Pete Loncarevich

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Pete Loncarevich

Personal information
Full name	Peter Loncarevich
Nickname	"Pistol Pete"
Date of birth	April 8, 1966 (age 41)
Country	United States
Height	1.85 m (6'1" Imperial)
Weight	~81.65-88.45 kg (~180-195lbs. Imperial)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Bicycle Motocross (BMX)
Role	Racer
Rider type	Off Road
Amateur team(s)
1977 1977 1978 1979-1980 1980-1982	Jag BMX Cook Bros. S&S Performance TW Racing Diamonback
Professional team(s)
1982 1983 1983 1983-1984 1984-1986 1986-1989 1989-1992 1992 1993 1994	Diamonback SE Racing LRP Racing Shadow Racing CW Racing Haro Designs Vans Vans/Hawk Racing GHP/Pro Forx ParkPre
Infobox last updated on:
April 7, 2007

Peter Loncarevich (b. April 8, 1966 from Lake Forest, California USA) is a former Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer. Loncarevich was an "Old School" professional BMX racer whose prime competitive years were from 1980 to 1994.

Nickname: "Pistol Pete" Loncarevich. He received the moniker the way many racers did with the announcer choosing one for him. In 1984 at an American Bicycle Association national, Merl Mennenga, the founder and then President of the ABA, who often also announced "play by play" for the audience at ABA nationals called him "The Pistol".^[1]

Contents 1 BMX racing career 1.1 Career factory and major bicycle shop sponsors 1.1.1 Amateur 1.1.2 Professional 1.2 Career bicycle motocross titles 1.2.1 Amateur 1.2.2 Professional 1.3 Notable accolades 1.4 Significant BMX related injuries 2 Peccadilloes 3 Events and interest outside of cycling 4 Mountain Bike (MTB) career 4.1 Career MTB Sponsors 4.2 Career MTB racing titles 5 BMX and MTB magazine covers 6 BMX, MTB and general media interviews and articles 7 End Notes 8 External links

[edit] BMX racing career

Note: Professional first are at the national level until otherwise indicated.

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Started Racing: Mid 1977 Age 11 at Elk's BMX Lodge in Santa Ana, California.^[2]

First race result: Second in 11 Novice

First win (local):

Sanctioning Body:

First sponsor:

First national win: 1978 NBA Corona National 12 Expert.

Turned professional: December 1982 at age 17.

First Professional race result: He raced in two local races without wining the mains.^[3] In his first pro race on the national level he got a second place in "A" pro on December 29 at the 1982 Jag World Championship (American Bicycle Association (ABA) sanctioned). He won US$500.^[4]

First Professional win:

First Senior Pro* race result:

First Senior Pro win:

*In the NBL it is "A" Pro/Elite; in the ABA it is "AA" Pro.

Retired from Senior pro (A/AA)* circuit: Unofficially in 1994, but like a lot of pros, they really retired only from the front line AA/A pro points chase circuit for the National no. 1 title. Racing never left his system. He came back to BMX by winning the ABA Masters class, the precursor to the Veteran Pro class, at the 1995 ABA Grand Nationals. He raced in the ABA's Masters/Veteran Pro class well into the 2000s. This was in addition to and simultaneous with his Mountain Bike (MTB) racing career where he won a Masters World Championship as well as multiple World Cup events.

Height & Weight at the height of his career (1984-1993): Ht:6'1" Wt:~180-195lbs.^[5] He underwent a substantial weight gain when he put on muscle during the 1985 and 1986 seasons

*"A" (Elite) Pro in the NBL, "AA" Pro in the ABA.

[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. Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage at the time in question.

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[edit] Amateur

• Jag BMX:

• Cook Bros.:

• S&S Performance Products: 1978

• TW: December 1979-September 1980. Allegedly Peter Loncarevich's father's business partners who ran TW stole US$5,000 from his father and he subsequently stopped racing for them after they couldn't be found.^[6]

• Diamond Back (Centurion Bicycle Company): September 1980-December 1982. Mr. Loncarevich would turn pro while with this sponsor.

