Shawn Texas, BMX Legend

Shawn Texas, a legendary American professional Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from (1983–1987).

Early days:
Shawn started racing BMX in early August 1977 at 13 years old. His friend took him to a local track in Lakeside, California. Shawn didn’t have his own race bike, so he raced with his friends bike and wound up coming in 3rd place. He eventually got his own bike for his 14th birthday on September 8, 1977.

Shawn had a few sponsors as an amateur. His first sponsor was Bicycles N’ Stuff in 1979, Hidden Valley Schwinn from 1979-1980 and then he raced for Cal Bike from 1980 till Early 1982.

In 1982 at the age of 18 Shawn turned Pro. In his first race as a pro he came in third behind seasoned pros, Harry Leary (1st) and Clint Miller (2nd) at the World Wide BMX Association (WWBMXA) Supernationals. His first pro win In the “A” Pro class was at the American Bicycle Association (ABA) Supernationals in Lake Elsinore, California on January 23, 1983. His first “AA” pro win was the ABA Fall Nationals in Bargaintown, New Jersey on August 28, 1983. The AA pro class was equivalent to today’s Elite class.

As a professional BMX racer Shawn had many sponsors:
O’Neal: 1982-May 1983
Gruenert Design Racing: May 1983-September 1, 1983

Pro Neck: September 1, 1983-December 1984. He signed with Pro Neck right after winning the B Pro Main at the 1983 NBL Grand Nationals in Nashville, Tennessee. Pro Neck dropped its race team at the end of the 1984 season.
Bassett Racing: Early April 1985-Early July 1985.
CW (Custom Works) Racing: October 1985-September 21, 1986.
After CW, with an exception of a brief sponsorship with MBK in France, Texas had listed “Team Jesus” as his sponsor until he was picked up by Eagle Snacks.
Motobecane (MBK): November 22–23, 1986. This was a one weekend sponsorship in France for the Bicross/Yop King of Bercy championship race in Bercy, France. It was not a permanent position nor was it meant to be.
Eagle Snacks: February 21, 1987-December 1987.
White Bear: May 1988-March 1989
Boss Racing Products: July 1989-August 1989 Texas was briefly on Boss after leaving White Bear.
AXO/Ralph’s Bicycles: August 1989-Early 1990
Race Tech Products: Mid 1990-1994
Roost America: 1994
Power Source: 1998

Shawn’s Titles:
NBL (National Bicycle League):
1983 “B” Pro Grandnational Champion
1986 Pro Cruiser Murray World Cup V Champion
1987 Pro Cruiser Grandnational Champion

United States Bicycle Motocross Association (USBA):
1984 7-UP World Championship Unlimited Pro Champion

International Cycling Organization (ICO) & BMX Association (BMXA):
1984 Tijauna BMX Cup Championship Pro Champion

“The Tijuana BMX Cup was a special promotional race that was held in Tijuana, Mexico. The race was heavily promoted by both individual promoters and the State Secretary of Tourism of Baja California. It featured a track designed by pro racer Eddy King. The raced was sanctioned by the International Cycling Organization (ICO) and the BMX Association (BMXA). The BMXA was an old but small and local BMX sanctioning body headquartered in San Diego, California. Both the ABA and the NBL had declined to sanction the event. Despite heavy promotion the event was poorly attended including by most top name pros. Shawn Texas, Eddy King, Donny Atherton, Rod Beckering, Toby Henderson and Denny Davidow were the only recognizable names to race in the pro classes.” ~BMX Plus! September 1984 Vol.7 No.9 pg.58

Orange County YMCA BMX:
1986 Orange YMCA BMX Pro Series Champion
“The YMCA BMX Pro Series Championship was a private four race pro series held at the Orange YMCA BMX race track in Orange, California on four consecutive Wednesdays in February and March 1986. It was sponsored by MRC, Mike Redman Concepts. It was highly successful and well attended by many top ranked pros despite the relatively low prize purse of US$150 ($281.52 in 2007 Cost of Living Calculator) plus 100 percent payback with a US$200 (US$375.36 2007) bonus for the top three series finishers. It did however, have an unusually low entrance fee of $10 ($18.77 2007) for the pros per race.” ~BMX Plus! June 1986 Vol.9 No.6 pg.11

During his career Shawn had a limited edition signature frame and fork built by White Bear called the T-Bone Pro.

Shawn has also appeared in numerous interviews and articles in BMX magazines:
“Shawn Texas” BMX Plus! September 1983 Vol.6 No.9 pg.36
“Big Time Texas” Bicycles and Dirt February 1984 Vol.2 No.5 pg.29
“Shawn Texas” BMX Action November 1984 Vol.9 No.11 pg.20. One of five impromptu interviews of pro racers at the 1984 NBL North Park Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania National including Greg Grubbs, Mike Poulson, Tommy Brackens and John Crews.
“Shawn Texas” BMX Plus! October 1986 Vol.9 No.10 pg.46
“Shawn Texas” BMX Action October 1986 Vol.11 No.10 pg.64
Super BMX & Freestyle August 1987 Vol.14 No.8 in right image and freestyler Chris Roth in left image. Cartoon character “Max to the Max” in top corner insert.

There’s also racing action of him on the cover of some BMX Plus magazine issues:
-November 1984 Vol.7 No.11 ahead of Greg Hill in second and John Crews in third. In insets Mike Franze (bottom) and freestyler Eddie Fiola (top)
-August 1986 Vol.9 No.8 (falling) in insert slightly behind Scott Clark, ahead of Gary Ellis and directly ahead of an unidentified racer. Main image freestyler Ron Wilkerson.
-July 1987 Vol.10 No.7 In rectangle insert behind Tommy Brackens ahead of Pete Loncarevich and Charles Townsend. In triangle insert Harry Leary ahead of Scott Towne and Robby Rupe. In top circle insert freestyler Mike Dominguez. Main image: freestyler Matt Hoffman.
Total BMX:

He was also seen in ABA’s news publications (ABA Action, American BMXer, BMXer):
-October 1983 Vol.6 No.10 in second place on the inside behind Robert Fehd and the leading third place Tinker Juarez on the inside. Brian Patterson is in fourth directly behind Fehd.
-November 1983 Vol.6 No.11
-November 1986 Vol.8 No.10 ahead of Todd Slavik in second, Pete Loncarevich in third, Eric Rupe in fourth, Eddy King in fifth, Harry Leary in sixth, unidentified racer in seventh and Robert Fehd in eighth.

Shawn “Retired” around 1998 but he’s a BMXer so “retire” really means “I’ll be back in a few years” 😉 Shawn has been hitting up the racing scene here and there for the last few years on the west coast so you may be able to see him still getting busy!