Patti Gammill — The Fastest Girl on Two Wheels

Torker Racing — Est. 1976 · Fullerton, California

Patti Gammill
The Fastest Girl on Two Wheels

She went to the track to try out for the cheerleading squad. She left on her little brother's Mongoose, and inside three years she was a Torker factory rider.

Lufkin, Texas Torker Factory Rider ABA Top 50 National Texas BMX HOF 2012

Every other rider on the Fullerton-era Torker factory roster has a page, a nickname and a paragraph in somebody's history of BMX. Patti Gammill has been left off almost all of them. That is not because the record is thin. It is because nobody went looking in Texas.

The cheerleading tryout

In 1976 the Gammill family went to Mike Maberry's Wheel World shop at the Angelina Mall in Lufkin, Texas, to buy her little brother a bike. Patti was ten. She came out to the BMX track behind the Woolco intending to try out for the Lufkin BMX cheerleaders.

She ended up on her brother's blue Mongoose with a paper number plate, and she raced.

“That day, the Lufkin BMX track lost the opportunity to have another cheerleader, and were blessed to become the home track to one of the fastest girls on two wheels.”

Mike Maberry — Wheel World, Lufkin, Texas

Beating the boys

Girls in the late seventies raced a class called Powder Puff. Patti raced it, and she raced the boys' classes too, and she took trophies out of both. Her own account of how that went is more honest than most riders would be about themselves.

“When I was 12 or 13, I was taking first place, but when I was 14, last place against the boys. When I went against the girls nationally, I won first place a lot of times.”

Patti Gammill

She raced ABA, and the Texas BMX Hall of Fame credits her with multiple national event wins and a Top 50 ABA national ranking. Her grandfather, Kermit Gammill, retired out of Lufkin Industries, flew her to the nationals to get it done. As she put it: she was racing mostly California people.

Why a Top 50 ranking meant more than it sounds In 1979 the ABA did not award a National No. 1 Girl title at all. There was no season-long girls points ranking and no girls national number plate — the ABA did not create one until 1982. It also kept girls out of the boys' Expert class until 1984. A Texas girl carrying a Top 50 national ranking in that window was doing it inside a structure that had not been built for her yet.

The Torker years

Torker was a Fullerton, California operation and the rest of the factory roster read Southern California. Patti was the Texan. She rode for the team for a couple of years, and she is in the record in print: BMX Action, December 1980, in the twelve-page Torker feature. Two photographs, both of her and teammate Cathy Hanna in team jerseys and Oakley helmets. The caption on the first reads:

“The Brooke Shields and Bo Derek of BMX . . . Patti Gammill and Kathy Hannah. Both are factory riders. Torker's cup runneth over.”

BMX Action, December 1980

Read that last line again, because it is doing more work than the magazine intended. Torker's cup runneth over — two women on one factory team in 1980, framed by the biggest magazine in the sport as a surplus other teams did not have. Both the ABA and the NBL would later require a factory team to carry at least one girl, and both dropped that requirement in December 1986. Torker carried two, voluntarily, six years before anyone was told to.

The second photograph in that feature is Patti and Cathy sitting in director's chairs between motos with the team dog, and a number plate in the frame reading TEX-3.

Historical note — the spelling Her name is GAMMILL, with two L's. It is settled by the best source there is: the back of her own race jersey in the December 1980 BMX Action photograph reads GAMMILL, and the seat of her pants reads PATTI. The same issue spells her first name “Patty” in a second caption two pages later — the magazine was inconsistent inside a single article. The jersey wins. We had it wrong on this site for years and we have corrected it.

After Torker she rode for Blazer, Mike Maberry's Lufkin team — the same man whose shop she had walked into in 1976. The Texas BMX Hall of Fame lists her sponsors as Torker and Blazer, and her competitive window as 1979 to 1982.

Quitting at fourteen

She stopped racing at fourteen. In her telling she started driving cars and dating boys, which is the most fourteen-year-old reason anyone has given for leaving the sport and a good deal more honest than the version most riders offer.

Thirty years later, friends went through old newspaper and magazine clippings to reconstruct a record she had never written down. The Hall of Fame nomination paperwork gave her some trouble.

