Joe Scalzo, author of ten motor- HOW DID HE GET sports books, spent more than 60 hours with Hannah at race tracks, on the road, around campfires and TO BE SO aboard motorcycles to find out how he has become the motocross phenomenon of the Seventies. The story begins with Hannah and GODAWFUL FAST? Scalzo contemplating a canyon wall deep in the California desert. By Joe Scalzo

dared him to try it. haven’t been practicing my bank­ on two different size machines in just Bob Hannah glanced at the near­ climbing enough.” He looked at me. three years, and that before losing to vertical cliff with a grin and said, "I could stay here and try it more if Marty Tripes at Mt. Whitney, Texas in “You’re on." you want. I might try it 20 times and May, had registered victories in 22 One kick got the Yamaha going not get it, or I might on the very next consecutive motos and won six and he steered it to the base of a one. I’ve climbed this thing before.’’ straight Supercross meets; that he high reddish bank of hard sand and I had seen enough already. My Ya­ made races into runaways, as at rocks which vy|nt straight up for per­ maha was a sister to Hannah’s bank- Hangtown where his margin of victo­ haps 25 feet to another level of the climber, one of several hacks he ry was one minute and 26 seconds, Mojave Desert. Climbing so sheer a keeps and wears-out in a year of or cliff-hangers, as at Pontiac and wall was, in my opinion, impossible, practicing, and we began the ride Pittsburg indoors, where he over­ but all morning and afternoon Han­ back to where Hannah had parked came hopeless deficits in the closing nah had been having fun accepting his truck. Hannah, as usual, got so laps; that his style was so unortho­ and meeting all dares. Even now, as far ahead I couldn’t see his dust. dox and wild and fast that nobody he examined the 90-degree bank, the When Grant ran out of fuel, Bob seemed able to hold him off if he expression on his thin face wasn’t came back and began pushing him. didn’t want them to, and that Gaylon one of apprehension but curiosity. Perhaps by then I had been out un­ Mosier at Pontiac, Rich Eierstedt at He was figuring it out. Hannah’s der the hot sun for too long, seen Pittsburg, and Don Kudalski, who brother Grant, watching with me, too many unbelievable things, but it crashed into an infield lake at St. Pe­ spoke in an undertone: “Bob’s going seemed to me that even when using tersburg, had piled up and injured to have to do a trick with this one. one boot to push his brother, Han­ themselves trying, although getting It’s too steep for him to just hit and nah was opening up distance on me! injured was a state that was foreign fly over it.’’ • • • to Hannah; that racing not with his Hannah turned and eased his way Weeks earlier I had not yet met amateur sobriquet “Hurricane” but back between some bushes as high Bob Hannah, but had watched him with the provocative “Trouble" as his head, and positioned himself a race, and felt I knew many things stitched on the butt of his nylon couple of hundred feet from the about him already. I knew that he trousers, Hannah, competing in the bank. Turning again, and with engine was the most winning motocross rac­ 1977 Trans-AM A series, had at least revs rising, he began his run. It ap­ er in his country’s history, with 15 three times blown away five-time peared he was going to impact the national victories and two seasonal World Champion Roger DeCoster, bank head-on. Instead he did some­ championships outdoors and indoors once by 25 seconds; that Hannah thing magical with the handlebars, could out-run as well as out-race the his body, and the throttle, and all of other guys, handily winning a three- a sudden 240 pounds of Yamaha mile foot race among well-condi­ and 140 pounds of Bob Hannah tioned motocrossers at Pittsburg; that started right up the wall. A fly on a although he gave his home address fence couldn’t have been more per­ as Whittier, a Los Angeles suburb, pendicular. Fifteen feet from the top, that in truth he was a recluse living when dust mushroomed around the in the Mojave Desert, in a trailer, with back tire, I realized he wasn’t going no telephone readily available so that to make it. Grant Hannah had even his sponsor, the Yamaha Motor reached the same conclusion earlier Corporation, occasionally ex­ still and, though slowed by three bro­ perienced problems reaching him; ken ribs, was halfway to the bank that the desert was so much his when his brother’s Yamaha lost its home that he had once spurned a precarious grip, tipped, and fell back­ Yamaha offer to put him in a Ferrari, wards through thin air. preferring instead the four-wheel- Instinctively kicking himself free of drive Ford pick-up with the off-road the falling motorcycle, Hannah land­ racing suspension that I saw parked ed, lithe as a gymnast, in soft sand at the curb of the Seal Beach condo­ at the bank bottom. The bike hit minium where Keith McCarty, Han­ nearby. The two Hannahs were al­ nah’s mechanic, lived with his moth­ ready discussing what had gone er; that because Hannah did not al­ wrong when I reached them. ways deport himself in the manner “It was laziness,’’ Bob was telling that certain people believed a cham­ Grant. “I just didn’t feel like the extra pion should, and did not necessarily effort to do what I had to do. And I submit to demands for his autograph

PHOTOGRAPHY: RON HUSSEY. JOE SCALZO MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978 13 chain does a landslide cornbread mixed himself and, drinking it, he business every time he comes to Los pulled a face. Bob Hannah Angeles. “I think this orange juice is bad,” ‘‘Tastes better than that dirt clod he said suspiciously, “but without you swallowed doesn’t it, Bob?” tasting it I can’t tell.” He poured as if it were a divine duty, a number asked Keith McCarty. some and took a big swallow. “It is of fans, and an element of the moto- Hannah kept spreading honey but­ bad,” he said with triumph. “It tasted cross press, were of the opinion that ter on the cornbread. bad all the way down my throat.” He Hannah (as one journalist is sup­ “That’s the height of determina­ emptied the glass, and the container posed to have said) was “a kid who tion,” McCarty continued, “racing full of orange juice, down the sink. ought to be spanked;” and finally along wide-open, getting a dirt clod Next he complained that he didn’t that, no matter what else Bob Han­ in your mouth, and swallowing it.” feel good. He also thought he’d nah might or might not be, in the “It’s being stupid,” Hannah said, pulled a stomach muscle. Hypochon­ summer of 1978 he was, statistically eating cornbread, ‘‘but I couldn’t spit driac