Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Long Live the King T he scene on June 3, 1995, was typ ical of t he many that had take n place in downtown Ensenada, Mexico , prior to the start of a SCORE Baja 500. Among the hustle and bustle and last-minute preparations, Team Gr een Kawasak i's D anny Hamel sat third in a line of 52 motorcycles, calm and collected as usual, but anxious to tackle the challenge that Baja presented . At only 23, Hamel had already established himself as the new king of off-roa d racing, having taken over the reins fro m his me ntor, five-time AMA Natio nal Hare & Ho und Cha mpion Dan Smith, w ho had take n Hame l under his w ing during t heir days racing on t he factory KTM team. Hamel rewa rded that assoc iation by picking up where Smith left off, winning his first AMA Nat ional Hare & Hound title in 1990. After making the switch to Kawasaki Team Gree n for the 1991 seaso n, he wo uld go on to ree l off four more consecutive titles to match Smith in the re cord books. That Hamel was so dom inant in the desert came as no sur prise to those who had watc hed him grow up, acco rding to Hamel's brot her, Dave , himself a former off-road racer w ho now serves as the preside nt of the World Off-Road Championship Series (WORC S). "We grew up riding mo torcycles , camping as a family main ly in So ut he rn California, and then we moved to Ne vada in '78 or '79," Dave says. "Then my dad went and a local desert race, mainly just to make sure that o ne of o ur friends' kids made it aro und t he co urse, and he en de d up winning the Vet Novice class. That's how we got started into racing w ith the Moto rcycle Racing Association of Nevada (MRAN)." Dave says that he can recall the time period when he rea lized his brother had the special gifts that w ou ld make him a sta ndout off-roa d racer. ':A.bout the time tha t Danny was 12 or 13 years old , he was really big for his age, and he was really too big fo r 80s anymore," Dave reca lls. "He had been the 80cc champ io n fo r a cou ple years, and the n he got o n the 125, and he was actua lly too big for it. He was blowing bikes up left and right, so then he got on a 250. By the time he was was 15 years old, he was overalling local races . People started to take notice. He made a few Nat ional appearances and started finishing second and third behind guys like Dan Smith and Larry Roesele r, and every body was like, 'Wow.' '' There was nothing to "wow " about as Danny Ham el left the starting line at the 1995 Baja 500 - just business as usual. As was his style, there w ere no big w hee lies o r wild powerslides to signal the start of his adventure , just a slow, st eady accelera tion. In just a few minutes he would be headed dow n Highway I, running at over 100 mph in to p gear, already ea ting into the gaps established by the tw o riders w ho had sta rted the race before him, Team Green •• n _ r-T ,.... ... r- n ......,. .... I"\ I'\ J _ ,.v,..~ teammate Paul Krause and Ho nda rider Jeff Capt. He was , no do ubt, alo ne in his element , wra pped in qu iet 30 YEARS AliO. •. October 29. 1974 concentration, a direct con- ~~~i~1 Atlanta cover, with showed up f, on the A Trans·AMA start from Road trast w ith the Danny Hamel that was so loved by the fans. "I wo uldn't say that Danny was quiet at all," Dave says. "He was really outspo ken , and he loved kids, and he enjoye d t he comraderie with off-ro ad racers. He was so personab le th at anybody co uld com e up and talk to him. He was a champ ion , but he was just one of the boys. Th ere were no secrets w ith him. If people wan te d to know how he did something with his bike, he wo uld te ll them . That was pro bably the bigger part of w hy he was such a cham pion and so well liked by the media and the fans." Afte r a carding a disappo inting DN F when a mec hanical breakdown had sidelined him just seve n miles from the start of the 1994 Baja 500, Hamel was looking to turn it all around in '95 as he crested a rise in the ro ad, not far fro m where his race had e nded the year before. In a case of cruel timing, a Mexican police officer in an unmarked automo bile had chos en that exact same moment to cross the race- course on the backside of the same rise . Hamel swerved left, the n right, then laid down his bike and struck the car. Heroic efforts by Ham el's own team to save his life were futile , and in the tragic afte rmath of the accide nt, the spo rt of off-ro ad racing lost its king. But even tho ugh it has been nearly 10 years since that fateful day in Mexico, the Danny Hamel legend lives on so vividly that the casual ou tsider might think that Hamel is still w ith us. His influence in the sport t hat he loved so much re mains as stro ng as he was , and that's pretty stro ng, according to Dave . "Danny was 6'2" , 220 pounds," Dave says. "He had t hat natural, farme r strength . He didn't train w ith weights or anything. He had tre men do us stre ngth and eyesight. He didn't excel at any other spo rt. He hated basketball, he