Buddy Antunez and Denny Stephenson 1991 Hi Flyers Motocross Cards

Background: Budman was one of the best amateur riders ever. When he made the jump to factory Suzuki in 1990, he won a race, made a bunch of podiums and looked to be set up for a promising career. This year, 1991, wasn’t as good for Buddy and it led to Suzuki dropping him at the end of the season. Welcome to the pros Buddy, you got two years to win races or you’re out! Ahhhh, the ‘90s. Antunez would get a PEAK Honda ride for 1992 and do well and he would also end up back on factory Suzuki (with Tony Berluti as his mechanic, the same guy that worked for him in 1990 and 1991!) in the mid-2000s. In between all that, he became the GOAT of arenacross and made a ton of money.

Matthes Tie-In: When I first met Budman in 1996 when he was crushing it on the GWB Kawasaki team, him and teammate Phil Lawrence were the top privateers at many races. He’s always been way cool and it was awesome when Factory Suzuki grabbed him back after the arenacross days were over. He had good year also teamed with his wrench from 1990-91 Tony Berluti. Anyways, Budman was helping the JGRMX/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing guys out as well and works with a variety of different riders over the year coaching them up. The fact the arenacross trophy wasn’t named after him was a travesty by the way.

Weirdest Thing about This Card: Ah, where to start? It’s Budman jumping out of a fire at a neon light company! Nutty design there guys but also, Antunez is wearing that Fox bone gear which I could never wrap my head around either. Not surprising that stuff didn’t really sell.

I asked Buddy about this card: “I do remember this card and I still sign them at the races. A lot of them I’ve signed are in great shape and in cases or still in the original package, which is cool to see. But I guess that means I’m old since it’s now a collector’s item. It’s a bummer they only made them for a couple of years. The 1991 SX series was horrible for me. I had a little bit of a better MX series, with a second at Hangtown being my highlight. That was one of the worst mud races. So not too bad for a California boy. I also placed third in moto two at Southwick. That was a good battle with McGrath. Fox had the bones gear I’m wearing on the Hi Flyer card, barbed wire and a multi color set. Not sure what that was called. Tony Berluti was my mechanic that year & always made the races enjoyable & had my bikes on point. The Factory Suzuki Team that year had a lot of champions of the sport riding for them.”