I grew up in TN..., and BMX was popular, but I certainly don't see any topics on here that says "old school TN riders here", etc, like I see with other posts "Minnessota", "California". And it got me to thinking...in what region was BMX most popular?

any opinions?

In the late 70's and early 80's there was alot of BMX happening in Northern Indiana and Southwestern Michigan. It was started by Vert Troyer in Wakarusa, IN in about 1976. The next year or so Vert sanctioned his track with the NBL, and that is how it was for a couple years as other tracks were set up. Elkhart, Goshen, and Edwardsburg(MI) Then in 1980, there was a big change, as Waky and Goshen joined the rest of Indiana in the NBL, and Elkhart and Edwardsburg joined the rest of Michigan with the ABA. This story helps me to tell you why this area was possibly the most popular BMX region in the US. After the split the first ABA national west of the Mississippi was held at Buds BMX in Elkhart and the track became very popular. At the same time something very similar was happening 15 miles south in Wakarusa. For a couple years there, Buds and the ABA and Wakarusa and the NBL were doing very well, sometimes with combined rider counts over 600 at local races. The surrounding areas were also growing, Plainwell, MI, Kalmazoo,MI, NE Indiana, Ft Wayne, Warsaw, and others(Can't forget Redbud) We were bringing riders from all over Michigan, also Ohio, and Illinois. Maybe we can't compete with Cali, but we sure did have alot of fun
John (Wildman) Kiernan

lots of tracks in texas during the 80's....4 in san antonio alone and now only 1 is left!!

Along the same lines, but I wonder what is the largest rider count for a local race? Just a regular single points race, not double or triple or special event.

Changstar

new jersey at 1 time had around 10 tracks. Now down to 3(all NBL).I would guess California would have to be up there.that is where it all started.

So Cal in the golden age of bmx. Nor Cal now. As a kid growing up in Nor Cal i always wanted to move to So Cal to race there. Now Nor Cal is the place to be.

Mx Mug

Pa. had quite a few tracks, both ABA and NBL
long gone include Kutztown, Ephrata, Reading, Lehigh Valley, Manheim, Sleepy Hollow, Harrisburg area and recently gone long time track Bensalem

Probably has been covered before, but it would be nice to have them all listed by states....

So Cal is where BMX originated and took off. Everyone else was just trying to be like them.

There's a thread around here with several big name members talking about the first tracks and how it all began. I think it was Scott Briethaupt who built the first BMX track in a vacant lot in his neighborhood. Greg Hill raced there as a kid i think. (been a while since i read it, but i know Mr Hill posted in it) You should try to find it Its a pretty sweet read. I have no idea the name of the thread.

Every state had a lot of tracks in the 80s. Texas had some really nice ones and even had an annual nat in a beer joint! Arizona has the most tracks now I think. No suprise there with the ABA calling it home.

I dont ever see racing getting as big as it was in the 80s. Night races wouldnt end untill well past midnight back then. Now the races end an hour after they start. Its these sissy tracks as part of the reason. Jumping is way more fun than pumping.

Maryland had 20 BMX tracks from the early 70's to mid 80's as recalled and ranked by vintagebmx.com users. We lived in NJ up until 1979 and by that time BMX was definitely more developed than MD, so when we moved to MD, it was practically the ground floor in MD, though I'm hearing that Columbia, MD track was around around 76-ish. I think in the Eastern US, NJ and FL were the early hot spots.


MD tracks late 1970s - mid 1980s as ranked and recalled by vintagebmx.com users

1. Howard County Fairgrounds, outdoors, West Friendship [ABA]
2. Rockville - I-270, bus station [ABA]
3. Rockville - Gude Drive [ABA]
4. Columbia [ABA]
5. 75-80, Monrovia [NBL, ABA?]
6. Cockeysville [ABA]
7. Millersville [ABA]
8. Howard County Fairgrounds, indoors, West Friendship [ABA]
9. Middletown - off I-70 [ABA]
10. Overlea / Fullerton / Baltimore / E. Fitzhugh [ABA]
11. Ocean City - in the open air basement garage 1/81(?) [ABA]
12. Ocean City - indoors 1/82(?) [ABA]
13. Timonium / Baltimore - indoor race (81?)
14. Frostburg - with overturned tree
15. Ocean City outdoor behind the montego bay shopping center
16. Waldorf - behind the bowling alley
17. Corriganville/Cumberland
18. College Park "rogue track out in the woods past the Beltway Plaza"
19. Wheaton - Northwood track
20. Ocean City outdoor old skate park [rolling surf skatepark rip]

Well, in the 70s/early 80s, San Diego had it's own association. They handed out sequential number plates when you first joined. I remember my number was in the 1900s and it was still mid summer.

At one time they were running Rancho San Diego, Lakeside, Las Palmas, Silverwing Park and Poway (All downhill) along with Encinitas, The "Bike Shop" Track, Claremont (Now Kearny Moto-park) This is in addition to the NBA track at the Velodrome, IBMXs Willow Glenn and a track at the Carlsbad Speedway as well as a track or two I might have forgotten. Basically at least 10 tracks within a 30 mile radius. I don't think even the valley had that.

As far as largest single point races, I was at a few races at Rancho where they had semi's and sometimes 1/4s in the hack class alone, let alone the 20s. Some of old result sheets showed the finals as "13 Novice A" and "13 novice B"

Also, Yarnell and Saddleback would shut down sign-ups due to too many entrants and in the case of Spike (Mike Rush) I think he ended up going to WSA as a result.