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/128328
Golden, No Matter What o r me r Team Yamaha factory motocross racer Brae Glover is perhaps remembered for all the wrong reasons , or actua lly one wrong reason. Except for a team tactic that was blown out of proportion by the media at the 1977 AMA 12Scc National MX finale , he probably wouldn't be. "I'm still living with it today, " Glover, now 44, admits. Back in 1977, Glover was just 16 years old when Yamaha added him to its team in the hope of insuring a second straight AMA 12Scc National Motocross Championship. With reigning champion Bob Hannah racing in supercross as well as the 2S0cc and SOOcc National Series, the tuning forks brand wanted to have all its bases well covered. Danny laPorte and his factory Suzuki were sure to be a clear threat in '77 , and laPorte proved it when he stru ck first blood with a I-I sweep of the se ries opener at Hangtown. Both Glover and Hannah suffered mechanical maladies connected to the U.S. team 's decision to ditch the water-cooled cylinders on its works OW27s and return to air-coo led cylinders . The team quickly worked the bugs out , tho ugh, and Hannah went on to win the next two 125 Nat ionals, at Sandy Oaks in Keithsburg, Illino is, and at Midland, Michigan. laPorte finished seco nd and fourth at those respective rounds, while Glover went third, then second to remain in the points chase . Glover then went I-I to earn his first career AMA 125cc National MX win at Rio Bravo, Texas, with laPorte finishing third overall and Hannah fourth overall . Hannah then rebounded to win the penultimate round in St. Joseph, Missouri, with Glover finishing second and laPorte fourth again to put both Yamaha teamsters with in 10 points of Suzuki's lone ranger heading into the series finale at Cyclerama in San Antonio, Texas. Yamaha made its intentions to win the title at all costs quite clear, electing to enter its entire factory team, including F 94 Pierre Karsmakers, Rick Burgett and Mike Bell in the 125cc race along with Hannah and Glover, the idea being that one or all might be helpful in padding the positions between either Hannah and laPorte, or Glover and laPorte, whatever the case turned out to be . Nowadays, urban legend suggests that Glover - and only he - was who Yamaha wanted to see win the title. "Not true," Glover says. "We had a team meeting the night before the race , and it was as simple as this: Kenny Clark said, 'Both of you guys [Hannah and Glover) have a chance to win the championship . We don't know what is going to happen yet, but it's pretty plain and simple. You just go out and do the best that you can in the first moto, and whatever cards we are dealt, we 'll play them." Glover earn ed first dibs on the title by rocketing to a 12-second lead in the first moto. While Hannah ate into that lead every lap, Glover crossed the line first. "Whe n the season started , I wasn't as fast as Bob, and by the time we got pretty far into the season, there were certain places where he was stronger and where I was stronger, but the fact of the matter is that I won that first rnoto,' Glove r said. And Glover 's moto win took Hannah out of the title chase, leaving only Glover and laPorte to slug it out for the championsh ip. If Glover won and laPorte was second, laPorte would still w in the title. In that fateful second moto, Hannah still figured prominently into the outcome. "Bo b did what he rarely did - he got a holeshot,' Glover remembers. "It would be like Mike LaRocco getting the holeshot today." Glover quickly made up for it, though, working his way into second place with just two laps in the books . Laporte was running third , and things were looking good for the Suzuki rider, but a Yamaha team decision would eliminate Suzuki's title hopes. When Hannah came around late in the rnoto, he was shown a pit board by his mechanic , Keith McCarty, with the now infamous wo rds , "Let Broc JUNE 16,2004 • CYCLE NEWS Bye." The often maverick Hannah elected to heed the instruction, and he pulled over. Glover went by and went on to win the rnoto, with Hannah second and LaPorte third. The end result of the tactic was that Hannah's move allowed Glover the five additional points of breathing room that he needed to tie laPorte in the series points standings , and the tie breaker of moto wins favored Glover, who became the 1977 AMA 125cc National Motocross