Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ously inv olv ed with Long Be a ch Honda's race team at the time, would go out to Ascot where he was tu ning and I would tag alo ng. For my 14th birthday I got a square-barreled Maico 250. There were no 125cc bikes then, an d the 250s were easier to rid e. The bike was really easy to rid e and I s ta rted ra ci n g at Ascot, Lions, O range County and Corona in Southern California. I was a midpack 2S0cc Junio r, but you h a v e to re member tha t in 1972, ther e would be three d ivi si ons in th e class w herever you went." As Bell toiled on in the Sou them Califo rnia n igh t- r a cing scene - r a cin g up ward of five times a week - he began to find a rhy thm that helped push him to the top of the score sheets. It all paid off w he n Mi ke scored h is firs t s hi ny chunk of plas tic, metal an d marble: "I remember that my first trophy was from Corona Racew ay, and it is one of th e m ost impo r ta n t tro p h ies o f m y career," says Bell. "In fact, on my mantel today, there are five trophi es: One from the Super Bow l of Mo tocro ss in 1978, one from my first SOOcc National win at St. Louis (Missouri) , my supercross champio nship trophy, a trop hy from my last pro fes s io n a l w in at t h e Dallas Supercross - and the trophy from Co rona . In fact, inscribed on it is: 'Coro na Ra ce w a y , 2S0cc Junior Division 2, 6/1S /72,3rd Place.' For some reason , it was such a milestone and a big deal to me. I still remember getting that trophy as clear as day. Back then you would get yo ur trophy the next week, and when I went to the race a nd it wa s ther e waitin g for me, I was thrilled ." Without really realizin g it, through his exp loits on tigh t and sinuous Southland night tracks, Mike Bell was bashing ou t the fundamentals that wo uld eventually make him a n Am eri can supercross cham pion . Amazin gly, due to fam ily logisti cs, Bell wou ld not compete in a sunlit da y rac e until he entered hi gh school. H owever, undaunted , he made ' the best of the situation and kept forgi ng ahead. "My dad was so busy wi th racing then that it was hard for him to take me to the weekend races. Eventu ally, some of my buddies I w ent to school with started to go to Saddlebac k and Carlsba d to race, and it was a t that point in time that I was really into racing. I read Ake Jon sson's book on mot ocross and was just so d edicat ed to ra cin g . I ran, and joined a gym in ord er to be a better m otocrosser, On e really coo l thing that happen ed a t th e time is tha t m y mom mad e a deal wi th me: When the TransA M A ca me to Ca li forni a, m y m om w ould take me and my bike out to the tracks where Cerrit Wolsink and Roger DeCost er were testing for Suzuki, and when they would race by, I would jump out on th e track with the m and 'trv to s tay with them for a few turns. It w as li ke a n ea rly vers io n of a m otocr oss school." Eventua lly, Bell pro gressed into the CMC local pro ra nks in Ca lifo rnia a nd became a mem ber of a fast and aggressi ve conti ngent tha t wo uld show up to thrash eac h ot her o n a weekly ba si s . Brut al and ag gressive, the "scene" was a crucible of motocross talen t. "I had a rid e with Long Beach Honda a nd I wa s going ou t and ra cing everywhere," says Bell. " It was so competitive in Southern Califo rnia th en as Marty Sm it h , Tommy Croft , Gary Denton , D a v e T a y lo r, Dav e Ca r lso n, Bruce Baron, Bruce McD ougal - th e list goes on - were all racing a ro u n d th e area. You would go to a race and there would be so much talent. Every week end that there was n ' t a N a tion al , all the to p N ational guys fro m Ca lifornia wou ld race at Saddleback. " W hen I w on th e CMC C ha m pi onship in 1974 - it was more of a pointsaccumulation seri es - I was totall y dedicated . I wa s racin g fou r to five times a week, and I jus t got better from having all tha t talent around me. Southern California was just a grea t place to race then." Seemingly con tent to