1983 Halfords’ NEC, Indoor Open BMX Championships

One of the most iconic events during the 80s in the UK has to be the 1983 Halfords’ Indoor Open BMX Championships held at the NEC in Birmingham. With entries from the majority of the top riders in both UKBMX and NBMXA it was one of the few events that was not for National points yet all the big names lined up on the gate. Bob Haro was flown in from the US, there was TV, the main-stream media was present, which was another huge step forward for the sport in the UK at the time. Channel 4 had a weekly TV bike program at the time called, “On Your Bike”, which was presented by Road and Tour de France commentator, Phil Liggitt. The show documented BMX numerous times during its air time putting out full-episodes on the Halfords NEC with insight and interviews with Bob Haro and Andy Ruffell. In the racing, Andy Ruffell was beaten in the 16 year old final by Redline’s Tony Slater with Tim March, sporting Skyway Graphite mags, took the 17 plus final over Sean Calvert and Malc Stapleton. Other winners throughout the age groups were, Ben Bishop, John Harding, Richard Hunt, Jason Crosby, John Greaves, Darren Page, Wayne Llewellyn, Kevin Hayes, Jason Maloney and Harvey Munkton. In the Freestyle event, Andy Ruffell took the win over Craig Campbell and Mike Pardon who were announced joint 2nd with Andy Preston in 4th.