Hannah, I found myself think­ or any other way, the greatest moto- it out through my helmet. Can we get ing, might be more appropriate than crosser in the U.S. If one cared to some more iced tea? And more corn- Hurricane Hannah. take the extreme view, and many did, bread?” he signaled the waitress. “I should be training right now in­ he was the greatest in the world. A little later she came with the bill stead of sitting here,” he said. “Well, The first thing that came to me and Hannah looked at McCarty’s I have to go pretty quick.” when I met Hannah was that he was plate. “He wants a refund,” Hannah But he didn't leave. He sat across a good two inches shorter than the said. “He didn’t like it.” the room talking to Keith McCarty 5-feet 10-inch figure found in his Ya­ “Something wrong with the food, and his mother, and sometimes he maha press kit, and second, that sir?” answered my questions and some­ without his semi-successful blond “No, no, that’s just his way of kid­ times he talked right over them. Han­ moustache (“Hannah!” the Honda ding,” McCarty said, smiling easily at nah, for some reasons that are clear, rider Jim Ellis had once beseeched Hannah. and others that are vague, doesn’t him, ‘‘shave that scraggly thing off”) I smiled, too, but not for long. Han­ like “magazine guys.” He mentioned he would look years younger than nah, who had insisted upon paying the name of the publication that re­ his real age, 21. It was apparent, too, for everyone’s dinner, tore off the re­ cently had seen fit to print a letter that Bevo Forti, mechanic for the pri­ ceipt end and deposited it on my from a father taking Hannah to task, vateer John Savitski, and a close but plate. “Here, magazine writer. Go in vulgar terms, for refusing to give ever-taunting friend of Hannah and, pad your expense account.” his son his autograph during a race. particularly, Keith McCarty, was not Back at Mrs. McCarty’s condomini­ Hannah claimed he hadn’t read the only slanderous but wrong when, um, which Hannah seemed to move letter, but friends told him about it. with heavy-handed humor, he had through as freely as if it were his “I’d like to tell that guy about the nicknamed Hannah “Buck.” Though own, a situation which pleases every­ big trophy Bob gave to some fan at Hannah was only to smile one time one, since Hannah’s friendship with Pittsburg,” McCarty said defensively. the evening we met, I took a close the McCartys is more than just a rac­ “He gave it to some guy he’d never enough look at his central incisors ing one, he immediately went to the seen before, and the next time Bob (which had to be capped after a refrigerator. I was getting used to was racing in the East that guy drove childhood accident when the parallel never seeing him without a bottle, for 17 hours to come see him.” bars chipped them) to see that his can, or glass of something to drink in “Oh,” Hannah said, “I’m a belliger­ front teeth really do not project. his hand. Whether iced tea or fruit ent bleep. I’m a bad guy.” Over dinner at a neighborhood juice, Bob Hannah consumes gallons He said, “I don’t mind signing au­ Marie Callenders, Hannah showed of liquid every day. This was a blend tographs when I win, but I don’t like why the western states restaurant of orange and apple juice that he’d people being there during the race. And these magazine guys. When I’m winning, they’re writing and thinking money. When he’s having his day HANNAH ON HIS I’m super. When I lose they think I’m he’s another one of the tough a jerk.” I started to interject that I ADVERSARIES ones.” had never heard him described as Tony DiStefano such, but Hannah was unstoppable Kent Howerton “He rides so relaxed I’ve seen him now that he was hot. ‘‘When I see Howerton, I see my­ ride into a corner and just fall over “I like losing,” he said. “I had so self. When he’s out practicing he’s from being so relaxed.” much pressure on me to win all the playing around running into the Marty Tripes time that if somebody beats me, it’s fences and berms, hitting and hop­ “His head is like a toggleswitch, on funny. When Tripes beat me two ping through the tire markers— and off. Fast as he is some of the weeks ago, I actually thought it was that’s just how I feel, too. If Hower­ time, he could smoke me if he kind of funny. Just let them laugh at ton doesn’t have fun he doesn’t go raced like that all the time.” me. It didn’t bother me a damn bit. fast and if he’s having fun, boy, you Heikki Mikkoia The next moto I won, didn’t I? Last better watch out because that suck­ “Mikkola rides like Ellis does; or I year when I lost a race my dad told er’s gonna whip you.” guess Ellis rides like Mikkola. Brute me he had no doubt that I could Jim Ellis force. Whatever it takes to win, Mik­ have won it, but that it was a good “When I don’t have the hot day, kola does it. Ride tight-kneed; ride thing I lost because otherwise I and Ellis does, I’ve had him go loose: Heikki doesn’t care. If he wouldn’t have a friend out there. And right by me. There’s about five was in a race with Roger DeCoster that’s right. I win every race and the tough guys, and he’s one of them. and both their bikes stayed perfect, other riders smile in my face but they Ellis ain’t too shabby a rider.” Roger would probably win. 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IOVING? Bob Hamah DON'T MISS A SINGLE ISSUE OF MOTORCYCLIST! Let us know your new address right away. Attach an old mailing label in the space changed it for an unnumbered pro­ provided and print your new address where indicated. duction Yamaha. His long, long TO SUBSCRIBE OR EXTEND YOUR SUBSCRIPTION- wheelie carried him to a non-descript ATTACH Check the appropriate boxes below: hillside that wasn’t even part 'of the □ New subscription. Please allow us up to 60 days to get the first copy into the LABEL mail. HERE main riding park. Dotted with bushes, □ Renewal subscription. Please include a current address label to insure and rumpled from water erosion, the prompt and proper extension. MAIL TO- innocuous hillside received Hannah’s □ 1 year $9 □ 2 years $16. (U.S., Territories & Military MOTORCYCLIST only. Other countries add $3 per year.) FM^RUnS$qfilvd‘ full attention for perhaps 20 minutes, □ Payment enclosed or □ Bill me (U.S. only) Los Angeles CA 90028 longer than he had practiced with No. 2. Jumping, climbing, going fast, Name______going slow, it was as if Hannah had Address set-out to conquer and carve-up the hillside in every way possible. He did City______State _ -ZiP- things to that hill that any promoter would have sold tickets for. He kept doing them until everyone else at In­ Winter is going to be hard on your cor. dian Dunes had parked their