Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

9INTERVIEW e By Anne Van Beveren Photos by Tom Van Beveren hen it comes to desert racing, Danny Hamel is the fastest th ing on two wheels. At 21 years of age, the racer from Bou ld er City, Nevada, has dominated the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series for three years, stole n the limeligh t at SCORE International's Baja events for two years, and annihilated 24 AMA National Hare &H oundC ionDann Hamel ham the local competition in southern Nevad a for as long as anyb od y cares to remember. But when it comes to talking abou t desert racing, Danny Hamel gets left in the dust. As soon as the word "interview" is m entioned, the flash and dash of Hamel's riding style d isappears. The aggressive, mile-a-minule racer vanishes in the blink of an eye and in his place appears a soft-spoken, thoughtful college student who is halfway through a degree program in bus iness management. The Danny Hamel tha t turns up for an intervie w is no t the split-second decisio n-ma ke r who powers a m ighty Kawasaki KXSOO through the whoops and sand washes of unknown desert and uses vocabulary like "gnarly" and "bitchin"." Danny Hamel, the interviewee, is a reserved, cautious ma n, who weighs each question carefully before he answers, considers the long- Danny Hamel won just about every race he competed in .this year, including every round of the AMA National Championship Hare & Hound Series: He also teamed with Larry Roeseler and Ty Davis to win the Baja 1000. . tenn implications of every word, and is unfailingly humble about his success. The businessman behind the riding gear makes Hamel no t only the toughest rider in the desert, but the toughest interview in the desert. It's this off-bike personality that Hamel credits with his success and the same off-bike personality that he hopes will keep him in: the motorcycle industry long after the flash and dash are gone. Hamel began riding off-road motorcycles when he was three years old. He started desert racing in southern Nevada when he was 11 and ca tapulted to the to p of the local SOcc class before moving to a 250cc mount when he was 15. Two yea rs later, Hamel took his 2S0cc Suzuki into the AMA National Hare & Hound Series. His performance there, and in local desert racing, earned him a berth on a KTM factory team bound for the SCORE Baja 1000 and the rest, as they say, is history . Hamel's one-ride deal grew into a factory sponsorship the following year and teamed th e I S-year-old hotshot with then-re igning desert champ Dan Smith for the big-name races of the season. When Smith cra shed pre-running for the Baja 1000 in 1990, Hamel turned in a SSG-mile 'ride on race-day that took th e d uo to second overall and, when Smith retired at the end of that year, the h ei r apparent took over h is d esert crown. Ha mel has now raced desert profession ally for four yea rs and refers to desert racing as his "job." "A lot of people d on't like to refer to it like tha t, but I think that if you look at it as a hobby you 're no t going to go as far in the sport. If you take it very seriously like a job, and trea t it like a job, you will have much more success," said Hamel. "Every morning when I wake up , my whole day is focused on mo torcycle racing - how I can be faster; what I can d o to mak e my bike faste r," said Hamel. "I ride my mountain bike for trainin g. I go play basketb all wi th friends for something aerobic to get the hear t pumping. I will go Tiding, and then work on th e bikes . This is my job. This is what I do for a living." And Hamel's job is paying off.

• Cover