Scott Clark (BMX rider)

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Scott Clark (b. June 8, 1962 in Morgan Hill, California USA) is an "Old School" former professional Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1978 to 1985.

Scott was and still is known for is easy going affable manner like in the case of Tommy Brackens and Eric Rupe and in contrast to Greg Hill's intensity and abruptness. Like Eric Rupe, he had no well know nickname despite being a top pro.

Contents

[edit] Racing career

Note: Professional first are on the national level unless otherwise indicated.

Started Racing: Late 1974 at 12 years old.

Sanctioning Body: Local Police Athletic League (PAL)

First race result: First Place.

First win (local):See Above

First sponsor: The Bicycle Hut of San Jose

Other prefactory Sponsors: Sunshine Bicycles

First national win:

Turned professional: 1977 at 14 years of age. He was the third racer to turn professional at the time. David Clinton and Byron Friday were the first two in that order.

First Professional race result:

First Professional win: 1977 in a Colorado National with the National Bicycle Association (NBA).

Retired: Late 1986 Age 24 during "the year of no sponsors" when even the some of the most respected top pros could not find sponsorships due to manufacturers cutting back or dropping entirely their factory racing teams. The cause of this were in part to the financial problems brought on by the advents of the revival of skateboarding, the high price of producing bicycles in the United States and most importantly companies trying to start and make room for freestyle teams with the huge boom in BMX Freestyle.

Height & weight at the height of his career (1977-1985): Ht:5' 7" Wt:~175lbs.

[edit] Career factory and major bicycle shop sponsors

Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors. At any given time a racer could have numerous co-sponsors.

[edit] Amateur

  • Speedo Racing Products: 1976-Late 1977
  • R&R (Rick & Rick): 1977-1978

[edit] Professional

  • Robinson Racing Products: Late 1978-December 1980.
  • Rondo: December 1980-February 1981. Differences in outlook over what is the responsibility of a Sponsor to its racer.
  • Bear Development: February 1981-June 1981. Bear dropped its racing team six months after Scott joined.[1]
  • JMC (James Melton Cyclery): Mid June 1981-July 1981. A short approximately one month long sponsorship.
  • Murray of Ohio: July 1981-September 1984.
  • Redline Engineering: September 1984-December 1986. Left under bad circumstances. Redline allegedly had a verbal agreement with Scott to race another year as their only pro. However, with the coming of Greg Hill Scott departed Redline.
  • Robinson Racing Products: April 1986-June 1986.
  • Scott Clark Products: 1986. Scott Clark started this BMX accessory company in early 1982.

[edit] Career bicycle motocross titles

[edit] Amateur

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

National Bicycle League (NBL)

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

[edit] Professional

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

  • 1979, 1981 National No.1 Pro

National Bicycle League (NBL)

  • 1985 winner of the Canada Cup in Pro Cruiser. The Canada Cup was co-sanctioned by the NBL and the Canadian Bicycle Motocross Association (CBMXA). There was some controversy with this win. Stu Thomsen actually physically won the pro cruiser class. However, he was never formally signed up for it. He wrote himself in on the sign up sheets without going through the normal sign up process. He alledgedly said after he was disqualified: "I was just waiting to see how long it would take them to find out"[2] As a result he was disqualified and Scott Clark who came in second inherited the win.[3] Stu Thomsen, reading about the incident in the December 1985 issue of BMX Plus! sent a letter to BMX Plus! which was printed in the February 1986 issue:

"After reading your story on the IBMXF World Championships in Canada, I could not help getting upset at your story about me in the Pro Cruiser class. I was unaware at the time that I was not signed up in both Pro Classes (Cruiser and 20"-editor.). I had assumed that Bob Hadley (Huffy team manager-editor.) had signed me up, and when I checked the motoboard, I did not see my name. I could not find Bob Hadley anywhere, so I went over and spoke to Rosie Banks (NBL scorer-editor.), explaining that I thought I was signed up for both Pro classes and could she add my name to the list. I told her that Bob Hadley signed me up, and I could not find him to verify it. I was told it was okay, and I told them that instead of having to bring the moto sheet down the mountain, I would just add my name to the list. They said okay, I found out that I was disqualified when Bob Hadley called me after I was already home in California, and I was surprised, to say the least. I was not just waiting to see how long I could get away with it."[4]


BMX Plus! went on to apologize to Stu Thomsen, saying it got the details of the previous story from Bob Hadley himself and thought subsequently that Thomsen knew of the discrepancy. This implies that it was quoting Bob Hadley when Thomsen allegedly said about "...how long it would take them to find out".[5]


American Bicycle Association (ABA)

0

United States Bicycle Motocross Association (USBA)

0

International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)

0

Pro Series Championships

[edit] Notable accolades

  • Scott Clark is a 1997 ABA BMX Hall of Fame Inductee.