[edit] Professional

• Diamond Back (Centurion Bicycle Company): September 1980-December 1982. Briefly with DB as as a pro, about three days. DB and Loncarevich did not see eye to eye about Loncarevich turning pro at the time. DB did not think he was ready and wanted Loncarevich to help them win Team Trophy, a prestigious accolade for the best factory team of the year awarded by a sanctioning body depending on how well a team does as a group in Nationals through out the season. They wanted Eddy King (who joined DB at the same time Loncarevich did but was two years older) to turn pro before Loncarevich and for Loncarevich to wait a year. After his second place result in "A" pro in his pro debute at the ABA Jag World Championship in 1982, Diamondback terminated his contract.^[7] The two parties went their separate ways.^[8] The termination motivated him to prove to himself he was a top pro and beat Harry Leary and Eddy King, Diamondback's marque pros.^[9]

• SE Racing (formerly Scot Enterprises Racing Division, now called Sports Engineering, Inc.): January 1983-Mid February 1983. Allegedly Scot Breithaupt, the owner of SE Racing and a BMX pioneer, wanted Loncarevich to drop the family BMX business, Loncarevich Racing Products, and race solely for SE Racing.^[10]

• LRP (Loncarevich Racing Products): Mid February 1983-November 1983. LRP was a company he and his father started that sold BMX accessories like titanium seatpost and pedal cages and a small clothing line.

• Shadow Racing: November 1983-December 31, 1984. Shadow Racing was owned by the same person who owned CW, Roger Worsham. It made its own line of BMX bicycles and components. Loncarevich would later move over to CW.

• CW (Custom Works) Racing: January 1, 1984-April 1, 1986. Although Mr. Loncarevich had a contract to race for CW until April of 1986, he showed up and raced in the November 1985 ABA Grand Nationals in a Haro uniform. He was threatened to be sued for breach of contract by CW.^[11] CW apparently went so far as to file a restraining order to prevent Loncarevich from moving to Haro prematurely. The court turned down the request.^[12] As it is with most disputes of this kind it was over salary. Loncarevich felt that he should had gotten a large monetary raise in lieu of winning the ABA number one pro for 1985. Haro Designs did offer a raise increase to his salary. As Peter said. "When you're an athlete, you have to get what you can while you can, because next year you might have a terrible season. So I went with Haro Designs."^[13] This is particularly true in the sport of BMX racing in which there isn't the infrastructure for a pension pension plan for retired Pros or a minimum salary requirement and no effective professional racer's union (although they have been efforts to organize such going back to 1976 in the National Bicycle Association (NBA)). Things are very much like what professional baseball players faced 120 years ago, except there is no formal or informal collusion to prevent racers from going from one sponsor to another if he doesn't like the terms. One irony in Loncarevich signing with CW in the first place: Apparently CW made it a clause of sponsorship for the Loncarevich family to shut down their business, Loncarevich Racing Products. That was the very same condition that allegedly made Pete Loncarevich leave SE Racing.^[14]

Side Note: "CW" never stood for "Coast Wheels" as it is widely thought. Coast Wheels was a bike shop that Roger Worsham owned. Custom Works was a completely different and independent company.^[15] This is in contrast with JMC (Jim Melton Cyclery) which did start out as a bicycle shop and then began manufacturing its own BMX components including entire bicycles.

• Haro Designs/Bicycles: April 1, 1986-May 1989. Apparently Haro Designs allegedly lured Mr. Loncarevich under the false pretense of a co-sponsorship offer when they fully intended to offer Peter a full factory contract.^[16] Left Haro after extended and fruitless contract negotiations.^[17]

• Vans (Van Doren Rubber Co.): May 1989-May 1992.

• Vans (Van Doren Rubber Co.) /Hawk Racing: May 1992-December 1992. Peter was still sponsored by Vans and was still his main sponsor sending him around the racing circuit, but Hawk Racing supplied the bike. Vans was and is a tennis shoe and skateboard/BMX apparel maker.
• GHP (Greg Hill Products) /Pro Forx: January 1993-

• ParkPre Bicycles (Integra Precision Corporation): 1994

[edit] Career bicycle motocross titles

[edit] Amateur

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

• 1979 Jag 13 Expert World Champion (NBA/NBL sanctioned)

Bicycle Motocross League (BMXL)

• 1978 National No.1 Amateur^[18]

National Bicycle League (NBL)

• 1980 Jag 14 Expert World Champion (NBL sanctioned)

• 1981 15 Expert National No. 1

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

• 1980 California District 3 (Cal-3) No.1† and State No.1 Amateur

†Shared with 13 Expert Kelly McDougall^[19]
International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)

• 1981 15 Expert International Champion

United States Cycling Federation (USCF)*

• 1981 Jag 15 Expert World Champion

NBL rules and nomenclature followed generally, however, no points were awarded and applied to the NBL or any other recognized BMX governing body. The NBL ceased sanctioning the Jag World Championships due to the fact that by this time it was the US affiliate of the IBMXF which was holding its own World Championships. Renny Roker, the promoter of the Jag World Championship races refused to rename this race. Consequently, the NBL pulled its sanction for the 1981 race and future Jag "World Championship" races.^[20]

*The USCF is now USA Cycling.

