. Tim was in the running for number 1 a couple of times. One year he may have even gone into the grands number one, or tied for number one, had a terrible day and ended up number five or something crazy. Rick Palmer won it that year. This would have been '86 and '87 or so.

What a blast reading this brings back good time,South county ymca track was my first race,that became the ball fields that are there now. arch view i raced also but first on a motorcycle during the winter we raced flat track,I rode and raced ever where in st.louis from 1978-1983

Hello I rode those jumps at st Marcaus Cematary in the late 70's with Owen D and Bob H. btw and races justabout all the track mentioned, War of the stars and also the schwinn jag race at keil center.

hey, louie! it's tk. i live about a 1/2 mile from those trail in st. marcus, and they are still there.

st marcus, new and old. also carndolt park (sp) I worked at dirt bike headquaters on gravios.

wow, we used to go to dirt bike headquarters for number plate numbers and zip ties. the buildings are still there, i think it's a chinese food place now.

Those jumps were located in Ballwin off of Baxter Road just across the street from the Fox Creek subdivision. Unfortunately, the creek has now eaten away most of the area. I drive by there every once in awhile and keep meaning to take my camera with me and get some shots of what the area looks like now.

- Bob

it's awesome to see all the history of bmx in the st. louis area. great thread!

to clear up a small missconseption, i don't think it was troy that had a track. it is actually was hawk point on hwy D 2-3 miles north of hwy. 47. it is just 2 miles from my cousins house. there is only reminence of one of the turns left. maybe that will bring back some memories for a few of ya.

i hope that we can see tracks return to st. louis in the future.

Did any of you guys ride behind Ventures on kingshighway,Also the park right next to the fire station christy pack I believe.

I stand corrected A-pro. The ones I thought they were are really close as in a creek, AP. building in the forground ect. It is pretty cool to here about this time in our lives again. I still have all the trophys, jerseys and the robinson & GT from the early 80's.

Yes I went to St Johns high school 3 blks north from that spot. How about the jumps at Crondelet park?

Sorry Ed I answered your Q and didn't even see that was you... And Tim K. Hello to you also about those jumps I dont know if they are still ridable.. Do either of you remember that Russ guy that started msd jumps at gravous bike trail? I'm on jury duty and some old dude w/ a kawasaki shirt- approched-and spoke- his light turned off years ago. I have a box full of pictures from "the day" next week I'll start putting them up. This sight is pretty cool!

Yes I see Russ every once in awhile,Still wears all black clothes.I also see Ed Schmidt all the time.

LouG -
I would love to see your pics! To me, the old school pictures and the pictures of actual bike builds are by far my favorite part of the site. It always brings back so many memories.

- Bob

Do you mean the trails off of HWY 55 (I can't think of the name of the exit)? Russ used to keep the trails REALLY nice.

with all you old schoolers finding your passion for bmx again. why don't you come out to ST. Peters BMX this comming year? we've been getting many new riders from 35-50 riding 20" and 24" come out and ride with us, even if its practice. last year we had 6 on the gate once a week in the 28 and over novice class. come on out knock the dust off some your skillz.

Yes next to Orlando's restaurant.



Where would a 49 year old fat azz fit in at.

yeah, the figure 8's is what they call them now. pretty cool stuff. i live about 10 minutes' ride away, and ride by there on the grants trail when i'm goofing around. i cruise around the big jumps on my mtb (no, i'm not the idiot cutting into the lips with my big chainring!) and they are impressive. tons of kids ride down there in the summer time.

Hey Tim, Hows it going. Playing around on the computer and stumbled on this site. Its always fun to look back on those good old days.

ward, ward! you taking care of yourself?? it was awesome to see you and margo at the 12 hour race. i'm waiting to hear about your return to the track!

great site, this is. tons of guys and gals from the old days, lots of good people on here.

tk

Yup, those are the ones. What about The Dips, did any of you guys ever ride there? They were in the trails right next to Flo Valley Community College. One (seemingly) huge drop in, a jump, another smaller drop in and another jump and then a left hand turn which took you back to the big drop. All of us North County kids hit that place several times a week.

A few of us "old schoolers" went and hung out at the state finale- Travis McGhee, Dru Potts, Doug Scronce, Derrian Hickman and Ron Lucas raced (still races) and I saw Jim Wallace working a booth.

If my six year old decides he wants to race (he's somewhat interested) then I'll be back out. If not, I'll just continue to be a fan. It's a great sport but it takes time to be good at it and I've got to at least be competitive for it to be fun. I haven't been on any type of bicycle in at least 6 years. Could get ugly quick.

Duck, myself coming from North County was wondering if you ever rode a couple places. First, off of Mullanphy and Shackelford where the Schnucks is now (used to be a National) there were some trails there. Next to that where McDonald's is there were trails there that were more encompassed in the trees. There was also some trails off of Humes near Sunset park but the one the surprised me the most was the trails back off of Humes and Grants Parkway. The one where you had to ride through a farmers field then "into the woods" They were OK trails BITD but about 6 or 7 years ago I rode back there just to see if they still existed and to my astonishment it looked like dirt jumpers mecca. They were about 20 kids back there riding which was a huge surprise to me to see it still alive. Growing up I went to a Catholic school and the only sport was soccer so I am pretty stoked and sad to see that this much BMX activity went on and I didn't even know it. I thought I was just in my own little world. I too have a son that is now 7 and recently purchased him a REDLINE Raid so maybe see a few of you out at St Pete. If the weather breaks a little, him and I will take a ride to over off of Grants Parkway and see if those trails are still hanging in there and take some photo's since all others trails are gone.

Mullanphy and Shackelford- I only rode there a few times. Where's Humes and Sunset Park? I'm not sure how old you are but I have a couple of friends that used to ride back then, maybe you knew them- Brian Gary and Quinny Grant. They had some decent trails behind their houses. They lived somewhere off of Patterson Rd. kind of by Hazelwood Central. North County, Cathlolic School and Soccer went hand and hand. North County (and St. Louis in general) was really active as far as BMX went. I'm still surprised there aren't more St. Louis riders on this website. Maybe they haven't found it yet. That's good to hear that there were that many kids out riding the trails. I live down by the brewery and don't see a lot of kids riding in the city.

Do you remember the old Florissant Cycle (Touring Cyclist)? I wonder where Jeff Van Kirk and those guys are now? Jeff was a great jumper. I was just getting into racing and all of that and I'd see him at the track jumping everything. Lots of style. There was another guy named Jimmy Williams that was a really good jumper as well, I think he may have also rode for Florissant Cycle.

I'll probably make it out to St. Pete's a few times next year regardless of if my kid gets into it or not. I'm supposed to meet up with Bob B, maybe we can all hook up.
Maybe I can even drag TK and out to a national or a big state race?

i'm tempted to let my soon-to-be 9 year old have a go at bmx racing. st. peters is just so far, and as a family we don't have much time. he would take to it VERY well, i think. i'll come out to a race or two any way it goes just to check it out. duck, you set it all up for us!

tk

Deal. I'll even see if I can drag Matt out. He told me he's got a 24 inch SE (Floval Flyer?) that he cruises around on. You're right, St. Peters is FAR away. I'm basically as far as you can go without being in Illinois, my neighborhood overlooks 55 and the river. It's definitely a haul but once the schedule comes out I'll hook it all up!