motor­ cycles to come and watch, a fact It's time to put something hard on your car. Hannah did not seem aware of. At last he found that by flinging himself up the hill, then making a knifing, turning jump to the left in mid-air, he could hurtle a pair of small gullies, make still another mid-air turn, and land, off-camber, facing back down the hill. The extraordinary thing was that he consistently landed without raising dust. ‘‘Just like a gazelle, or a reindeer,” remarked Keith McCarty in an acute observation. Hannah re­ minded me of somebody landing on egg shells without breaking any. Bored with the hillside at last, he rode back, parked, drank orange juice from a bottle and asked, ‘‘Did you guys see me almost eat it that one time?” We shook our heads no. “Well, I did. There’s a fine-line trick to doing that and I almost missed it. That was neat. I could have played for three more hours on that hill.” As Hannah talked and guzzled more orange juice he undressed from his racing nylons and pulled on a pair of gray shorts but no shirt. He has a sharp, flinty athlete’s body, to­ tally devoid, except for his back’s oversized trapezius muscles, of any bulk and of course any fat. His upper legs, like those of his training partner and friend John Savitski are like medium-sized tree trunks. When Han­ nah and Savitski go running together they can cover 10 miles without a break. • • • On the subject of Robert WiMiam Hannah, there is no better authority, unless it is Hannah himself, than Keith McCarty. ‘‘Why does Bob win so often?” McCarty asks rhetorically. ‘‘Two rea­ sons. One, he works the hardest at it, and, two, he can’t stand to be beat. A third reason could be that he keeps himself in such good physical shape from his training. ‘‘But he’s no prima donna, some

16 MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978 guy who’ll fold up when the bike think of—that nothing he does sur­ “Even if he’s a minute in the lead breaks. Bob snapped a clutch lever prises me anymore. He won at Dallas he’ll still be looking a track over, try­ off at Atlanta a year ago and instead in 1977 when the track was so mud­ ing new things, looking for faster of stopping and crying he rode 45 dy nobody but him could do a lap lines. He makes-up time by getting minutes without the clutch. He didn’t without falling. He never took it out into the corners harder and coming trust the shock absorbers we had at of low gear, and when he had to off them harder. Many times he’ll get first, because two times they gave up pull-off a tear-away lens he did it in into a corner harder than you’d think on him and got him off. Even then the air over jumps so he could keep he should, in a gear higher than the he didn’t quit. He knew Yamaha was both hands on the bars in the mud. bike can pull. Coming out, though, working to fix them, and he still rode “Any other rider who gets behind, he’ll be fanning the clutch, getting almost to his full capabilities. you might worry about. But Bob, the revs way up, giving it a big burst “Things like that are how a rider when he gets behind, enjoys catch­ of power. gains a mechanic’s confidence. Like ing up more than he does leading. “He always comes to do a good when Tony DiStefano, whom I used Watch him. He’ll get behind—not that job, but you’ll never hear Bob Han­ to work with, broke his finger and he does very often—and then have nah say ‘I’m going to win.’ He’d like didn’t quit, I was proud of Tony. fun getting so out-of-shape himself, to win them all, and until Tripes beat That’s the way champions should and getting the guy who’s leading so him he had, but winning them all be—anybody who’s been a champion out-of-shape, that he laughs. He says takes luck. He knows what he can do has done things like that. Unless I it’s humorous for him to watch guys and never says he’ll do something was sure Bob was going through the fight so hard to hold him back. Most and then not do it. Never bet Bob on efforts he does, I couldn’t work like I of them crash. But if Bob is leading anything—if he’s betting his own do. He’s the only guy in motocross and getting pushed, he’ll let a guy by money, you’ll lose. today really riding his bike to its full him, just to figure out the guy’s lines “There’s two things I know he potential. around the track. Somebody may doesn’t like. One is having people “I don’t care what kind of a mood pass him on the inside once, but take advantage of him. He thinks a he’s in, he tries. At the 1977 Super­ they’ll never get the chance again. lot of and respects Roger DeCoster bowl his bike was loaned to Mike like we all do. But after Bob beat Ro­ Bell to ride at Carlsbad the week be­ ger at Michigan last year, he went to fore and came back with its frame line-up for the second moto—as win­ cracked. Somebody just gas-welded ner, he had his choice of starting it together while Bob and I were places—and there was Roger sitting back east, and when we got home it where Bob wanted to start. Roger’s was too late to re-do it properly. the five-time World Champion, and “At the start of his heat Bob was anybody else might have let it go. run into and knocked down- Not Bob. Roger wouldn’t move when knocked unconscious. The race went he asked him, so Bob started bang­ on without him. Some nurse started ing Roger’s back wheel with his front trying to drag him off the track. She wheel to make him move. When Ro­ kept dragging and he kept fighting. ger still wouldn’t, he bumped right He was groggy. Finally he had to into the side of Roger’s bike—he al­ reach up and almost whack her in most knocked him down—and Roger the face to make her stop. Then he turned around and flipped him the climbed back on the bike, caught up, bird. We finally had to go to the AMA and qualified for the main event. The referee and get everybody lined-up frame broke so bad it was almost im­ properly. Bob did get to start where possible to ride the motorcycle, but he wanted to—where he had a right he rode it 20 laps and finished sev­ to start. enth. Almost anybody else, I think, “The other thing that he can’t would have parked it. Bob and tuner Keith McCarty joke stand is people who pump him up— “I’ve seen Bob do so many impos­ around a lot. Being the winningest Bob, you’re the fastest thing out sible things—and I mean impossible rider/tuner combination in American there.’ His feelings for certain people things that nobody else would even motocross helps to keep spirits high. have diminished because of that.

Hannah and his brother, Grant, ride stock YZ Yamahas Hannah’s father lives a reclusive life in the High Sierras, in the Mojave desert. Both brothers grew-up on bikes. Whenever he can, Bob joins him for a day of fishing.

MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978 1 7 the uphills,” said Keith Mertz. went on. ‘‘I can just do it. In the des­ ‘‘That’s right,” said Hannah. ert I can do stuff that other people Bob Hannah After a while everyone but Hannah wouldn’t have the first idea of doing. left the motel room, which was too Like the wall of this room. How high Like I say, Bob knows what he can bad, because I had been learning is it—15 feet?” I looked at it and de­ do. He always knows how fast he’s more from listening than I ever would cided it was. “Well, in the desert I riding compared to everyone else. In asking questions. My questions were could ride up that thing to the top, a race I don’t have to give him those standard magazine-writer ones: then come down the other side. No emotional pit signals that a lot of me­ ‘‘What are your tactics?” problem. As long as there was the chanics give their riders. I don’t even “There’s nothing very technical slightest mound of dirt in front of it have to give him many signals. All he about motocross. You’ve just got to for my wheel to slap, I could climb it, wants to know is how much time he go fast till the end, that’s all. No se­ jump it. That’s the kind of trick I like has to make up, or how much of a crets. If you’re faster than me, I’m in to do when I go riding out there.” lead he has. I don’t use a stopwatch, trouble.” By “out there” Hannah means the but when Bob’s leading I wait until ‘‘Do you have a particular riding northwestern reaches of the Mojave, he passes and then count ‘one Mis­ style?” separated from Los Angeles by a sissippi, two Mississippi, three Missis­ ‘‘It’s something I never think about. range of mountains. Among its dry, sippi,’ until the second place bike Everybody says I’m wild, that’s all, sun-baked cities and towns are Lan­ comes. When Bob won Hangtown, I but it’s not wild. That’s the way I caster (where Hannah was born, on had to say the word Mississippi 82 learned to ride. Where I ride, the way September 26, 1956); Palmdale times.” I ride, I’m used to flying around the (“There are no palm trees in Palm­ • • • desert saving it from 15 or 20 bad dale,” reports Hannah. “Somebody Room 220 of the Holiday Inn in situations in an afternoon. If I fell off thought a Joshua tree was a palm San Rafael, near the Sears Point every time, I’d be dead.” tree, I guess.”); and as a neighbor of track, Bob Hannah’s room came alive “How do the other riders feel Palmdale a place called Quartz Hill, when its occupant arrived early Sat­ about you being popularly known as which actually has a sizable hill of urday morning, accompanied by two ‘the greatest’?” quartz that was visible from the friends from the desert named Keith “It’s an ego thing between me and house (recently torn down) where Mertz and Tom Lathrop. Mertz and the other riders and I don’t think they Bob Hannah grew up. The hill was Lathrop seem close enough to Han­ like it. I’ve got a lot of good friends, where he learned to ride bicycles, nah that he’s at his most relaxed but not many motocross friends. I’m and, later, motorcycles. around them: telling stories, listening just not in their circle. Maybe it'd be The closer one gets to the foothills to stories but, when listening, always nice to be, but I’ve got my stuff to do of the Tehachapi Mountains, where appearing impatient and on the verge and they got their stuff to do. I do the elevation raises to 6000 feet and of interrupting to begin a fresh story know that if somebody kept telling more, the greener and steeper the of his own. The stories, naturally, me that, say, Marty Smith was the topography becomes. This is among were racing stories. greatest, I’d be bleeped. It might be the finest trail-riding country in Cali­ ‘‘If this place (Sears Point) isn’t that Marty Smith and I could never fornia, perhaps in the U.S. It has to dusty tomorrow,” Hannah was say- be too good friends anyway because be, if only for the professional racing irig, ‘TIL be pumped. If it is, I’ll be we fight on the track. He doesn’t talent that, over the years, has come bleeped.” want to associate with me because roaring out of it: steeplechaser non­ “I didn’t think racing in dust was he loves to beat me and I love to pareil Eddie Mulder, who lived just as’ dangerous as racing indoors,” beat him.” down the street from Hannah, and said Keith Mertz. It was when we got to the subject who used to go trailing with Han­ ‘‘Indoors are dangerous and I of reflexes—Hannah’s cat-quick nah’s father Bill and brother Grant; don’t say they’re not dangerous,” reflexes—that he became aroused. the great Barstow to Vegas winner said Hannah. ‘‘I don’t say any of that “Now there," he said, speaking in Mitch Mayes, now paralyzed from a crap. But indoors are fun. And racing the rapid way he reserves for matters crash, and still a close friend of Han­ in dust is dangerous. he considers important, “I was think­ nah’s; Ronnie Nelson, who set rec­ “I’m used to dust in the desert,” ing the other day about the kind of ords for jumping and crashing at As­ he told me, ‘‘but it’s not good if you reflexes I must have, and how they cot speedway—and Bob Hannah. can’t see because then you can’t go save me from crashes. I still crash. For all of its famous professionals, fast. If it’s dusty, I slow down. I shut I’ve crashed more this year than I did the Mojave has also spawned count­ off. But I’ve raced motocross in dust last year. But I do seem to be able to less others who can do magic on a so thick that I couldn’t see my front gather things up and not crash in sit­ motorcycle, but who treat it as a fender, and have heard people uations where most guys would. I’ve hobby, not a profession. Keith Mertz passing me.” been lucky a lot of times, but not all and Tom Lathrop are two of these. “What maniacs were those?” I of it’s luck. “You could put either one of those asked. “You know that hill at Indian guys, but Mertz in particular, on a “I dunno. I couldn’t see them.” Dunes? The first time I rode over it good bike and he could beat a lot of After the laughter stopped, I said I and did that double jump, I almost people who are good motocrossers,” had heard a report that many of crashed. A lot of guys would have. Hannah believes. “I mean, tear 'em Sears Point’s choicest uphill sections Ninety-five percent would not have up.” Perhaps so, but neither Mertz had been bulldozed away over the done that in the first place, and the nor Lathrop want to race. They come winter months. five percent that would might have to motocross races with Hannah, ‘‘Oh, you’re not serious" Hannah crashed. I was clear off the bike, and they watch him race and have fun said. ‘‘I hate dust but I’d rather have just went, whoa! and held on and with him, and then return to the des­ uphills for passing guys than flat.” stayed on. I don’t know how I did it, I ert during the week where Mertz “What's the difference between just did it. Maybe it’s from doing it so works in heavy construction and La­ passing guys going uphill or flat?” I many times out in the desert. throp on a road-patching gang. wanted to know. “I'm really better at riding stuff like Once, when I was in Quartz Hill with “It’s when you come back down that than I am riding motocross,” he continued on page 56