“It looked like an IRS form... I was 12 years old when I competed.”

Patti Gammill-Holcombe, 2012

In August 2012, in Pearland, Texas, Patti Gammill-Holcombe was inducted into the Texas BMX Hall of Fame in the Racer category — the first woman ever inducted. She went on to serve on the Hall of Fame board as Secretary. She lives in Diboll, Texas, works as a home health nurse and has four children.

For scale The National BMX Hall of Fame did not create a “BMX Woman” category until 2012 — the same year Patti went into the Texas Hall. The sport took more than thirty years to build a shelf to put these riders on.

The timeline

1976 Age ten. Goes to the Lufkin BMX track behind the Woolco at the Angelina Mall to try out for the cheerleading squad. Races instead, on her brother's blue Mongoose with a paper plate.
1979 Start of the competitive window the Texas BMX Hall of Fame recognizes. Racing ABA Powder Puff and the boys' classes, flown to the nationals by her grandfather.
1980 Confirmed in print as a Torker factory rider. BMX Action, December 1980, twelve-page Torker feature, two photographs.
1982 End of the recognized competitive window. Rode for Blazer, Mike Maberry's Lufkin team, after Torker. Multiple national event wins, Top 50 ABA national ranking.
2012 Inducted into the Texas BMX Hall of Fame, Racer category — the first woman ever inducted. Later serves on the board as Secretary.

Why this page exists

When USA BMX inducted Torker founder Steve Johnson in 2012, its official write-up listed the factory roster across his eight years as Eddy King, Jason Jensen, Kathy Hanna, Tommy Brackens, Kevin McNeal, Mike King and Mike Miranda. Patti Gammill is not on that list. Neither are Doug Olson, Doug Davis, Mike Aguilera or Clint Miller. It is a partial list rather than a contradiction, but it shows how easily a rider gets written out of the standard telling.

She was on this team. It is in the magazine. We own the name now, so getting her record straight is our job.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Patti Gammill?

A BMX racer from Lufkin, Texas who rode for the Torker factory team around 1980. She raced ABA Powder Puff and the boys' classes, earned multiple national event wins and a Top 50 ABA national ranking, and in 2012 became the first woman inducted into the Texas BMX Hall of Fame.

Is it Gammil or Gammill?

Gammill, with two L's. The back of her race jersey in the December 1980 issue of BMX Action reads GAMMILL. Her married name is Patti Gammill-Holcombe.

What class did she race?

Powder Puff, the girls' class of the era, and also the boys' classes at local level, where she took trophies. In 1979 the ABA had no National No. 1 Girl title and no girls national number plate — it did not create one until 1982.

What team did she ride for after Torker?

Blazer, Mike Maberry's Lufkin, Texas team. Maberry ran the Wheel World shop where she got her start in 1976.

Is Patti Gammill in a BMX Hall of Fame?

Yes. Texas BMX Hall of Fame, Class of 2012, Racer category — the first woman ever inducted. She later served on the Hall of Fame board as Secretary. She is not currently in the National BMX Hall of Fame.

Did she have a racing nickname?

Not one we can find in any period source, and we are not going to invent one. Her hometown paper described her as the Diboll woman who struck fear in the minds of the boys at the Lufkin BMX track. That will do.

Ride the frame she raced

The Torker LP is back — the frame the Fullerton-era factory team was built around, on modern race geometry.

Shop the LP Race Frame
Related reading The Fullerton Era — The History of Torker BMX 1976–1984
Torker BMX Factory Team History
Cathy Hanna — The Heart Throb
Clint Miller — The Barbarian
Eddy King — The 1$
Torker BMX Hall of Fame

Sources: BMX Action, December 1980, Torker feature (Wizard Publications), via the oldschoolmags.com archive · Texas BMX Hall of Fame, Patti Gammill-Holcombe inductee record · Lufkin Daily News, “Full Cycle: Diboll woman inducted into Texas BMX Hall of Fame,” Steve Knight, 1 October 2012 · USA BMX National BMX Hall of Fame 2012 inductee announcements. Last updated 9 August 2026.