Big Money, Little Bikes : Pete Loncarevich Is a Six-Footer Who Stands Tall on 20-Inch Wheels

The wheels of Pete Loncarevich’s $500 bicycle rise only 20 inches from the ground--no higher than his kneecaps--a fact that often prompts people to say that it seems a bit childish, him riding that little bike on dirt tracks in mostly Podunk towns from Southern California to Vicksburg, Miss., to Hilton, N.Y.

Which often prompts Loncarevich to say, “Do you know how much money I make?”

Which generally quiets the criticism.

Loncarevich, 21, is the highest paid of a handful of high-salaried professional BMX racers in a sport that targets prepubescents and teen-agers and the discretionary dollars of their parents. For the professionals, the big dollars come not from prize money--which even in Loncarevich’s case amounts to only a moderate living and would not cover racing expenses--but from lucrative contracts with companies that manufacture BMX equipment.

In a good year, Loncarevich earns more than $100,000 and a new car, with all his expenses covered. And for Loncarevich, a muscular 6-foot, 195-pound man who grew up in Santa Ana and dropped out of Saddleback High School at 17 because he didn’t think he could “go to school and be No. 1,” most every year is a good year. By 18, he had earned enough to buy a Lake Forest condominium.

“A lot of people say, ‘You’re a little big for a bike, aren’t you?’ Loncarevich said. “I say, ‘No, I race this. This is my job.’ ”

BMX is not a sport that he seems to have a particular affection for, apart from the fact that it has been good to him. BMX success has come easily for Loncarevich, who raced motorcycles until he was about 10, when his parents suggested he try bicycles instead. The first day he raced a bicycle, he made it through a series of qualifying events to the main event and finished third. In a few weeks, he had advanced from beginner to novice to expert, a progression that for others, he acknowledges, “sometimes takes years.”

Loncarevich’s only regret may be that he didn’t happen to take up a sport that could have proven even more profitable.

“I don’t know what the (BMX moneymaking) limitations are,” Loncarevich said. “I know I get paid the highest. But I think I should be paid more (than I do) because I’m No. 1 in the sport.”

In 1986, Loncarevich won the professional titles of each of three competing sanctioning bodies--the American Bicycle Assn., the National Bicycle League and the now-defunct U.S. Bicycle Assn. He is leading both the ABA and the NBL standings this year.

He collected so many trophies--more than 1,000--that he finally gave them all to a youngster in the neighborhood just to ease the clutter in his parent’s home. The neighborhood kid had an idea that didn’t occur to Loncarevich--he sold all the trophies. “That was OK,” Loncarevich said.

Used to be, his longtime girlfriend Stephanie Crumpler remembers, Loncarevich would get excited about winning $100 in a race. These days, he competes in about 20 races a year, bothering only with the big money races, and those that count toward the point standings.

Two weeks ago, he won the $5,000 main event of the World Cup of BMX at the Irvine BMX track. Last week, he won another $5,000 at a race in Wisconsin. With every victory, he earns incentive awards from his sponsor, Haro Design, Inc., a Carlsbad-based BMX bicycle company. And if he wins the ABA title, the organization presents him with a new car.

Even though the man they call the “granddaddy” of BMX, Stuart Thompson, raced until he was 28, Loncarevich knows full well there will be a life to fill after BMX racing. He has earned a high school equivalency certificate and plans later to take courses at a community college and pursue a business career.

“My friends from high school are a little jealous of me,” Loncarevich said. “They all have jobs, but none of them make much money . . . I could live with myself if I didn’t make money after BMX. But with my ideas, I know I’m going to be successful at whatever I do.”

In the meantime, every time he sits at the top of the hill at a starting line, waiting for the starting lights to turn orange-yellow-yellow-green, Loncarevich figures he can win the race for as simple a reason as this: “It’s really just who wants to win the most.”