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/126509
ski or ride snowmobiles. Speed. and the outdoor life. Ihat's Bob Hannah. For the moment. though, Bob's effons are d.irected purely to the job of gelling back to Ihe top of his profession, It will be a long hard slog. but already the Hurricane has started in his winning ways. He won the four meeting Florida Winter-AM A MX Series, and though the opposition was not the best possible, there were occasional glimpses of the old Hannah magic . It was eight months after the accident before Bob could stan to do exercises. and seven months after that before he was able to race again. "I wasn't really ready to ride even then. but there was a lillie bil of pressure on me to do some of the Trans-USA races, I'd been out for a ..... 00 ..... 0') "The only time 1 think about money is ~n contract d ay. " Hurricane force words from Bob Hannah By Chris Carter Photo by Mark Kariya When Bob Hannah broke his right leg In twelve places in a water skiing accident in the Colorado river in the summer of '79 many people thought that it was the end of the line for one of America's finest ever t ass riders mo o c r , But now, almost two years after the accident, Bob Hannah 20 is fighting his way back to peak fitness and form. "Right now I want to beat Kent Howenon and Mike Bell in the stadium races, I am curious to see how long it's going to take me to do it. If I don't get hun I'm going to do it. becausr I am going to keep working on it till I do do it:' says Bob. If that jtives the impression of a stubborn man. it's righl. Bob Hannah, known throughout the length and breadth of the United States of Ammca as the Hurricane. admits il. He has been winning races since he was JUSt a teenager out of high school. But even off the track Ihe competitive instinct shows through. "Whatever I do I hate to lose. I'm like thaI. Gambling. pool--simply anything," admits Bob with a grin. Not that there is normally a 101 of spare time in the 24-year-old Californian's life. When he is nOt racing he likes to hunt, water ski. snow season and il was time for contracts to be soned oul. No one was very keen to sign me because Ihey didn'l know how good I'd be after Ihe accident." explains Bob. The leg Still hurtS when Bob is standing, or running, but out on the track it gives him no trouble al all. The doclors have given him a clean bill of health, All that remains is for Bob to click into top gear. ·... m down right now. Howenon, Bell. Sun and a lot of them are right above me at the moment," said Bob at the final round of the Winter-AM A Series at 51. Petersburg. ·...11 be Iraining for Ihree or four days a week till I get back on top. And for me the best way to train is to run and ride the bike, The best place to ride the bike is in the desert. "It's where. grew up. and though it might not work for everyone it works for me, Any kind of riding you want I've got out in the desert, see, It·s going to take quite a while to get good. "Since the accident Ihere's been only one day that I've felt right on the bike in practice. Then the next day I was worse than ever, ".n my time when I was riding right, you're not going to beat me. I've never said that before, but it's true. If I "I never got any publicity for being a nice guy, or for brown-nosing people." wanted to win, and something didn't happen. I could, And I want to get back to feeling like thaI. ". never think before a race • can win but when I am riding good like that, I can make a dead last stan and it just makes me nastier and I go faster. "I feel like thaI now, but I am just not hilling the berms right. My timing's off, that's all it is, In the desert it perks that timing up. You're coming up on stuff real fast and hilling things and you have to react fast. You've got 10 get il right before it comes back down. The desert perks you up right, SO that when you hit a i bump out on the track it's nothing," For now, Bob aims to ride In the desert as often as he can. But just before the Nationals start he'll be there four and five days a week, But why, after seven American titles. three Supercrosses. tWO 2505, one 125 and one Trans-Am. does Bob. still only 24-years-old. want to keep racing? What motivates him? "Not money any more. The only time • think about money is on contract day, After I sign I forget about money. I just think about people talking mainly," says Bob, "Just being able to know that I beat 'em, and they can't talk. They can just shut up. I hate to hear people yacking that I'm over the hill, and I'm this and that. Well, I try to show them every weekend that they are JUSt crap," says Bob, "If I win thirteen or fourteen races and then lose one, then people say, well. he's finished, That gives me a lot of drive righl there. Wanting them to know who is boss." BUI though money only mailers on contract day according to the Hurricane it is an undisputed fact thaI he is one of the best paid motocross riders in America, if not the world . • He is naturally enough reluctant to say just how much money he does make, but does not deny a rumor that suggests thaI in the past his earnings have exceeded S250.000 in one year! That's a far cry from the days when Bob was a factory supported 18-yearold with Suzuki. In those days he was paid S700 a month plus bike, spares and a van to ride in the California area. But when Hannah wanted to move on to do the Nationals Suzuki laughed at him, and told him they wanted him 10 stay in California, Yamaha, on the other hand, could see his potential and from the end of 1975 Bob was racing for them, It has been a highly successful partnership, and one certain to continue for at least the next "I hate to hear people yacking that I'm over the hill ... " thr..e years, because Bob has recently signed another long term contract with Yamaha. That pUt paid, once again, to Hannah racing in Europe, But there is still a possibility that Hurricane might make a serious allack on the 500cc MX World Championship sometime before he retires. "There was a strong chance that I might have gone to Europe for the next twO or three seasons this time, because I wasn't able to do a deal with Yamaha here in America till the very last moment," said Hannah. "If it had fallen through the Yamaha factOry in Japan wanted me 10 race in Europe," Why has Hannah ignored Europe in the past? Simply because he doesn't like the place! "I don't like anything about il. The food, the mOtels, there's no ice in your drink, liltle things like that drive you nuts. I don't like the people. I like il here in America where everyone speaks the same language, and you know your way around without any problems," said Bob, Bob's bluntness and honesty has earned him a reputation of being difficult to work with. "I suppose at times I am, But I look at it this way, if. like someone I'll do anything for them. If I don't then they couldn't pay me to do anything for them!" Bob does not have a lot of time for journalists, either, "I usually hate them. They get a lillie power, and then they think they own the world. and think they can do anything, or write anything. And I'll tell 'em real fast to 11:0 to hell.