Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

E • ~ ~ The inside scoop on " Special Agents " Danny LaPorte and ' Bob Hannah E l.D r--- O'l ..... Cl"l ..... ~ .... - l-< 0.. -( By Jim Gianatsis For ttwo years in a row, 19 74 and 1975, Honda's Marty Smith made the 125cc National Motocross Championsh ip look "like a person al benefit series. T here was no doubt ab ou t it; the "Superkid " w as go od , b ut th e competiti on du rin g-those two years for Marty was hardly stiff enough for h im to work up a good sweat. . Together with teammate Tommy Cr oft and mounted on super ' powerful, ligh tw eigh t RC 125 Ho n da wo rks bike s, Marty Sm ith, kno cked off one National af te r an o th er , wh ile t hro win g in a 125cc World Champio nship race for good m easu re. T he other m ajor manufacturers who campaigne d the 125cc N at ionals, Yamaha an d Can -Am, on ly did so wit h hal f-hear ted efforts . Tim Hart and J immy Ellis, while excellent ride rs , are h ardl y l25 cc specialis ts and th e heavy prod uction bikes th ey w ere forced to u se hardl y stood a chance agai nst t he fac tory RC Honda wo rks bikes. Honda remaine d serious ab ou t t he 125cc Natio nals. Eac h even t was atten de d by a full y armed suppor t team as Smi th an d Croft fle w into the weekly battlefr o n ts to blow o ff t he local opposition. Winnin g became so easy for Marty he w as lab ele d th e "Bionic Motocrosser." • Back home in Southe rn California, th ough, it was almost a different sto ry . Rel egated to th e sam e m odi fied stoc k equ ipm ent th at everyo ne else used, an d fin di ng him self havin g to race on tracks th e local sh oes had diale d in, Mar ty didn't always win. And even wh en he did wi n, he learned wh at sweating was all ab o u t. Mean whil e, so me of th ose local SoCai ho tdogge rs wh o wer e m aking Mar ty sweat were won der ing w he n they'd b e allowed to extend that same co urtesy, to Mar t y on a fu ll tim e basis, ou t o n the N ational circuit. This year some of those SoC ai hotdoggers are going to ge t th at chance . to shoot down Mar ty Smith. They m ight n o t do it, but thi s year th e teams and eq uip m en t will be a lo t m ore equal. Bo th U.S. Su zuki an d Ya mah a International will b e field ing' tw o r ider/two m echani c teams to try an d end Honda's romp in th e 125cc Nationals. Bo th co m panies are seriou s abou t it an d t hey w ill b e back in g up their riders w ith so me pretty exo tic bikes as well. 0' BOB HANNAH Yamaha's two man team for the 125 cc Nationals co n sists of Bob Hannah and Danny Turner. Danny T urn er made quite a name for himself last year as probably the fast non-factory rider on the 125cc circuit with his TM Engineering Honda. After signing with Yamaha at the be ginning of this year . Danny injured his elbow. preventing him from runnin g the Florida Winter-AMA Series and Super Series with the rest of th e Yamaha team. , Bob Hannah .did make Florida Series, and along with Yamaha's big bike specialist Rick Burgett, the two of them dominated the Open class o f the Florida Series unlike an ything expected Th e two of them, along with Suzuki's Steve Stackable, put on some fantastic mote-long battles that lasted throughout the five races of the Florid a Series and right in to the Super Series.. Everyone in Southern Cal ifornia had been talking about how fast , Hannah was, but they never expected Bob to go that fas t his firs t time out in National competition. Nineteen ye ars old and from Whittier, California, Bob had only been racing a year and a half before Yamaha signed him as a factory rider. He rewarded them by winning all five ra ces of the 1976 Florida Winter-AMA Series to take the class title , picking up the nickname "Hurricane" in the process. For Hurricane Hannah , the year and a half before winning the Florida Series had seen him come a long ways. His first race on a friend's 25 0 CZ was a lot d ifferent than the bicycle motocross he was used, to, but he wo n the Intermediate class his first time out and advanced up to Expert. Bob raced up at the top of the Expert class every week, but after about ten weeks of not winning first place again, he realized he needed a bike more competitive than the two ye ar old CZ he was on. Graduated from high ' school and living in Los Angeles, Bob worked three months straight at his welding job to save up enough money to buy a new GP Husky . Out of retirement and back in to racing again on a competitive bike, Bob began winning. Soon, co m pan ies b egan offering Bob bikes to race. First it was Su zuki . with an RM 125.. th en it was DG Performance Specialiti es. T he wins kept coming for Bob and by the summer of 1975 Su zuki w as interested in him enough to provide him with RM production bikes for every class , a van to make all the local races, and a $700 a month salary. Bob stayed wi th Suzuki right up un til December when it came time to draw up plans fo r the 1976 season. Suzuki offered him a con tr act to ra ce th e l 25cc National s, but n othing else was made defmite. ·Yamaha offered