18 MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978 BOB HANNAH______to ride motorcycles. He points out an continued from page 18 impressive hill: “See that: That’s old Impossible. I climbed that when I was 12, 13 years old.” He points to tire Hannah, Lathrop rode up on a big tracks on a wall 20 feet over a sand bulky street Yamaha, with regular wash: “Those are my prints.” He street gearing, and after shooting the kicks a big rock: “Keith Mertz hit that breeze with Hannah for awhile, rock once and ate it bad.” He-stops turned and calmly rode home at the crest of a steep downhill: through traffic. On the back wheel. “Don’t you wish we had one of these But there is an even more exclu­ in motocross?” he grins, then circles sive Mojave Desert rider fraternity around and flies off it at 65. The Te­ made up of men in their fifties and hachapi foothills are big enough, and older who have been going there Hannah is fast enough, that he can since they were young and who ride burn-up five tankfuls of gasoline as if they still were. Prominent among there in a day. He can wear-out a them was Bill Hannah, Bob’s father, brand new Yamaha in a month. He who seldom rode fewer than 20,000 has his most fun alone, when he off-road miles in a year. Another is doesn’t have to slow down to wait for Mel Hannah, Bob’s uncle, who owns whomever is with him. For 14 years TRAINING ' property in the Tehachapi foothills, he has been riding motorcycles here, and who is said to have been the and he says this is 90 percent of the AVAILABLE first man to ride over the fabled Mat­ reason he’s the racer he is. terhorn at Saddleback Park. (“But “When Lathrop and Mertz and I go he’s done way better stuff than that,’’ riding out there,” Hannah was telling ANYWHERE!!! says Hannah. “We have hills that me, “we never just ride. We have make that look like a baby hill.”) Still contests to see who can come down another is Mick McKee, the man who worst on the front wheel—wide-open RESIDENCE became Bob Hannah’s coach. And a in fifth gear—without eating it. We fourth is a big, gray-haired fellow have fun. And when we lay-out a mo­ SCHOOL OR with a remarkably soft voice whom I tocross track we lay it out so tough never heard Hannah call anything that even I have a tough time riding but “Brownie.” it. I’ve taken John Savitski out there HOME STUDY About 14 years ago Brownie and a few times, and I know it has helped the other Mojave regulars started be­ his riding. I’d like to take, say, Jim coming accustomed to seeing a Ellis out there.” seven-year-old Bob Hannah going up “You could really impress him,” I MOTORCYCLE and over hills (on a Honda 55 pow­ said in agreement. ered step-through bike his father had “No,” Hannah said quickly, “that’s MECHANIC’S rigged for him, complete with a girl’s not what I mean. I wouldn’t do it to bicycle seat and a moped gas tank). impress him. I wouldn’t take him and “Bob," said Hannah’s brother Grant, run him through the worst parts just TRAINING 30, “had this charisma as a rider to make him have trouble. I’d do it from the beginning. He never fell. because Ellis is the kind of rider who You’d see him ride way, way over his would enjoy stuff like that. CALL TOLL FREE head, and never fall.” “But you can get hurt out there,” Bill Hannah, in a tone seeking no Hannah said, “I mean, I’ve seen guys 1-800-423-4678 correction, said, “Bob was the best.” trying to climb old Impossible who “The best?” Laughing, Hannah re­ flipped their bikes into trees crash­ plied: “Dad, you wouldn’t even let ing. One time I was riding with a hel­ FROM CALIFORNIA CALL COLLECT me go fast. Don’t you remember met but no face mask and went over (213) 944-0121 when you grounded me for riding 45 the bars and got my lip caught on miles an hour?” the fender and it ripped it like a dish­ AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE SCHOOLS, INC “But, Bob,” replied Bill Hannah, cloth. Thirteen stitches. Lips rip easy, 10025 SHOEMAKER AVE., DEPT. MC laughing along with his son, “you you know.” SANTA FE SPRINGS, CA 90670 were only six-and-a-half years old. • • • And I only took it away for a couple Four years ago last July 7th, Bob of hours.” Hannah arrived at the same Indian “When Bob was 12, and so short Dunes park where I had watched him OR MAIL COUPON he couldn’t even reach the footpegs, dissect a hillside and, competing in we put him on a 650 Triumph,” his first motocross and second or­ Brownie recalled, “and sent him up a ganized start of any kind, and de­ steep hill. ‘Oh’, people said, ‘you spite falling down twice in 20 min­ NAME aren’t going to put that little boy on utes, won. A little more than a year that big motorcycle, are you?’ Bob later he won 17 motocross races in a went all the way to the top on the row, and was made a member of the back wheel. Remember that, Bob?” Suzuki team at a salary of $700 a Of course Hannah remembers, just month. Within two years he was the as he remembers and knows every AMA’s 125cc National Champion, canyon, sand wash, and mesa occu­ and the super-star of Team Yamaha. 1 AM INTERESTED IN MCX-10 □ RESIDENCE SCHOOL pying his favorite portion of the Mo­ “I could always ride good,” Han­

□ HOME STUDY jave, the wild area where he learned nah recalls, “and from the first time I

56 MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978 BOB HANNAH break. But of course he still had caring who won. The first cross­ much to find out. He was used to country desert race he participated in doing wheelies and showboating (he was leading, seemed on the across the desert. He didn’t know verge of winning, but his bike broke won a race, wanted to be the best. I about things like hitting a berm, or down) didn’t excite him and he never just kept working at it until I got it.” training and staying in physical entered another one. Told this way, Hannah’s success shape. He had a lot to learn and “Money,” Hannah says forthrightly, story sounds easy, almost pat: after that’s why I give him all the credit. It “is what brought me to racing.” all those impossible riding stunts he took a lot of discipline for someone Hannah is not one of them, but had learned in the Mojave, his talent so young to do what he did.” there are those who would bill his on two wheels was so huge he could What Bob did was accept McKee story as “rags to riches.” In fact he beat any rider, any track. It is tempt­ as his tutor, trainer and disciplinari­ has a close friend who uses those ing to believe this, but it happens to an. McKee moved Hannah into his exact trite words. Growing up in skirt the fact that, following that first home, he charged him $20 a month Ouartz Hill, Hannah did not have a victory at Indian Dunes in the Inter­ room and board (‘‘I didn’t like doing deprived childhood, but his family mediate class, Hannah went weeks, that, but it was part of our disciplin­ was not affluent, either. His father, even months, without being able to ing program.”); he found him a job Bill, spent 32 years working in Los win in the more competitive Expert during the week as a welder in a Angeles and Lancaster as an aircraft class. This certainly puts a chink in muffler shop and arranged for Steve inspector for Lockheed. Bob had a the theory that he was a natural rid­ Hurd, a former desert racer and area job while he was still going to high er, if, in fact, such a thing exists. motorcycle dealer, to supply Hannah school, making $12.50 a night. It was ”1 don’t believe in natural riders,” with a Husqvarna and a parts spon­ loading chickens and sometimes says Mick McKee, the individual sorship of sorts; and then McKee put trucking them over the mountains to whom Hannah credits with starting Hannah through a severe school of market in Los Angeles. One night his professional career. Sitting in the muscle and stamina-building by hav­ several evil-tempered old roosters living room of his home in Whittier, ing him ride, run and practice daily. pecked his hands so badly that he outside ]_os Angeles, McKee adds, “I On weekends he took Hannah to lost his composure and bashed a believe in riders who work hard.” Saddleback Park, Indian Dunes and couple of them to rooster heaven. Behind McKee on a table were other sportsman motocrosses. Con­ Late at night he once fell asleep at some trophies and a picture of Han­ stantly evaluating and criticizing Han­ the wheel of the chicken truck and nah smiling self-consciously, and nah’s techniques, McKee, a hard- almost overturned it. Sleepy from all next to that a photo of McKee’s own nosed taskmaster, pushed his gifted his nighttime drives, he dozed-off in son, Troy, 25. Troy is broadsliding a pupil hard. class and a teacher hauled him be­ speedway bike. An up-and-coming ‘‘All my life I’d always rebelled and fore the high school principal for a performer at Orange County Speed­ been on the defensive,” Hannah re­ lecture. “I got Cs in everything I took way until breaking an arm in 1975, calls, ‘‘but I appreciated what McKee in school,” Hannah says, “including and then going through three bad was doing for me. I enjoyed it. He athletics. I went out for the wrestling years when the arm wouldn’t mend, was helping me. He’d always go to team because they said I wouldn’t Troy has been talking about resum­ the Carlsbad GP and watch Roger have to wrestle on weekends and ing his racing, but his father fears he DeCoster, and afterward he’d tell me could still go riding. The first time has lost too much youth. ‘‘It’s a I was dragging my foot too long in a there was a wrestling match on the young man’s game today,” McKee corner, that I had to get into a cor­ weekend, I quit wrestling. School’s a says. ‘‘Bob was 17 when he started ner deeper and stay on the front bunch of bleep anyway. They just racing, and even that seemed a little brake longer—things like that. I lis­ push you right through, man, they old for motocross.” tened to him all the time.” don’t care. It’s just something to do McKee is an electrician by trade McKee’s wife Dot recalls that Han­ until you’re 17.” but his passion continues to be rid­ nah, during 1974 and 1975, never When Hannah was 17 his parents ing dirt bikes up, down and across watched television, never went to divorced. His mother ultimately the Mojave on weekends. His knowl­ bed later than nine, hardly ever dat­ moved back to her native Canada edge of racing is penetrating, but he ed girls, and was always up no later with Hannah’s younger sister, and has never raced himself. Although than seven to go running. Hannah’s father left Quartz Hill also. McKee appears to be in his mid-fif­ “That’s absolutely right,” Hannah His brother Grant had long since ties, he is still a hard man to keep-up says. ‘‘I didn’t even have a car for moved to Los Angeles. Left some­ with in a Mojave sand wash. Recently two years. For two years straight I’d what to his own devices, Hannah while chasing McKee, Hannah’s older wake up, go run, go to work, come took a job washing dishes in a Swed­ brother Grant—himself no pushover home and go practice my riding in a ish restaurant and was fired for ma­ in the dirt, and at one time a drag­ river bed near where the McKees lingering. He pumped gas in a filling racing record holder—smacked up lived.” He still can remember how station, wore a hard hat toiling in and broke three ribs. Like Bob, Grant the Los Angeles smog irritated his heavy construction, and got a bicycle is a long-time friend of McKee. sensitive nose, lungs and eyes, and shop job that paid him three dollars In McKee’s words, Bob Hannah how at the time he didn’t care. Now an hour. It didn’t hit him like a bolt was an ‘‘itty-bitty little kid, no more he says he could never live in Los of lightning, Hannah recalls, but in­ than 9 years old,” when McKee first Angeles because of the smog. side him the notion was growing that saw him topping Mojave hills, but Why Hannah spent the 17th and it might be easier to get paid for do­ that at 17, starting his first moto­ 18th years of his life going through ing what he had done for more than cross, ‘‘Bob was a hungry rider who such drudgery was not, surprisingly, half his life—namely, going like a bat already thought he was the best.” because he was obsessed with rac­ out of hell on two wheels. He had Says McKee: ‘‘He had great poten­ ing and wanted to become a cham­ $100 to his name, and spent $25 of it tial, and the good thing about Bob pion. He was not obsessed yet. The getting ready for his first motocross was that he hadn’t raced before, had first motocross he ever saw, the 1973 at Indian Dunes. never imitated the bad habits of oth­ Carlsbad GP, was so disinteresting to Hannah unleashed his raw, undis­ er riders, and had no bad habits to him he left long before the finish, not ciplined talent he had developed

