Brian Patterson

ABA National No.1 Pro, 1982 and 1983 — Half of BMX's Only Sibling No.1/No.2 Season

A Legend Bike Co. rider page · part of the Patterson family story

At a glance

Level AA Pro
Scene Hayward, California, and the national ABA/NBL circuit, early-to-mid 1980s
Team Patterson Racing Products (1977–1986), later U.S. Boss Racing Products (1993–1995)
Known for Back-to-back ABA National No.1 Pro titles, 1982 and 1983; one half of the only pair of brothers to hold a major sanctioning body's No.1 and No.2 pro plates in the same season

Brian Patterson is the younger half of the only pair of brothers to each hold a National No.1 Pro plate in a major BMX sanctioning body. He did it in back-to-back years, 1982 and 1983, both with the American Bicycle Association, riding the whole way for the family brand his own father built: Patterson Racing.

Hayward, and a fast start

Brian Patterson was born January 4, 1965, in Hayward, California. He started racing in 1976 at eleven, a year behind his brother Brent, riding out of the National Bicycle Association's District N, Northern California. His first sponsor was a local Schwinn shop in Hayward. He took a break from racing in 1979 at thirteen — burned out at an age when a lot of kids are just getting started — then came back in late 1980 at fifteen, riding for the brand his father had started while Brian was on his break.

1982 — turning pro at seventeen

Brian turned pro in early 1982, at seventeen. His first professional result was third place in "A" Pro at the 1982 ABA Winter Nationals in Chandler, Arizona — his only "A" Pro race, because ABA Vice President Gene Roden moved him straight up to "AA" Pro at Brian's own request. His first professional win came fast: April 10, 1982, at the ABA Rondo North American Championship Classic in St. Paul, Minnesota, winning both "AA" Pro and Pro Open.

1982 and 1983 — back-to-back ABA No.1

Brian took the ABA National No.1 Pro plate in 1982 and again in 1983 — a triple that first year, winning the Pro Car Main, "AA" Pro, and Pro Open Grandnational titles in the same season, then repeating the Pro Car Main Grandnational in 1983. He also took the 1984 ABA Pro Cruiser Grandnational and finished National No.2 in ABA Pro Cruiser that year. Internationally, he won the IBMXF Murray World Cup II (20" Pro and Pro Cruiser) in 1983 and the Murray World Cup IV (20" Pro) in 1985. Super BMX magazine named him its 1984 Racer of the Year, and the ABA inducted him into its BMX Hall of Fame in 1988.

The only sibling No.1/No.2 season in BMX

1982 is the year that makes the Patterson brothers unique in the BMX record books: Brian took the ABA National No.1 Pro plate, and his older brother Brent finished that same season at No.2. No other pair of siblings has held the top two national pro plates with a major sanctioning body in the same year. It happened on a team their own father built, which makes the record a family record in the most literal sense there is.

Two injuries in twelve months

Brian broke his wrist in the first moto of the final race of the 1983 ESPN Pro Spectacular in Burbank, California, on December 27, 1983 — then raced five more times that day before going to the hospital to confirm it. Seven months later, on July 15, 1984, he broke his arm at an NBL race in Howell, New Jersey, needing surgery to implant plates and screws and missing two months, including that year's NBL Grandnational. He was supposed to take three months off but came back after two, racing the ABA Great Northwest National in Monroe, Washington, on September 16, 1984, because he needed ten ABA races that season to keep the Pontiac Trans Am he'd won for taking the 1983 No.1 Pro title. His brother Brent injured his knee at that same Howell, New Jersey race.

Racing in Britain — the 1984 Kellogg's series

Brian raced in the UK during the 1984 Kellogg's BMX television series as the reigning U.S. Number 1 Pro, passing Harry Leary in round six before getting disqualified for a gate infringement in that same race. He came back to race in the UK again in 1985.

Retirement, and the comeback nobody expected

Brian retired from the senior pro circuit in mid-1986, at twenty-one, around the same time Patterson Racing itself closed down. He raced occasionally through 1987, for fun and for the bigger purses. In 1991 he and Brent both entered the ABA Spring Nationals; neither made the main, and neither seriously contended for a No.1 plate again. After a six-year break, Brian came back in the mid-1990s to race the ABA's Veteran Pro class, doing well alongside fellow old-school racers Harry Leary and Eric Rupe. He rode for U.S. Boss Racing Products starting January 1993, reunited with his old Patterson Racing and Speedo teammates John Crews and Richie Anderson, plus Scott Clark.

Where Brian Patterson fits in the bigger story

Family: Patterson Racing, Brent Patterson. Riders: Eric Rupe. Brands: GT. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

Wikipedia — Brian Patterson, citing period Bicycle Motocross Action, BMX Plus!, Super BMX, Bicycle Motocross News, and Snap BMX Magazine issues throughout for race dates, results, and injury details. British BMX Hall of Fame — podcast post on Brian Patterson's 1984 and 1985 UK racing (britishbmxhalloffame.com). oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked for independent period coverage; a bmxsociety.com community forum discussion of the Patterson brothers (JS-rendered page; content drawn from search-result snippets, disclosed as such) describes the brothers as having "dominated BMX racing up to late 1984."