cross swords with the local combatants, Bell was approached by the successful DG afterma rket shop team that had helped launch the race careers of Southern Califomia-based icons such as Bob Ha nnah, Broc Glover and Danny Turner. Clad in the familiar blue-and-yellow DG jersey a significant part of the folklore of 1970s U.S. mot ocross - Bell continued his trek across the So-Ca l. scene, as well as hi tting the road to ge t his first taste of the AMA profession al circuit. "In 1976, DG came in an d helped and offered m e an RM2S0 deal," Bell explains. "I d id n't do that great and it was a big transition deal for me . I did a believe th at anyone could have been good on th at b ike. Look a t th e results from that era : Hannah, Glov er, Staten , Burgett - the y all won on the Yamaha. They were su ch great bikes. In retrospect, so metim es it's better to be lucky than good in those situations." As the season moved into the la te su mmer months, Bell put pen to paper and si gned a fac tory con tract with Yamaha. He also - inadverten tly - ended up in the midd le of the infamo us Byza ntine "Let Brock (sic) Bye (sic)" affai r: In 1977, a t the las t 12Scc National of the year in San Antonio, Texas, Team Suzuki ride r Da nn y La Porte a nd Te am Yamaha's Broc Glover were locked in a titanic fight for the title. In the las t mo to of the yea r, Bob H a nnah - w ho was mathematica lly ou t of the point s - was lead ing Glover by 20 seco nds . Realizing th at if they co m ma n ded H annah to move over an d let G lo ver throu gh, Yama ha wo u ld win th e title. Th ey d id ju s t that. Hanna h 's m echani c, Kei th McCarty (n o w the team m ana ge r a t Yamaha), was ordered (a ll eged ly by team manager Ken Cla rk) to pu t th e , couple Tra ns-AMA races, like at Texas a nd Sears Point , but I didn't feel like I was going an ywhere. "At the end of 1976, w e swi tched to Yamaha YZs - it w as th e 'D' mod els and th at bik e cha nged m y li fe," Bell recalls. "I w on 74 races at Saddleback with it ! "In 1977, I was second behind Marty Smith in a qu alifier at Han gtown. I was riding rea lly well and I finished seve nth in the firs t mot o and wa s in the top five in the second mot o whe n the air cleaner filled up w ith sand. I go t noticed at that ve ry ra ce a nd im mediately rece ived mor e support from Yamaha." Then came the big break. At the 1977 SOOcc u.s . GP of Motocross, T ea m . Ya maha s howed up w it h a s pecia l rnotorcvcle for Bell to ride in the 250cc s u p port class. The afternoon wou ld become a d efin in g m om en t in Bell 's career. "A t the 1977 Carlsbad United States Grand Prix of Mot ocro ss," Bell rem em bers, "Yama ha gave me one of Bob Hannah's bikes. It wa s a semi-wo rks bike, in that it wa s a production bike with so me works parts. I wore the DG jersey and won both mot os in th e 2S0cc su p port race. After tha t race, it all went so quick. Yam aha bump ed me u p to th e n e xt level. I had a truck a nd mechan ic, a ll that stu ff, and it was an easy transition for me because the bike was so good. I infamous "Let Brock Bye" pi t-boa rd signal ou t. Hannah took the dive (because h e h ad to ), Gl over won th e title and LaPorte went home empty-handed. "In late 1977, I received a full ride and ro de th e remaind er of th e SOO cc Nationals an d the 250cc su ppo rt races at the Trans-AlvlA," sa ys Bell. "I won the Tra ns-AMA Series . That same yea r I rod e the last 12Sec Nati onal at San Ant onio, Texas, where Glo ver, LaPorte and Hann ah wer e involved in the 'Let Brock Bye' inciden t. It was my first and only 12Sec Iational, and I don 't kn ow if anyone is aware of this, but I finished fourth tha t d ay and Mark Barnett got fifth . We also go t lap ped . They (Hanna h, Glover a nd La Po r te) were going so fa st tha t d ay. It was such a dil emma for everyone involved . But the bo tto m lin e was that no one cou ld interfe re wi th those gu ys because th e v we re in a class of th eir o w n. All I k now is th at I w a s re all y stoked