Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126247
One year ago, an unknown racer from Whittier and a veteran tuner went to the Winter-AMA Series for Ya':,TIaha~ By season's end", the pair held two championships, and people called them . B-.II Buchka and the Hurricane Kid By Jim Gia natsis nly a year ago no one had heard of Bob Hannah ex cep t around th e Los Angeles area where the 19 year-old kid from Whittier had been racin g _motocross for .a year and a half. A II of a sudden this kid Hannah showed up in Florida at th e beginning of the Winter-AMA C Series as Yamaha's ma in lin e assault on th e National motocross circuit f or 1976! Bill Bu chka, top wren ch in th e 500c c class fo r three years, first with Pierre Karsmakers in 1973 and again in 1974 when th e AMA uiouldn't let Pierre retain th e title because of citize ns hip requirem ents , and th en with Jimmy W ein ert in 1975 -- imagine what Bill was th inking wh en he fo und our Yamaha was having him play nursemaid to th is kid , Just te n months lat er, in a m otel room on a Saturday night in Phoenix , we were talking about what had tra nsp ired over that short time period. T he kid hadn 't done too shabby -- 500cc champion ' of th e Florida Wint er-AMA Series and 125cc Nationa l Champion wit h moto and overall wins in th e 250cc an d 500cc Natio nals. N ot bad at all. "Hurricane" Hannah was th e high est pla ced rid er in AMA National motocrossf or 1976. Sat urday night in Ph oenix . Th e desert gets cold in No vem ber, and it must have been close to f reezing. Th e next day would be the Phoenix Tra ns·AMA race, th e last event in th e Trans -AMA Series and Bob 's final race of th e year. Despit e having to learn to race in th e mud f or the first time ever, brok en bikes, internal injuries lik e pulled ribs and bru ised kidneys, his first Trans-AMA Series wasn't to o bad, On two pr evious week ends he had pla ced third overall and top Amen'can. Tomorrow he would convincingly tak e th e overall win. But for this evening Bill Buchka and the Hurricane Kid j ust want ed to talk. Bill - " Bob's t he sa me kid as a year ago . What he's accomplished hasn't cha nged him . Except he 's m or e ope n now, ra ther th an th e introvert he used to be, H e used to be in a we of a ll. th e' people he was beating a t the begin n ing of th e year. Here he was go ing out and bea ti ng Steve Stacka ble every week in th e Florid a Series -_. a hero he'd read abo u t in the magazines , Aft er th e 125cc N a tion a ls Bob reall y began to relax a nd beca me mu ch mor e op en ," Bob - " I lea rn ed something tha t first seaso n in Florid a , th at maybe I wasn' t th a t good a rid er, but ma ybe I tr ai ned harder and it showed . I was ou t of co n tro l every ra ce , but I still beat Stackable because I was in better sh ape ," ' N ext cam e th e series that Yamaha had hired Bob to win, th e 125cc National Championship. He and Bill wouldn 't disappoint them, beating Honda 's tioo-time 125cc champ Marty Sm ith out of a title. Was th e controversial factory wat erpumper from Yamaha a bett er bik e than Smith 's Ho nda! Was it j ust luck that Bob won while Marty brok er Bob · " Lu ck had nothing to do with the Cham pionship. Unless you want to ca ll a b ike breaking d own luck, I ca ll that bad mechanics, And as far as having a fast er bik e than anyone else , I never passed a nyone on the straigh taway," Bill - " If he ever did p ass a nyone on th e str aigh ts, it was be cause he got a be tt er drive out of the corners , I've got to foll ow th e phi losophy th at Tony D has , th at all th e bi kes are about th e same , It's just which point in th e co rner you put you r ass on the sea t or closest to th e rear whe el to help get the best traction" It' s my opinion that th e rid er makes the bik e , I'm sure that was th e ca se this yea r in th e 125s. I'm no super tuner. I'm the first one to admit it . I'm a mechanic , I'm not a gen ie that pulls horsepower ou t of a hat, The guys that tell you they do it are full of sh it. a nyway ," Bob- "A lot of mechanics are parts cha nge rs, If a shock doesn 't work , they pull that shock off and put a new on e on , When m y shock isn 't working Bill pulls that shoc k off a nd fixes it. T h ings like shocks an d forks a re basic item s, bu t it sometime s does make a difference whe n a mechanic like Bill kn ows how to dial th em in rather than just bolting them tog ether. You just don 't switch pistons and rings when the bik e isn't running well , you chec k th e wh ole top end or crank , W e al ways test the bike on Sa tu rdays to be su re it's work in g right. H e sho u ldn 't have to do tha t bu t he does , a nd aft er ridi ng , t he bike is chec ked over agai n. A lot of guys never take th eir b ikes out on Sa turdays, T hey never know how 5