hate d baseb all, all that stuff. He was born to ride motorcycles." That strength is re flected in the Hamel family, which continues to ho no r Danny Hamel's mem ory in several ways, most notab ly thro ugh the Team DH off-road racing team and t he WORCS series. Dave remembers how Team DH got start ed. ':A.fte r Danny passed away, people just sta rt ed sending us mo ney, and it was a large sum of money," Dave says. "Darryl Folks got togeth er w ith my dad [Roger Hame l], and they started the Danny Hamel Memorial Fund where they w ould select an up-and-co ming rider to support, where Pro Circu it and Kawasaki wo uld build a couple 1O<500s and the ride r co uld race them for the year. That evolved into w hat is now Team DH, which has six riders , all Mr:IAIC riding for Kawasaki. If anything good cam e o ut of [Dan ny's passing), that's probably it." And Dave says that the notion of be ing bitter over losing his brother was t he n and is now t he furt hest thing fro m the mind of him and the rest of the Hamel family. "When Danny passed away, that was racing," Dave says. "He knew and my pare nts knew the risks when he went to Mexico. It was just a freak accide nt. The re was not hing anybody co uld do abo ut it. Ther e are no negative fee lings toward the industry, and we have shown that. In return, the ind ust ry has always supported us. When we selected riders to be o n Team DH, a lot of Danny 's sponsors came through and su pported these kids. Whe n we start ed t he WORCS series, that was a lot of the same relationships that my family has had wit h the industry for many years . We were very fortu nate . O ne of the primary reasons we started this series is t hat we're try ing to achieve new levels in t he spo rt , to help new up-and-coming kids get facto ry rides and make a living doing w hat they love to do ." Just like Danny Hame l did. In on ly its fourt h year, WORCS has grown into a premier off-road series in the sport. It is one of a handfu l of off-road motorcycle racing series that actua llypays professio nal purses Jim West lead ing the way. Roger DeCoster aboard I~~!!~;~ his factory Suzuki Ii won the race ... We took ano the r loo k at Gary Bailey's book abo ut how to ride motocross. It was t he t hird part in a multipart series... There was a feature sto ry abou t riding the Barstow t o Vegas dese rt race. Today t he race is no longer in existe nce , but for years the Dese rt Vipers Moto rcycle Club fought to kee p it around... At a local District 36 enduro, Ray H inson almost accom plished the imposs ible: He nearly ze roed an enti re e nduro. He too k the overall win w ith a sco re of o nly o ne point. 20 YEARS AliO... October 31, 1984 O n the cover was t he brand-new 135ho rsepower Yamaha V-Max 1200. Inside we too k o ur first look at the full line of Yamaha street bikes. .....I!!iEl~!!!I We also took a clos• er loo k at the new Cagiva motorcycles... At ro und 14 of th e supe rcross series, Ro n Lechi e n got his fi rst victory in nearly a year. Coming across the line behind Lechien was David Bailey in second and Ricky Johnso n in th ird... There was an amate ur event he ld the day afte r a supercross race at the O range Show Fairgro unds, and there were definite ly future supers tars in atte ndance. Damon Huffman too k a w in in the 60cc (0-8) class, w hile Jimmy Button got a w in in the 80cc Intermediate (9- 1I) class. ID YEARS AliO... to its race rs. October 21i. 1994 Dave Ham el says that he still thinks abo ut his brot he r often , especially w hen inspec ting a WORCS co urse . He th inks abo ut how much Danny wou ld love to be racing this sectio n o r tack ling that ob stacle. "I th ink about him all the time , and I wish that he was still aro und, co mpet ing with these guys and giving them a run for their mo ney," Dave says. "It has all bee n said befo re , but I think t hat peop le rem ember Danny more as a pe rson than as a moto rcycle racer. He was really sincere , just one of the guys." W hether o n the course or off it, Danny Ham el tr uly w as t he best there ever was, and his spirit lives on in the sport . Peop le like Dave Hamel and e ntities such as the WO RCS se ries and Team DH are amp le proof of that. Scott Parker wo n his fi ft h AMA title at the Del Mar Mile. Since then, he has ret ired, but it was not until after he won four more titles... Luca Ca da lora won t he final ro und of the World Championship Road Race se ries in Catalunya, Spain. In the season po ints stand ings, Mick Doohan got the championship with nine wins, while Cadalora placed second wit h two... Ty Dav is won the seventh round of the Natio nal Hare Scrambles Series . While he won the race , it was n't e no ugh for t he t itle , as Rod ney Smith was crowned o n the same day... Mike Healey clinched two titles in the CMC{Trans-Cal ser ies. In the final round, he didn't win the race . It was wo n by Damo n Huffman. Anth .6nni\lCI"c.:arll Sco tt Ro usse a u ''!!!lIfi'!!!l!. lIIj "'

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