Scot Breithaupt
 |
|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Scot Alexander Breithaupt |
| Nickname | "Old Man", "OM" |
| Born |
July 14, 1957 Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Died | July 4, 2015 (aged 57) Indio, California, U.S. |
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Weight | 70.3 kg (155 lb) |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Bicycle Motocross (BMX) |
| Role | Racer/Promoter/Manufacturer/Sponsor |
| Rider type | Off Road |
| Amateur team(s) | |
| 1973–1974 | Matthews Motocross |
| 1975 | Matthews Motocross/Yamaha |
| 1976 | Dan Gurney |
| 1977 | FMF |
| 1977 | SE Racing |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1977–1999 | SE Racing |
| 2005–2006 | SE Racing |
Scot Alexander Breithaupt (July 14, 1957 – July 4, 2015) was an entrepreneur, "Old School" professional Motorcycle MX and Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer and a founding father of BMX in 1970 whose prime competitive years were from 1970 to 1984. Many consider him, in some ways, a founder of "Old School BMX"—an era from roughly 1969 to 1987 or 1988, from its very beginnings to just after its first major slump in popularity from 1985 to 1988. Racing started to rise in participation again around 1988–89 and is considered the start of Mid School BMX, roughly 1988–2000. He was born in Long Beach, California.
Breithaupt was a BMX pioneer—perhaps the inventor of its modern infrastructure. He first organized what was called Pedal-Cross at the time on November, 14th. 1970, and established a track in a vacant lot in Long Beach, California. He also founded what could be called BMX's First Sanctioning Body of any kind, the Bicycle United Motocross Society (B.U.M.S).
Breithaupt—who was a teenage MX racer for Yamaha—set up organizational features around his races much as later sanctioning bodies did: rulebooks, a point system, a skill level structure, a racing season, trophies and promotions of special races that were the prototype for Nationals. He produced the 1st California State Championships in 1972.
Breithaupt adapted these structures from motocross sanctioning bodies such as the AMA, CMC and AME, as would other pioneers like Ernie Alexander, [founder of the National Bicycle Association (NBA)] and George Esser [(founder of the National Bicycle League(NBL)]—both of whom, like Breithaupt, had roots in motorcycle motocross as racers or promoters. Breithaupt was the first to do it in BMX, at the age of 13.
His nickname was and is "OM" for "Old Man," in part because he was older at a time when BMX was seen as a pre-teen and early teen activity. By the late 1970s, he did things beyond his young age—promoting races, nationwide tours, teaching racing clinics, safety seminars for the C.P.S.C. and starting and consulting with companies while still a teenager. Later, it became a running gag as to just how old he was. In the January 1975 issue of Cycle Illustrated in its report on the Yamaha Bicycle Gold Cup Finals (a.k.a. the Bicycle Motocross Championship of California State), which Breithaupt conceptualized, promoted, and built a custom track for, has him listed as 17 years old. At 17, his age hadn't become a running gag yet, although he could not participate in the Yamaha Bicycle Gold Cup series finals-ironically since he was the race promoter-because he was disqualified after a win in the Expert Class in the first qualifying race at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California with Brian Ramocinski declared the winner. This was the first of three preceding qualifying races prior to the final to be held in September 1974. Only those 16 years and younger could participate and he had turned 17 between the time he signed up for the race and the day the qualifying race was actually held, July 20, 1974. He turned 17 on July 14, 1974, six days before the race. This makes his birth year 1957, and makes him 13 when he started organizing races in Long Beach in November 1970. In fact nine other riders in the event were over 16. In fact, Ramocinski's sponsor, Dirtmasters, and its general manager Mike Devitt protested Breithaupt. Further confirmation came on page 11 of the November 1975 issue of Bicycle Motocross News, which described Breithaupt as an "18-year-old dynamo."
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