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eINTERVIEW Desert racer DannyHamel By Kit Palmer Photos by Tom Van Beveren hen five-tim e National Hare & Hound Champion Dan Smith anno unced his retirement at the end of the 1990 season, it not only shocked the off-road world, but it als o left the door wide ope n for a new king of the desert to step in and take hi s pl ace o n the thro ne. And who might that person be, you ask ? Man y are predicting it will be Smith's form er teammate Danny Hamel. T he name Danny Hamel is not exactly new to th e world of hare and hound racing. He's already racked up a number of overa ll and class win sin man y major off-reading events, suc h as the SCORE Las Vega~ 300, the W conte nder and caugh t the attention of th e KTM off-roa d racin g team . Sho rt ly th ereafter , he found him self as a factory-backed KTM racer, paired with the man who is argua bly the best desert racer the spo rt ha s ever seen - Dan Smith. Ham el may have pl ayed second string to Smith in the 1990 seaso n, but he certain ly has learned a lo t from the five-tim e cha mp abo u t wh at it takes to be a winner, and it's beginning to sho w. Lik e man y desert racers, Ham el go t his first tast e of desert ridin g a t a young age , riding with hi s paren ts. " I was three years old wh en I first started riding bike s," said Ham el. " My famil y would go o u t to th e desert o n . th e weekends and go o n tra il rides." Foll owing in his father's footstep s, hi s way up through the pack an d led the race befor e bein g slo wed with back brake and clutch problems. Nonetheless, he still finished second overa ll and first 25Occ. Dan Smith won the race. " I made the last four rounds and still finished second in the 250cc class and rider I've ever seen , and he has a lot of motiv atio n. H e w ants to be th e next Dan Sm ith and l don 't see an y reason w hy he wo n't be. W e're (K T M ) lu ck y to have Danny on our team - he's a great kid." 'H know what my limits Ham el 's first race as a full -£ledged factory-backed KT M team rider wasn't an y old race, it was the Baja 1000, in 1989, " I teamed up with Scott Morris and Daryl Folks and we did real well. I didn 't think that it (the Baja 1000 race ) would be as rough as it was, and I was surprised how fast it was at times, bu t it rea lly opened my eyes to the rea l world of off-road racing. It was great having the factory rid e - a big effort are. I never like to go beyond them because that's when you get hurt. It's not worth it to crash at 100 mph." ***** Eighteen-yearold Danny Ham el has moved in to the captain's seat at KTM with the retirement of teammate Dan Smi th . One of Ham. el's many accomplishments in his yo ung career is practically soloing the 1990 Baja 1000 and finishing second overa ll. 12 Mesq uit e G P, numerous 250cc class wi ns -in Na tiona l har e and hound competi tio n and, his most recent, th e overall victory a t the third ro un d of the 1991 Na tio na l Cham p ionship Hare & Hound Seri es. H am el has already won two races in the three-raceold series. After winning th e open ing ro und, he was leading round two wh en he reti red wi th a broken cha in . Las t November the 18-year -old, 6' 3", 2l0-pound H am el, from Bould er City, Nevada, al so showed hi s enduran ce by riding all but 70 mi les of the 680-mile SCORE Baja 1000 .and finished a remarkab le second overall. His wou ld-b e teammate, Sm it h, injured his kn ee a few days before the race while pre-running the Baja 1000 co urse. Although Hamel has been racing hare and hounds since the age of nine, he didn 't start seriousl y racing until 1989, halfway through th e National hare and hound season, but he quickly established himself as a championship Ham el began raci ng ha re a nd hounds, and ha re scra mb les even ts in th e Nevada desert as soo n as h is feet could touc h th e ground whi le riding h is Suzuki RM80. Ham el competed in the Motorcycl e Raci n g Association o f Nevada (MRAN) of f-road series. " My first race was in 1983. It was a local hare scrambles and I rode a n 80. I go t the number three plate in th e 80cC" cla ss that year, then I go t th e number two plate in .1984. In 1985 I won my first number o ne pl ate, a lso in th e 80cc class. I didn 't start riding 250s until 1987, and in that year I fin ish ed second in th e 250cc class (MRAN )." It wasn 't until halfway through the 1989 National Hare & Hound Seri es that Ham el st arted taking desert racing serio usly. Hamel loaded up hi s Suzuki R M250 and hit the final four rounds of the series a nd qui ckl y establ ished himself as a champ ions h ip co n tender. . In his first National, Hamel worked si xth overa ll in th e series. La rr y Roeseler beat me in the 250cc class." It didn' t take lon g for the race team s to notice the new kid in town and it was KTM tha t quickly sna tched him up. "Scot Harden ca me up to me and said he liked the way I had been riding la tely and he as ked me if I'd lik e to represent th eir com pany, and everyth ing kind of escalated from there. It was grea t going from an amateur racer, bu yin g my o wn parts and everyth ing, to a paid rider for KT M. I didn't expect I'd come alo ng that rapidly," ***** " I used to live and ride a lot near L as Vegas," said Hard en, " and some friend s of mine told m e about Danny. So l started wat ching him, He rides so smoothly and goes so fast! H e has th e uncanny kna ck of pi ck in g th e right lin es - I've never seen an ything like it before. It's lik e he's got a sixth sense. H e's got more natural talent than any behind you. It too k a lo t of burden off your back so you cou ld rid e and relax and get focused o n wh at you had to do." Admittedly, finding himself teamed with Dan Smith mad e Ham el a little un comfo rtabl e. " I was nervou s at first until I reall y met Dan , I didn 't kn ow if I could live up to hi s expec tatio ns. And then once I met him and we became friends, everyth ing worked o u t great. He's a really ni ce gu y and was easy to wor k with . He mad e me not as nervous; it was like he trusted me - I co uld feel it. He made me more rela xed so I could rid e and do wha t I had to do. I learned to be nice to everybody. He was always ni ce to people whether or not he had a good or bad day . He always has som ething good to say abut everybod y. He's a super guy." Although Hamel has what many people say is a natural talent for go ing fast in th e desert, Hamel feels he learned a lot as Smith's teammate.