BMX racing is cool

i raced bmx bikes pretty seriously from the end of 1979 until 1988. i dabbled a bit more for a couple of years until i raced my last race at the bmx track in st. peters in 1991.

after quite a few attempts, my friend donald got some of us old-schoolers together for a little mini-reunion at that same st. peters track today. it happened to be the missouri state championships there today, so there were plenty of racers to watch for the occasion. it's pretty amazing how far the skill levels have risen since our day.

donald "duck", travis mcghee, bill brewer, maurice (mo-fu), darian hickman, derrik fink, and ron lucas. we all raced each other at the different tracks around the area, and even spent some time traveling together to the out of town races.

donald was our very own craig reynolds. he was smooth as butta, and didn't make it to many big races which was a shame. travis was probably the fastest guy in the country when he felt like racing and was in a good mood. bill was every where, and was always the big joker. mo-fu was a kind soul who really turned into quite a great rider over time. darian, who was racing TODAY by the way, was a small guy with a huge drive and he is probably as good now as he was then. derrik and his family gave many, many of us rides to far away places that we would have never seen, and all of them were some of the best riders in their classes, too. ron, another guy who was racing today looking smooth as ever, hasn't missed a beat and his kids race now, too.

missed today was my old friend dru potts. maybe he showed up after i left, but i was disappointed in missing him. we did a lot of traveling and racing together back in the day, and it would have been nice to hear him tell his wacko (but true) tall tales. also missing was doug scronce, who has remained active in ALL kinds of two wheeled racing over the years. that would have been a hoot, since he can't resist a good ribbing of anybody. i guess there were a lot of people that would have fit right in for our little reunion. some names escape me but if i think back i can remember tons of faces.

ah, bmx. i guess it's not just for kids anymore.