[edit] Significant injuries

Very few injuries in his career. Highly unusual. There are comparatively little injury among the amateur class, but at the pro level injuries are quite common, particularly among the top pros. This is in part because the top pro class contain some of the most daring and tenacious racers. With money on the line as a further incentive pro racers routinely push themselves to the edge of their talents and often beyond at the highest speeds. In the amateur classes they may only have two or thee racers like that in each age class at the national level, making it easy for one or two racers to dominate the class he or she is in. They are often far out in front of the traffic, often straight out of the gate. With them being the fastest and most talented with only one or two other racers at there skill level, they often only have to worry about the obstacles themselves. In the top "AA" Pro class virtually every racer are at that same high level and have the fierce desire to dominate, to win, and have to worry about the other seven, who are just as fast as he is. As a result the pro class are much more aggressive with each other than in the other classes. Conversely they are less likely to back down. This results in highly aggressive moves to either stay in front or overtake, done at full speed backing down only when absolutely necessary with up to eight racers at a time. This of course could result in fierce wrecks incurring serious injury. Hence injuries up to and including broken limbs and collar bones are comparatively common if compared to even the top national amateurs. Many pros have had promising seasons and/or careers interrupted by serious injury. Darrell Young for example; or cut short totally as with Mike Poulson and Robert Fehd. For a top pro to be as successful as Scott Clark was and not have serious injuries during his career is quite remarkable. Perhaps only Tinker Juarez has a more impressive injury-free record, especially given he was a pioneering vertical freestyler as well as a racer.

[edit] Peccadilloes

[edit] Post BMX career

Like a lot of his fellow BMXers, his need for the thrill of racing did not end with his BMX career. Immediately after he retired from BMX in late 1986 he got involved in motorcycle speedway racing.[6] Scott Clark has raced sprint/midget cars, motorcycle, and drag racing. He has even raced radio controlled model cars. Scott Clark did race in a few American Bicycle Association Veteran Pro races in the mid 1990's but a series of knee operations forced him to retire from any serious competition and race strictly for fun.

[edit] BMX magazine covers

Bicycle Motocross News:

  • None

Minicycle/BMX Action & Super BMX:

  • March 1981 Vol.8 No.3 (SBMX)
  • July 1981 Vol.8 No.7 (SMBX)

Bicycle Motocross Action & Go:

  • December 1981 Vol.6 No.12
  • May 1982 Vol.7 No.5
  • July 1982 Vol.7 No.7 with Mike Buff.

BMX Plus!:

Bicycles and Dirt:

[edit] BMX and general press magazine interviews and articles

  • "Top Pros Speak Out" BMX Action April 1982 Vol.7 No.4 pg.62 Joint interview with Stu Thomsen, Greg Hill, Kevin McNeal, Eric Rupe, Brent Patterson, and Harry Leary, speaking about various issues facing the racing world.
  • "Scott Clark" BMX Action July 1982 Vol.7 No.7 pg.36 A one page biographic side bar
  • "Conversation with Scott Clark" Super BMX July 1981 Vol.8 No.7 pg.36
  • "Product Analysis: B&B Electronic Practice Gate" BMX Action September 1984 Vol.9 No.9 pg.10
  • "Redline's Scott Clark" Super BMX & Freestyle January 1985 Vo1.12 No.1 pg.38
  • "Verbal Jammin' With Scott Clark" BMX Action February 1985 Vol.10 No.2 pg.64

[edit] End Notes

  1. ^ BMX Action July 1982 Vol.7 No.7 pg.36.
  2. ^ BMX Plus! December 1985 Vol.8 No.12 pg.28
  3. ^ BMX Action December 1985 Vol.10 No.12 pg.48
  4. ^ BMX Plus! February 1986 Vol.9 No.2 pg.74
  5. ^ BMX Plus! February 1986 Vol.9 No.2 pg.74
  6. ^ Super BMX & Freestyle December 1986 Vol.13 No.12 pg.5

[edit] External links

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