58 MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978 BOB HANNAH nah’s riding was wild and crazy. Supercross series he literally can’t For the Nationals he was put on a keep track of them (he plans on giv­ buzzing little ’/s-litre Yamaha (a ing one of them to his 16-year old water-cooled wonder that Hannah sister). All in all, Hannah’s total year through hard work, at last, in the kept afterward as a souvenir) as the income from racing is phenomenal. summer of 1975, winning 18 races in 125 series opened at Hangtown. The amount of income taxes he pays ten days. This mathematical impossi­ Hannah passed 21 of the 22 other is equally phenomenal which is why, bility was accomplished by compet­ riders in eight laps, and he got the as of last July, Hannah was on the ing in two classes at each meet. 22nd—reigning two-time 125 National verge of selling his trailer, abandon­ “Bob listened good and he learned Champion Marty Smith—on the ninth. ing the Mojave after all this time and fast,” says McKee, who gained self- He won Hangtown, plus the following establishing a residence in Carson satisfaction, rather than financial en­ two nationals, and, all in all, five of City, Nevada, where he can get some richment, from his two years coach­ the eight 125 nationals and his sec­ kind of tax break. ing Hannah. That is all he ever want­ ond series championship in his rook­ His income is at times dumbfound­ ed or expected to get. “A young rid­ ie year. Stalking and harrying Han­ ing to even Hannah. “I’m making er is like any athlete who needs a nah, the veteran Marty Smith, who is more money in one year,” he says, coach,’’ McKee says (presently he actually two months younger than “than I ever thought I would in my has several young riders after him to Hannah, never gave up and their du­ whole life. I’m almost sure I make act as their coach, but has been re­ els stand among the best in the brief more money than anybody except luctant to accept, fearing that they history of U.S. motocross. The 1977 Roger DeCoster: he’s the only guy might not put-out like Hannah did). Motorcycle Racing Annual has a really making the big bucks now. I “Bob Hannah had direction and he matchless picture of Smith, his hand­ like having money, and now I’m used did what he set out to do.’’ some face contorted with rage, while to having money and if I do this long Winning big in Southern California walking back to the pits after crash­ enough and become a World Cham­ had earlier brought Hannah a ing again trying to beat Hannah. pion, I should really make some big $700-a-month offer to race small-dis­ • • • money. I mean like a million dollars. placement works Suzukis, and in late Hannah telephoned me once. He Right now I can’t think that way. summer he was shipped to Texas made the call from inside the neigh­ There’s a point when somebody’s where he caught the flu, and then to bor’s house in Palmdale where he going to say, ‘get the hell out of New Orleans where what happened keeps his 26-foot trailer, which has here, you greedy bleep.’ That’s not in the oppressive Bayou heat was no telephone. Both the house and what I want. I’m happy now. scarey: for seven hours after the race the trailer are on a nameless dirt “I don’t spend like I’m rich. In fact Hannah was bedded in a hospital street, just down from the Palmdale I’m probably too damn cheap. I used room with so severe a case of heat Elk’s Club. Behind the trailer Hannah to never carry more than two bucks prostration that he couldn’t tell what built a steel shed for stowing his dirt with me, but now I do. It’s funny. color the walls were painted. “I was bikes and other play-time gear, and Making money brought me into this, so dizzy I couldn’t even remember if in the trailer he keeps his clothing and I could never go back to being a I’d been in a crash or not.” and little else. He sleeps no more privateer rider sleeping on the Yamaha, having lost all its veteran than 40 nights a year in the trailer, ground—I’d quit first—but once I’m in riders to other teams, made a bid for and the rest of the time is either in a race I never think about money. Hannah’s motocross services toward motel rooms, on the road, or at the Not money, not spectators—I could the end of 1975. The offer was homes of friends. It has been said run on an empty track and not miss $12,000 a year, take it or leave it. that Hannah actually lives out of a the cheering—that isn’t what makes The U.S. headquarters of Yamaha black attache case he carries, whose me go fast. As far as buying things and Suzuki (as well as Kawasaki and contents include a crumpled phone goes, I always say when I have my Honda) are all in the greater Los An­ book, a travel schedule from Yama­ million bucks I will. But I probably geles area and Hannah, fondly de­ ha, travelers’ checks, a toothbrush should be doing it now.” scribed by a friend as “still the and razor, and a pocket calculator. With the exception of his gun greenest kid you can imagine’’ car­ The calculator is for totalling up all collection (a .45 Automatic, 8mm ried his unsigned Yamaha contract to his restaurant, gasoline, telephone Browning pistol, assorted bird rifles Suzuki, hoping Suzuki would meet it. and lodging receipts for the Yamaha and other weapons), his fishing tack­ Not only did Suzuki refuse to meet it, expense reports he is so bad about le, and the videotape camera he but, the man in charge told Hannah, turning-in on time. The expense ac­ takes to races so friends can film Suzuki wasn’t going to send Hannah count, the telephone and gasoline him, all of Hannah’s recent acquisi­ to any 1976 AMA nationals, prefer­ credit cards from Yamaha, the bonus tions have to do with the internal- ring that he get more experience paychecks and salary he receives combustion engine: go-karts, jet-skis, first. That man, Hannah says without from a contract that doesn’t expire his 4WD Ford pick-up (recently sold a smile, is today holding down a low- until the end of 1979, are among the and replaced by a big-engined yellow level position back in Japan. nicer things racing has brought him. 4WD Bronco), the VW dune buggy Hannah led an all-rookie Yamaha It was Yamaha money that enabled he built himself and, of course, his team to the 1976 Florida Winter Se­ him to invest in duplex apartments in newest, most sumptuous possession, ries, and won his first AMA race at the cities of Anaheim and Upland. a blue $37,000 Ferrari 308GTS he re­ Jacksonville, his maiden start on a When he visits Yamaha’s Buena Park fers to simply as “The Car.” It was a sand track. Then he won at Orlando. facility he has been known to lunch toss-up between buying a Turbo He won at St. Petersburg. He won at with the company president. He Carrera or the Ferrari, but Marty Gainesville. He won at Cocoa Beach. makes additional income off his con­ Smith already had a Turbo. He won 235 of a possible 250 points tracts with boot, goggle and other But The Car got left in a friend’s and the series championship. He had manufacturers of motocross attire, garage and the yellow Bronco Steve Stackable, one of the best- and from race promoters who use pressed into service to take Hannah liked veteran riders in motocross, him for PR work which he previously and me to visit his father at Convict who today is one of Hannah’s better would not do. He has also won so Lake in the High Sierras not long racing friends, complaining that Han­ many Toyota pick-up trucks from the continued on page 64