Champion. That should have been that, but Glover was denigrated by certain members of the motorcycle media , who refused to let the whole "Let Broc Bye" incident die. In the business-like atmosphere of today's motocross world, such a move wouldn't even be questioned, but it became a heated controversy back then. "The funniest part about it is that I didn't even know it happened, and I didn't even know that I had won until my mechanic, Jim Felt, came up and ripped the number seven off my numberplate," Glover recalls. "It was I00 degrees out there that day, and we were lapping guys for the entire moto. I remember going by a bike and then delaying for a second and going, 'Did that bike have the number one on it?Was that Hannah ?' But I wasn't positive, and then I just put my head down and kept going. I didn't know what was going on . Then later I read all this stuff about Bob riding off into the woods and all this... Hey, whatever. If it had been me, I wouldn't even have questioned it. I would have just pulled over. " If that had been the only title Glover ever won, the controversy might be mo re understandable. "I feel like I backed it up afte r that," Glover said. "W hen I look back at what I did after that, I was competitive every year I raced ." Indeed , Glover went on to win the 125cc Nat ional MX Championship two more years in a row, and he also earned three 500cc MX National Championships before retiring at the end of the 1989 sea son. After taking some time away from the sport in the early '90s, he re connected with the industry. Currently, he holds the title of senior manager of off-road and supermoto with Dunlop , and when he is not spending time in his native San Diego with his wife, Molly, and children Jaycee and Dayne , Glover enjoys being at the races and in the company of good friends whom he grew up racing with , many, like him, holding key positions with race teams or aftermarket companies. "Maybe that's the biggest irony in this," Glover says. "From 1977 all the way to when I talked to him a week ago, Danny laPorte and I have remained friends through thick and thin. We both fully understand what happened back then." Scott Rousseau 40th A nnivers ary 3U YEARS A6U••• June te. 1974 Issue#23 focused on localracing allover the West. One of the featured races was weekly speedway racing in Ventura, California. Some of the riders on hand were Jim Ashworth, Don Cullum and Bill Gray... The Ascot Summer Series kickedoffin Gardena. California. with Rob Morrison takingthe win in the Expert mainevent... Brad Lackey won his first rnoto on the Grand Prix Circuit in Franghy, France.He ended up getting second overall behind his Huskyteammate Arne Kring... At a CMC motocross race in Carlsbad,California, Rex Staten ran away to take the win. Today Staten has retired from racing ~~-lIr;:.:o~J.J..:.""'1.:cII but still races on occasion. i?U YEARS A6U•• _ June 1984 eo. The Yamaha RZJ50 blasted 011 the line on the cover. We did a hop up specialon this bikew ith some succ ess ... In The Latest Poop section there is a paragraph about the U.S. government ordering 200,000 SOD-pound bomb cases from Har leyDavidson . Harley actual manufactured the shells at its York, Pennsylvania plant... BMW had some new bikes this year, and we took a closer look at them. The most popular was the BMW KI00. The introduction of the bike to the USA was moved up several months, due to unau- thorized importing... Dan Ashcraft and Dan Smith teamed up on a Husky to win round three off the SCORE Off-Road Championship Series in LucerneValley, California. 1U YEARS A6U•• • June IS. 1994 On th e co ver Jeremy McGrath performed hissignature nac-nac in San Jose, California. McGrathclinched the Camel Supercross title that night with a second-place fini sh... The Team Green Spring Nationals were held in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania. Ricky Carmichael was on 80cc bikes, and Kevin Windhamwas aboard a TeamGreen Kawasaki 125cc bike; each won his respective classthat day... Bryan Folksran away with the win at the Pioche GP in Pioche, Nevada. Folks still is racingdesert ; his dad, Casey Folks, isthe promoter of the popular Best in the Desert series... Dirt Bike Magazine test rider Mark Tilly won the 125cc beginner classat Starwest Supercross Park. Today Tilly is a top Professional offroad and motocross racer. He contests the WORCS series and select National Motocross races.