Bob mor~ of what he was looking for. , ' Yamaha's con tr ac t with Bob called for a co mple te season of r acin g, with emphasis on th e 125 cc an d 2 50c c Nationals, and the Trans-AMA Series. Because of poor AMA race scheduling; two of the 125 cc and 25 0cc Nat ionals are being held on conflicting dates . Dep ending on how th in gs go at th e Hangtown National, Bobwill stick with th e class he fe els he can do the best in. Ho pef u lly it.will be the 125 cc Nationals. . Backing Bob u p is the be st tuner in profession al m otocross, Bill Buchka. Bill has previously tuned fo r Nat ion al Champions Pierre Karsmakers and J immy Weinert. Yamaha plans to have all new works bik es fo r the team at Han gt own, with th eir l25cc m achin e be in g a water-cooled six-speeder th at sh ou ld be more th an competitive with the Honda RCs. When asked if he th o ugh t , he co u ld bea t Marty Smi th, Bob rep lied , "I raced him last year at the Houston 125cc N at ion al where he be at ine w ith his RC H on da an d I en d ed up sixth . I've r ace d him at local rac es, th ough , an d beaten h im . Ii all depends if he has his w orks bike . We raced a coup le of m on th's ago in Arizona on 25 0s. Marty and Tom my Cro ft had t lieir RCs and fin ished fo u rth an d third, Gayl on Mosier took sec o nd, and 1 was first. Sometim es .. . o n a 12 5 Marty goes re ally fast, faster th an an ybod y. Hopefully , b etween me a nd Danny T urne r , on e of, us w ill beat him this year." ~ . DANNY LAPORTE Suzuki's two m an te am for t he l 2 5cc N ati onals, co nsis ting o f Billy Grossi and Dann y ' LaPorte, should prove' to be equally as strong as Ya maha's. Billy has b een l aid up sin ce last September du e to a broken leg an d ope ra t ionsto put pins in and ou t of his legs, b oth of w hic h ha ve n ow been broken. At least yo u can' t say " Sugar Bear" doe sn' t try hard. Billy co uld h ave been b ac k in racing for the recently co mp le te d Super Series, but Suzu ki felt he should us e the t im e to condition his body again and build up th e stren gth in his legs. Nineteen y ear old Danny LaP orte fro m Yu cca Valley , California , is the ' newest member on Tea m Suzuki, but lie 's no stranger to di rt bikes or racin g. Danny 's father regularly ra ces th e desert and Danny has b een followin g in h is Dad's knobby tracks for the last eight ye ar s. Rather than desert racing, though, Danny began co nc en trat ing his efforts on motocross for a number of years and has be come a familiar face on the SoCai , motocross scene, He hasn't any big race wins to his credit ye t, but he say s, th at's because he always went to th e b ig ra ces where .the factory riders always st eal the show. Still , his performance during 1975 were good en ough to attract the attention of T eam Suzuki and put him in the open , slot on the team which had been reserved for Bob Hannah. Ironically , Danny almost never got back into racing after a p ra ctice accident at the, 1974 Hangtown National left him laid up with ail injured back. He stayed away from bikes for a year after the accident. During that ' period of time his grades for his Senior year in High School improved ' rem ar k ably as he made the Honor Roll. It was also a time for ge tting his head straight as to what he was going to do after he graduated As it turned out he decided to get ba ck into ra cing. Suzuki wanted Danny to use this year's Florida Series as a training session, bu t like Bob Hannah, Danny used it to impress a lot of people despite bad luck at almost every race . The opening round of the Series at Jacksonville saw Danny holding down second place behind teammate Tony DiStefano when his throttle hung open and caused him to cr ash. Two weeks later he was leading the race at Gainesville when the steering stern on his RH 250 broke and his forks snapped off while landing from a jump. The next week at S t. Petersburg a broken rear brake cable bracket let him overshoot a turn and drown ou t in a pond. Danny was .once again leading the final Florida Series race at Cocoa Beach when he highsided in a tum and got runover from behind by Tony f'f. and Jimmy Ellis. By the time the F lo rid a Series was over he had been crashed and runover so often that he had pi cked up the ni ckname "Frankie Junior,': short for Frankenstein and the way his bruised body looked. "Dann y 's performance in the Series still helped Te am Suzuki pick up enough poin ts to win the Bel-Ray Florida " Winter-AMA Series Cup for the thira year m a row. Danny won't make an y predictions for the upcoming 125 cc Nationals, but y ou can be sure of one thing; that it's about time he overcame that ' bum lu ck and collected on some"of those wins that are due. At Hangtown, Su zuki will be introducing some new 125cc works bikes that will give Billy Grossi and Danny LaPorte, along with Team Yamaha's Bob Han n ah and Danny Tu rn er , an equal chance at tak ing the National Championship away from Honda' s Marty Smith. T hings won 't be so easy again. 37 -.

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