60 MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978 BOB HANNAH______goes trailing with. He is an outdoors- attitude toward life, which seemed at continued from page 60 man who cannot abide big cities, such a varience with Hannah’s own. who in his spare time hunts for ar­ “I know," Hannah agreed. “No rowheads and even makes his own. one else in my family is like me.” A Had he not been wearing a Bob moment later he went further. “I ago. A little sheephishly Hannah said, Hannah T-shirt I never would have don’t know anybody in racing who’s “He’ll find out sooner or later that I picked Bill Hannah as Bob’s father. like me. If everybody else wanted to got a Ferrari. I know he didn’t want He is shorter than his son, and, race as badly as I do, what a hell of me getting one at first because he when he took off his Bob “Hurri­ a race you’d get. Racing is really all I worried I’d wipe myself out.” cane” Hannah cap, his hair was want to do. I don’t know if anybody But on our five-hour drive straight- white. It used to be red, just as Grant else knows what they really want to up Highway 395 from the desert at Hannah’s is now. Bob is the only do, but racing is all I want to do. And Palmdale to the snow and high alti­ blond in the family. Bill Hannah looks as much as I want to do it, my mind tudes of Convict, I found Hannah to ten years younger than his age, 63. wanders at times. So I take time off be the most moderate two or four- For the rest of the day, well into to go see my dad. Or I go hunting or wheel racer I have ever ridden with. the night (we all sat around a camp­ fishing. I talk about all I want to do. The Bronco’s cruise control was set fire), into the morning and almost un­ But I do that for one day, and I’m at 55 mph and remained there. til noon, father and son talked. Those ready to go back to work. I get tired As we passed the Naval Weapons who think Hannah can talk moto­ of girls, even. I don’t play around Center test station at China Lake cross should hear him talk about the that much with anything.” Hannah said, half-serious, half-jok- speed of a valley quail on the wing, • • • ingly, that the only thing that might the best ways to catch brown trouts, A predatory bird, probably some cause him to quit motocross would the best bait, the best lures, and so species of hawk, circled 200 feet as be the opportunity to be a test pilot. forth. Bob blazed up and down old Impos­ “But it takes 8-12 years of schooling. “Bob, you reckon you can beat sible Hill in the Mojave, climbing it No way.” that Hicky Mikkola in the Trans-AMA eight times in a row. But taking a He pointed to more steep moun­ race?” bite out of Bob Hannah would have tains as we started getting deeper “It’s Heikki.” gotten the hawk only a beakful of in­ into the Sierras. “That one moun­ “Oh, well, is Hicky coming for the digestible gristle. tain,” he sa.id, “when I was younger, Trans-AMA?” Two days earlier in the Los An­ I coasted down at 70 miles an hour “Yeah, and we’re going to go rid­ geles Coliseum, during the Super­ on a Stingray bicycle. I probably ing and hunting together. I’d like you bowl of Motocross, Hannah had coasted off every big downhill to come with us.” done everything except set himself around here like that. I’ve towed at By then Hannah had been at Con­ on fire. He had gotten a bad start. over 70 mph on a Stingray behind a vict Lake for more than 24 hours. He He had overtaken almost everyone, van. I’ve burned out a lot of wheel was bored. Bob Hannah has the ca­ then been banged-off the track by bearings on Stingrays doing that.’’ pacity to get bored any time, any­ traffic. Catching up again, he had He paused and said the obvious. where, doing anything, unless it is barged into still another pile-up. “That’s part of the reason I’m so racing. With the promise that he Back he had come again to repass fast. would see his father again soon, almost everyone who had passed “There’s so much I’d like to do but Hannah left Convict. Instead of turn­ him—he was passing some of them can’t,” he said. “The only reason I ing south, we went north, driving to for the third time by now—all to the don’t fly a hang-glider is because I Carson City to examine some proper­ cheer of 62,000 fans. His perfor­ don’t want to take a chance of get­ ty- mance had clinched the 1978 Super­ ting hurt right now, and messing-up Later, on the expensive lakefront at cross Series. The only thing it hadn’t my racing. Some stuff I do now for Lake Tahoe Hannah saw a For Sale done was win him the race. Victory, fun I worry about. I go to the Kern sign on a magnificent house that by about one second, had gone to River up by Bakersfield, and jump looked to be in the $200,000 range. his teammate Mike Bell. Hannah had out of a tree 65 feet into the river.” We stopped. Although he was wear­ been second. A few miles south of Convict Lake ing his regular gray shorts and I was “I was going crazy”, Hannah said, Hannah turned right off the highway similarly attired, and both of us were recalling it. “I hit one bump going and proceeded five miles along a dirt unshaven from the night of camping uphill and just went whooooa. One road to a meadow with a stream and at Convict Lake, Hannah knocked on leg came off the pegs and I almost a vista of snowcapped mountains on the door and the owner, a nice man stuck it through a wall. I was going all sides. In the meadow were about drinking a can of beer, showed us in. too hard, I knew I was going too 200 cattle and perhaps 35 trailers He toured Hannah through the whole hard, but those jerks who fall down and campers of fishermen and peo­ house, taking no notice of our and crash and sit there and think it’s ple on vacation. scruffy appearance. Only the man’s the end of the world don’t realize Like his son, Bill Hannah has no wife, looked at us with some aston­ that it’s not the end of the world. permanent address, but lives in a ishment. Or perhaps fright. You get up. You keep going. trailer. Only Bill Hannah lives in his. “What do you do for work?” the “Hey, that’s how I like to ride. He spends November through May, man asked, showing us out. Don’t tell me I have to keep my foot the colder months, at the Bullhead “I don’t work”, said Hannah. “I on the footpegs—it’s faster for me City region of the warm Colorado race motorcycles.” not to. I was riding like that because River, but during May through Octo­ “That’s work,” the man said. I was there, and the race was there, ber regularly parks on the same Hannah thought we could make it and I might as well go for it for as patch of ground near Convict Lake. back to Los Angeles in less than ten long as I’m capable. I won’t be capa­ A frugal man, he pulls the new 19V2- hours, which we did. Untrusting of ble forever.” This could be his one foot trailer, which his son gave him anyone’s driving but his own, he abiding fear, for what will he do with for a present, with his 1962 Ford drove all but three of them. Just be­ himself when he isn’t? “But while I’m truck with 254,000 miles on it, and fore he fell asleep we had been dis­ fastest, I’m gonna prove I’m fast­ he carries along a Yamaha that he cussing his father’s come-what-may est.” M

64 MOTORCYCLIST/OCTOBER 1978