[edit] Professional

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

• None

Bicycle Motocross League (BMXL)

• None

National Bicycle League (NBL)

• 1986, 1987 National No. 1 Pro

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

• 1983 Pro Gold Cup Champion.
• 1984, 1986, 1991, 1992 National No. 1 Pro.
• 1988 Pro U.S. Gold Cup East Champion
• 1991 Pro U.S. Gold Cup West Champion.
• 1992 "King of Los Angeles" (KOLA) series (ABA sanctioned).

The King of Los Angeles was a pro series of seven races held at ABA tracks in the Southern California/Los Angeles area hastily put together on the same weekend to counter the debut and emergence of a new and as it turned out short live sanctioning body called the International Cycling Association (ICA) (which was founded in part by Pro racer Greg Hill) which was holding its first event, the Cowboy National in Dallas, Texas during that same weekend. The ABA paid some top pro racers including Pete Loncarevich to participate along with putting up a US$7,000 pro purse. Terry Tenette was the only elite top pro to attend the inaugural ICA national.^[21]

United States Bicycle Motocross Association (USBA)

• 1986 National No. 1 Pro

International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)

• 1990 Pro World Champion

Pro Series Championships and Invitationals

• Bicross de Paris 1986 Challenge Yop Champion

The 1986 Paris Yoplait BMX Challenge was an invitational race sponsored and promoted by the Yoplait Yogurt company in which American and English pros as well as French pros were brought together to compete in a single race. As is typical in Europe, the public had greater enthusiasm for BMX than the American public, in part because bicycle racing of any type was and is much more popular in Europe (and in Asia and South America as well) than in the United States. As with the 1985 addition, which Tommy Brackens won, it was a hit in France with tickets sold out two months in advance.^[22]

[edit] Notable accolades

• 1986 BMX Plus! Racer of the Year Award winner with 35.07% of the total 2,997 votes cast. Prize won: A 1986 Suzuki Quad sport four wheel drive All Terrain Vehicle (ATV), also known as a Quad Bike or Quad Cycle, essentially a motocross motorcycle with four wheels instead of just two.^[23]
• 1987 BMX Plus! Racer of the Year Award winner with 36.92% of the total 2,925 votes cast. Prize won: A Suzuki RM125 motocross motorcycle.^[24]

• 1988 BMX Action Number One Racer Award (NORA) winner. No vote totals or breakdown given.^[25]

• 1992 BMX Plus! Racer of the Year Award winner. No percentage or total vote given. Prize won: An Ovation Celebrity Deluxe Guitar.^[26] Very appropriate given his Rockabilly hobby.

• In 1992 the BMXer, The ABA's in-house tabloid newspaper formerly called American BMXer, (and in turn formerly called ABA Action) named Loncarevich the greatest Racer of all time.^[27]

• Named the 1993 ABA BMXer Golden Crank "Racer of the Year"^[28]

• 1993 BMX Plus! Racer of the Year Award winner. No percentage or total vote given. Apparently no prize was given.^[29]

• Pete Loncarevich is a 1997 ABA BMX Hall of Fame Inductee.

• His four ABA No. 1 pro titles are only match by Gary Ellis.

[edit] Significant BMX related injuries

• Broken Arm at a race in New Jersey in 1980.^[30]
• Injured knee at 1981 Jag World Championships in a collision with teammate Eddy King in Trophy Dash. Required surgery and was laid up for six months.^[31]
• Broke Collar bone on October 25, 1987 at the ABA Western Regional Gold Cup in Reno, Nevada, five weeks before 1987 ABA Grand national. Was told he would be out three months by doctors, but Peter did not want to miss the Grands. He contacted a renowned sports medicine doctor that involved a 12 hour a day at a cost of $1000 per diem in an effort to retain . He attempted to race and made it as far as the semi finals, but did not transfer to the main.^[32][33]
• Broke two ribs while training on his bike on July 4, 1988 while visiting his cousin in Ohio. Laid up approximately a month.^[34] His first race back was the 1988 US Gold Cup Championships East event held in Mississippi.^[35][36]

[edit] Peccadilloes

Had a reputation as being a cocky and braggadocios amateur having a bad attitude. He supposed to have mellowed after he became a pro because he was consciously representing the company's products that were sponsoring him, also he was simply a bit more mature.^[37]

[edit] Events and interest outside of cycling

During his amateur BMX career he was a member of a Rockabilly band singing and playing guitar in Orange County, California.^[38] Due to racing commitments he had to leave it but he still played during his leisure time. By most accounts he was very good.