wi th m y per formance that after noon." After a career th at had consisted of local professional even ts and a ho st of "one-off" Trans-AMA , Grand Prix Su pp ort a n d AMA Na tion a l rides , Be ll hea ded into the 1978 campaign as a fulltim e Yama ha facto ry rid er. Things went well right -from the start. On June 18th , he wo n his first professional AMA race at the St. Peters , Missouri, SOOcc Nati onal. Then, on the very next weekend, Bell experienced the fines t and most satisfying moment of his entire racin g caree r. "Win nin g th e 1978 Super Bowl of Motocross at the Los Angeles Coliseum was th e highlight of m y ca reer," sa ys Bell adamantly. "I had gone to the first Super Bow l in 1972 wi th my dad and always loved the race. I didn't know I was le ad in g the 1978 race un til .t h e white flag. I was battling with Bob Ha nnah. When I crossed the line, I loo ked rig ht a t the seats I had sat in six years befo re wi th my dad - it was all so su rrea l. I go t hom e that night an d my mom and dad and sis ter and all m y friends were there, a nd I just fe lt gre a t. One thing that was very cool: The next.m oming I w oke up and th ou gh t th e whol e thing w as a dream - I d idn't believe it was tru e. How ever, my da d had set the trophy on the d resser by my bed , and I still cou ld n' t believe it. Being a So-Cal. guy and g rowi ng up wi th th e s po rt, w inning th at race was absolu tely th e highli ght of my career. "Another g reat sto ry -I r emember from the 1978 season was the U.S. GP, where I finished th ir d overa ll for Top Ameri ca n honors . I remember raci ng against· Roger DeCos ter - I had pictures on my wa ll of him when I was still sharing a room wi th my two brothers. In the second mot a, I was right in there and I came up on him, and my mechanic put out a signal that said, 'You can: Which meant pass DeCoster. So I passed him a n d pulled away. That was a g reat mo ment for me:' . Just a few weeks later at the Red Bud National in Mich igan, Bell s u ffered the first of what would be man y knee injuries . Unfortunately , th e problem w ould sabotage th e remaind er of the season and send Bell back to California to recuperate and ' get it all back together. Still , it was a st ro ng season for th e ro okie factory pil ot, and he had managed to find a nice niche in a team full of strong (and quirky) person alit ies. "We didn't have any problems, bu t there were certainly high levels of com petitiven ess on th e team," says Bell in rega rd to th e atmosphere surrounding the Tea m Yamaha box van s during that era. "Someone 's feeling were alway s h ur t, but i t wa s n othin g , a ny of us couldn't ge t over. Hannah was coo l - [ had put him on such a pedestal and had so much respect for him as an athle te. I wanted to be just like him an d I wasn 't afraid to work hard. Th rou gh that, Bob helped make me a better rac er . Pierre Karsrnakers helped me the most, as he kind of chaperoned me . He had all this racing wisdom, and by the tim e I came up, h e wa s in the swa n so ng of hi s career and was very help ful to me." Despite a rough start, 1979 us he red Bell into the realm of su perstar status. Beginn in g w it h th e 1979 AMA SOOcc Na tional Championship, w here he won four N ati on al s, Bell ex per ie nced a tumultuous roll er-coaster ride of a year, fra ugh t w ith emotional peaks and valleys. "1979 was a tough year, as I sta rted th e season 50 p oin ts behin d afte r the fi rs t fou r m oto s. " Bell re membe rs , "so me cras hes and DNFs '- especially at Southwick (Ma ss ac h uset ts), w he re I cras hed in the first turn and w ent from dead last to third , but, due to a flattened gas tank, ran out of gas . Then, in the second moto, I was lead ing by 20 seconds and got a flat tire . Those types of things can take the fight ou t of you and I end ed up pla yin g cat ch -up a ll year lon g. Danny (La Por te) was fa st an d knew how to win a championship, but we still ended up havin g a good ba ttle for the 11

• Cover