1987 IBMXF World Championships Orlando,Florida USA

Over 200 British riders making the trip to Florida. British Winners:

7x Ross Thompson
40 & Over Cruiser John Johns

1988 IBMXF World Championships Santiago, Chile

With a very small British contingent making the trip to Chile our best result came from Zeronine’s Joe Eastwood placing 2nd to go along with his 2nd place finishes in 86 and 87.

1989 IBMXF World Championships Brisbane, Australia

Like the previous year, in light of both cost and location only a handful of British riders made the trip. Lisa Wright was our only finalists.

Luli Adeyemo is perhaps another UK rider from the mid 80s and early 90s who is not talked about much that definitely knocked-out some big results during her time racing. Luli was a Newark East Midlands local that became World Champion in 1986 at the Slough Worlds, was National and British Champion numerous times battling with the likes of Lisa Wright riding for Axo, Scorpion & Profile during the peak of her racing.

Luli almost became European Champion in 1988 in Slagharen – just missing out – and also won the ABA Race of Champions at the Grands in 89 in the US. On top of that, she had a great personality, smiling and last we’ve heard, she’s living down under in Australia and if we’re correct we seem to remember her brother was a dancer on Top of the Pops!

PC: Steve Bardens / Invert

Even by 1986, the UK had already hosted many successful events. The Halfords Anglo American at Redditch, The 83 and 84 European Championships at Birmingham Wheels, the 84 and 85 Kelloggs and a handful of International and other major events but nothing on the scale of the 86 Slough Worlds.

There’s so much to touch on with this event that clearly cannot be jammed into one post. The Pro drama alone is a fully-heated story in and of itself so we will leave that for another day.  It was a huge success for the UKBMX organization and for our riders that stepped it up once again on the World stage and we walked away with 6 World Champions.

World Champions

6 & Under Ross Thompson

9s David Maw

15s Andy Welsh

40+ Cruiser John Johns

14/15 Girls Luli Adeyemo

16 + Girls Sarah-Jane Nichols

By the time the 1985 IBMXF World Championships had come around in Whistler, Canada Craig Schofield had already established himself on the race scene. Riding for Mongoose and then onto Raleigh, Craig was a multi-time National Champion, with big wins in Europe and World Championships finalist in both 1983 in Slagharen, Holland and Japan in 84; but by 85 it was time for Craig to challenge for that all-elusive World Title. In the run up a few years before Whistler, Craig had not had it easy on the domestic front battling hard with Gary Llewellyn trading wins but maybe it was the rivalry that was needed to get him to step it up another notch on the World stage. There was a rumored promise of a Porsche if he won, whether true or not, Craig snapped out the gate in that 85 Superclass World Final and took the World Championship win over France’s Xavier Redois and Holland’s Phil Hoogendoorn.

Heading into 1984, the UK still only had 1 World Champion officially on record (Louis Mears winning in Holland in 83) and with the 84 Worlds taking place in Japan and with the European Championships on his home turf in Birmingham it seemed like the Euros would be the priority for our riders looking for international glory and most decided to pass on the trip to Japan.

Still a small group of UK riders made it out to the Suzuka circuit which was close to Nagoya City for the 3rd IBMXF World Championships to date. Out of that small crew both Falcon’s Soap Dodger, David Maw and Halford’s Mark “Whopper” Watkins became World Champions and added their names alongside Louis as British World Champions.