Forum Replies Created

Viewing 5 posts - 271 through 275 (of 275 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: Old School New Jersey pros #34485

    Yeah Superclass i dont consider Pro. If it was Pro theyd have called it Pro.
    B Pro counts though.
    I moved west from fall of 81 till fall of 88 so I have no idea who was pro: B pro, A pro or AA pro back then, I then again moved west from like 91-92 and moved east for 93. In my last two times living back east the only one I remember racing A pro was Dave (a teamate of mine on Action Wheels). If you guys remember that late 80s Action Wheels jersey it was my design. I met Clay years earlier out west as rode for Action Wheels, he was out west for some Big race in Irvine Ca but was racing like 15X or something. Did he turn Pro, my memory fails me.
    maybe Caveman can tell us who raced Pro (not superclass) with him.

    As for those 80 guys, yeah I know about them all but wasnt sure who went Pro. Alot of them went Superclass but I dont know how many of them went Pro. I know Rob Dolecki toured with me in 92, but dont remember him being Pro then. So I will update the master list once you guys are sure they went Pro.

    I talked with a old school freind who raced Pro and he informed John Shackel raced for AMF, Columbia and Shimano.

    ** Ok I went thru the few old papers I have. 91-92 ABA and 98 NBL.
    I found no record of any Pros from NJ in those years but did find out for a fact that Marc Inella and Rob Dolecki did at least race Superclass and sometimes Superclass/Pro Open, but could find no evidence they turned Pro. Superclass btw, was started to allow Amatuers to earn money, so for sure its not a true Pro class. Maybe a few of you can dig out some old papers also 🙂

    in reply to: ABA leading the way in promoting BMX racing. #34463

    I started racing NBL in 1979 by 1980 I was sold on ABA.
    Has anything changed since then?

    In 1979 I raced mostly NBL. I was new to BMX but couldnt tell you where I finished in the points. In 1980 I was split and racing both NBL and ABA.
    In 1979 I was ABA #1 all year but in NBL my points were sent to both PA and sperately to NJ/ HUH wtf. Well How did I finish in NBL that year?
    Have no clue, the lame NBL only published the top 50, thats for the entire state of NJ. I probably was 51 lol, ill never know. Then again I got points in PA so I finished out of the top 50 in two states lol.
    The ABA meanwhile was dialed. I finished #6 in 79 (actually #1 lol but ABA cheated me to get a track to switch sanctions) and #185 in 80. (I crashed at the NBL Flemington national in 80 and missed all of the summer of 80). One sanction let all the riders know where they finished in points (ABA) the other sanction (NBL) didnt care.

    ABA points and newspaper dialed, NBL beginner. That was then.
    ABA points today (dialed if you can read them without a magnifying glass), newspaper and website all dialed in. NBL? lol look at their site, Brokenspokes.Net is more dialed.

    Look at who is sponsoring the NBL nationals. They cant even get MCS who basically started the NBL or Profile from their own strongest state of Florida.

    Both sanctions are killing the sport with their greed of 1 gazillion nationals, no importance anymore to the local scene, no promotion outside the sport and making tracks to please the top riders and not tracks that a beginner can race (or veteran butcasual racer like me). yeah the top riders have gotten insanely fast and great but are riders who have never set foot on a BMX track before any better today???????? Everyone says that beginners and new riders are the backbone to BMX yet they kiss ass to all the fastest racers to hear them say after a track rebuild, OMG dude thats so awesome! Wow howd we get enough dirt for 100 jumps? O yeah get rid of backside and make the jumps lippy let you use less dirt. Good Job man. this will really seperate the technical riders from the posers”

    good job making a track the new kids look at and go no way man, but outloud when asked what they think say, “man this is awesome, looks really cool” then he never comes back.

    Both sanctions are killing the sport, but at least with the ABA your doing it dialed in.

    in reply to: ABA in NJ #34462

    Alot of it is up to us. i live out west for now. But when I was living back in NJ once me and Dave went to Vineland for a City Council or Parks dept meeting.
    We told them we were interested in repopening the old track and they wanted more info.
    I lived like 2 hours away and just never went back (I dont know Daves excuse, probably school, yeah like thats important).

    In California you can pretty much forget opening a track unless u get lucky, but if I move down south like I plan to, I will open a old school meets new school track (before I get to old to lie about beating Dave).

    Its all in the committment. think of what you want the track to look like, picture it in your minds eye. then think of parks that could hold a 2 or 3 acre facility. Or consider buying 2 acres of land and incorporating it so your not liable. Maybe get a local shop to partner with you and they get a onsite space for a trailer at each race.

    I regret not going back to vineland, i regret not working hard to bring back the Saylorsburg, PA track that is still there under weeds. A downhill track that could be the jewel of the East Coast if done right.

    No more regrets 🙂

    in reply to: New Jersey track History #34460

    As the official Historian of NJ BMX ant-dog I thought you might.
    did you notice this section
    http://www.catalogofbmx.com/njdetails.html

    Im gonna do a Hall of fame also.

    here who will be in for sure any other suggestions?
    Racers
    Sal Zeuner, Jenny Zeuner, Mike Lynch, Rich Farside

    On the bubble:
    Chriss Williams (Torker East, Thruster), Terry Zeuner (SE), Mike Mayes (SE), Amon Emeka(sp?)(Jag- A former World Champion?), Franco Perrino (Thurster), Kathy Schakel (Shimano), Mark Lopez (MCS), Jarret Justice (CW), Steve Cohen (Jag)

    Industry
    Harry Meyers (TO), Sal Zeuner Sr. (TO), Mrs. Zeuner (TO), Mark Zalewski (Founder TNT). Clay Goldsmid (Co-Founder Hyper), Erick Weinstetter (Co-Founder Hyper).

    On the bubble:
    Lee Veale Sr.(TO, President NJ BMX Association, Owner AER team)
    Marty Wolfgang (TO, Owner Martys Bike Shop)
    Mr and Mrs. Gleason (TO, Owners Bicycle World)
    Chuck DeRoche (TO, Island Raceway in Great Meadows)

    in reply to: Harry Myers, Craigmeur, NBA, General Bikes… #34458

    I only met Harry once but will never forget it.
    I was one of the guys that helped build Lawrenceville. Mind you Marty ran it and hired a backhoe operator but I was there to help give direction and the newspaper came out to take pictures of us on the track before it was finished. Other racers that helped were Kim Wolfkill and Paul Smith.

    After racing NBL most of 1978 in 1980 I was racing ABA as much as possible trying to get Penn-1 #1. I lived on the Delware river (PA side) and once rode to Lawville to race.

    One day I was hanging out at Lawville on a non race day with Marty and had been trying all year to get him to go ABA. That day Harry showed up and was trying to get Marty to go NBA. I argued a bit with Harry, and Marty ever the politician, just listened. Lawville never went ABA or NBA. Either way the NBA was history and the better sanction went on to become the biggest sanction in the history of BMX.

    That being said, Im sorry the NBA died now and wished I had raced it a few times. Now that im not a punk teen, I realize how much Harry did for BMX in New Jersey and how much work he must have put into Craigmeur. (I spectated the 80 nationals there, I didnt race for some reason if it was after Flemington then thats the reason, i seeperated my shoulder at that race)

    Harry Meyers was to North Jersey BMX what the Zueners were to South Jersey. Some of the best times of my life were those early days of BMX and without realizing it then, guys like Harry were the reason.

Viewing 5 posts - 271 through 275 (of 275 total)