[edit] Mountain Bike (MTB) career

Mountain Bike Racing (MTB)

Personal information
Nickname	"Pistol Pete"
Country	United States
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Mountain Bike Racing (MTB)
Role	Racer
Rider type	Off Road
Professional team(s)
1999 2000	Vans/Iron Horse Parkpre Bicycles
Infobox last updated on:
April 7, 2007

Like many of his BMX pros, Pete Loncarevich tried his hand at mountain bike racing late in his BMX career. He went on to have a career almost as successful racing mountain bikes as he did racing BMX, earning several titles starting in 1992. His main MTB discipline is in the Downhill category.

[edit] Career MTB Sponsors

• Vans (Van Doren Rubber Co.)/Iron Horse Bicycle Company 1999-
• ParkPre Bicycles (Integra Precision Corporation)

[edit] Career MTB racing titles

Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)

• 1999 Masters World Downhill Champion (by over 10 seconds)
• 1996 Mountain Bike World Cup

[edit] BMX and MTB magazine covers

Bicycle Motocross News:

• None

Minicycle/BMX Action & Super BMX:

• May 1984 Vol.11 No.5. (SBMX)
• February 1985 Vol.12 No.2. Also posing in centerfold with actress Debbie Sue Voorhees. (SBMX&F)
• September 1985 Vol.10 No.9 with Greg Hill and Harry Leary. (BMXA)
• December 1985 Vol.12 No.12 in insert with unidentified racer. Main image Ron Wilkerson. (SBMX&F)
• March 1986 Vol.13 No.3 (SBMX&F)
• November 1988 Vol.15 No.11 with teammate Mike King in insert. In separate inserts Eric Carter; Jeff Donnell & Charlie Davidson; freestyler Eddie Fiola. (SBMXF)

Bicycle Motocross Action & Go:

• July 1988 Vol.13 No.7 (BMXA)
• December 1991 Vol.3 Iss.2 In inset Keith Treanor. (Go)

BMX Plus!:

• April 1984 Vol.7 No.4 in inset. In separate insets D.D. Leone, freestyler Mike Dominguez; and Richie Anderson.
• July 1984 Vol.7 No.7 behind Stu Thomsen with Brian Patterson in third. In insets Mercury Morgan (top "rip"), freestyler Mike Dominguez (circle).
• December 1984 Vol.7 No.12 (73) in insert ahead of Anthony Sewell (13) (bottom center) In other inserts Eric Rupe (22) & Clearance Perry (20) (top center); freestylers Mike Dominguez (top left); Woody Itson (top right); Rick Avella (bottom left); Ron Wilkerson with Shawn Buckley clowning around.
• May 1985 Vol.8 No.5 in insert with Gary Ellis, Tommy Brackens, Ronnie Anderson & Eddy King; Scott Clark in circular insert; Martin Aparijo insert; and Chris Meier as main image.
• August 1985 Vol.8 No.8 with Mike Miranda, Scott Clark, Harry Leary, Robert Fehd & Billy Griggs in separate inserts and together on a starting line in the top insert.
• December 1985 Vol.8 No.12 with Gary Ellis (9) and Tommy Brackens (3). Also Dizz Hicks and Brian Scura (building quarter pipe) in separate inserts.
• February 1986 Vol.9 No.2 behind of Mike Miranda. Inset Sidehackers Perez & Garrido.
• October 1986 Vol.9 No.10 in bottom insert (3) ahead of Eric Rupe (2), Eddy King (6); in upper insert left to right is Robby Rupe, Scott Towne, Billy Griggs, Dave Cullinan & Tim Ebbett. Main image Todd Anderson.
• February 1987 Vol.10 No.2. (2) in insert behind Mike Miranda (5) and beside Eddy King (6). In separate insert top freestyler Martin Aparijo frame standing on MX motorcycle. Main Image: Freestyler Rich Sigur
• April 1987 Vol.10 No.4 In bottom insert (2) with Rick Palmer (13 in green) & Ken Aman (13 in blue) in top insert freestyler Tood Anderson. Main image freestyler Tim Rogers.
• June 1987 Vol.10 No.6 ahead of Stu Thomsen in insert. In cartoon caricature at bottom Ron Anderson. Main image: freestyler Tim Rodgers.
• October 1991 Vol.14 No.10 with Gary Ellis, Todd Corbitt & Steve Veltman.

Bicycles and Dirt:

• None

Snap:

Mountain Bike Action:

[edit] BMX, MTB and general media interviews and articles

[edit] End Notes

[edit] External links

• Pete Loncarevich MTB racing shot from Parkpre site.
• American Bicycle Association (ABA) website
• National Bicycle League (NBL) website