How to ride li_ke the Hurricane
Part eight
Practice and
training
')
,
By Bob Hannah as told t o J im Gia natsis
"I'm probably not the best guy there is to ten
you how to get in shape for r acing. I think
Tony DiStefano had the righ t idea when he.,
said, 'You h ave to do what's best for you to get ': >
yourself in shape for racing.
, Some gu ys are in natu rally bet. .
.
ter cond~tIon, or have more skill,
and do n t have to work as hard.
18
You have to do what you need to do to
beat the guys you're racing against.'
"At the beginning of the motocross
season 1 usually have to run five miles
a day, every day. 1 also do some warmup exercises. The last two years 1 used
the Florida Winter·AMA Series for
getting in shape. Besides running
every day, I'd go practice riding three
times a week. Rick Burgett would go
along with me , both of us on stockers,
and we'd race each other"in 30·minute
motos.
"Once I've built myself up, I'll slack
off to run just three miles a day, three
times a week. That's once the
N ati on als and Supercross Series gets
underway. Last yea r , after the Florida
Series, 1 never went practice riding
during the week unless it was just to
test something new on th e bike. Once
the season is underway you can really
burn yourself out if you ride when you
don't feel like it. You have to leave
yourself pumped for Sunday.
. ' ''T he ';ll ~ 1 follow d,:,ri~g the season
If I ,? riding .good IS Just ~o my,
runmng three times a week. If 1 m not I'l
winning or I'm screwing up out on the ;>,
track. doing things like braking too
early for corners or coasti ng in the
turns. then 1 get -back into rid ing
during the week or training harder.
"When the racing season is finished,
like December and January, that's ?
' when 1 kick ba ck and don't even go
riding. 1 either go hunting or fourwheeling my pickup truck out in the,
desert. Ge t my mind completely away
from racing.
T
" I don't eat any special foods when
I'm racing. No vitamins, I'm not
saying that's the right thing for
everybody to do, but 1 don't seem to
need it.
"Practice and trammg . like
everything else, is th e way to get .
better, Keep an open mind to lea rn ing
th ings and you 'll do 'g ood . .Watch the
Pros ride . 1 follow good guys all the
time to lea rn their tricks . 1 probably
owe guys like Weinert, Howerton and
DeCoster a fortune for the things
they've shown me, but they'll never get
me to pay them for what I've learned.•
