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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128644
gear. After c ircling th e track at c ra wling s peeds , o ur
team's mutual decision wa s to ca ll us in and change
motors in preparation for the second moto . Rather than
doing an y e xten s ive ex plorat ion on a new motor , the
e ngine s were s wa pped out and the final to uc he s wer e
wrapped up ju st in tim e fo r th e fa lling of the s ec ond
moto's gate . Unbeknownst to us , the second race would
be deja vu. Midway th rough the race , I ex perienced the
same problem and later found out that Bob was as well.
Fool me once, sh ame on you. Fool me twice , shame on
me. Only this time, I ma de what proved to be a champion ship-winning decision , right the n and there . The first
time the exchanged motor reacted the same as the first
mote's engine , I never tou ched the shifter for the rema inder of the race. Stuc k in what I remem ber as th ird or
fourth gear, I feathered the bike a round the en tire mot o to
place third, behind [Danny] laPorte [of Suzuki] and [Pat]
Richter [a Motoc ros s Fox-backed private er]."
Unfortunately for Ha nna h, he had aga in downshift ed
all th e wa y to first gear, a nd gotten his second DNF .
laPorte had gott en the overal l.
The infamous ly tre acherous Sand Oa kes circuit in Keithsburg , Illinois, hosted the next round . Hanna h, noted for
his sa nd-ri ding prowess , posted a do uble-moto swee p ,
while Glover raced hard to third overall.
"Keithsburg wa s the roug he st track I ha d ever seen.
There were sa nd whoops on it, which were four-feet deep.
Bob won both mo tos while I rebou nde d from a poor first
moto to finish 8 -2 for th ird overall beh ind Hannah a nd
laPorte ."
Th e next ra ce was in Mid la nd , Michigan , for rou nd
th ree of the six -round s eries . Bac k on fam iliar ground,
Glover pla ced seco nd behind Han na h. laPort e , carding
4-3 scores , lost some grou nd on the Yamaha du o, winding up fourth overall. The I 25cc tou r arr ived in Houston,
Texas, a nd it was there that Glover truly showe d just how
talented he was by winning both motos. Meanwhile, both
La Porte (who we nt 4 -4 for th ird overall) a nd Hannah
(who wen t 5 -5 for fourth) struggled , a nd the I 25 cc points
cha se began to heat up conside rably.
At the penul timate round at St. J oseph, Missouri, Han na h won. Glover wa s second , a nd La Port e was fourth .
Now it was on to San Anto nio and the conclus ion of what
had sha ken down to a th ree -man street fight.
And tha t's when things really got interesting.
Now, nearly re covering from the ir o pe n ing - ro u nd
points deficit, Glover and Han nah went into the season
finale 10 and 17 points adrift of laPorte , respectively.
Back in the mid-to-Iate 1970s, the I 25 cc market in the
United States was huge . Both Yamaha and Suzuki knew
that nothing se lls mot ocros s bikes better tha n a flim s y
sq uare of polyuretha ne with a num ber one on it. Both ma nufact urer's wa nted it badly. Badly enough to do whatever it
took to stack the deck in their favor. Cognizant of Glover's
IO-point deficit, Yamaha se nt every factory rider available
to Texas. Ride rs were eligible to ride more than one class in
1977 , thus big bike riders Pierre Karsmakers, Mike Bell and
Rick Burgett were lined up to ride as tail gunners for Hannah and Glover. Not to be left out, American Suzuki "bo rrowed " th e n two-time 125cc Wo rld Cham pio n Ga ston
Rahier's exotic works Suzuki for the occasion. Rea lizing the
rac e had the m ak ings of a tinder box, AMA motocr os s
manager Mike Diprete ca lled a riders ' meeting and remind ed the com petitors that, "unfa ir riding and blocking would
result in a possible su spension from AMA events, including
the 500cc Nationals." Fa ctoring all of this together, Team
Yamaha race boss Ken Clark called a meeting that night in
the tea m' s hotel.
"Bob and I had dominated the entire series. After suffering the DNFs at Hangtown, Bob had two and me on e ,
Danny LaPorte didn't win a single ra c e . Bob was the
fastest guy during the middle of the series , but as the
series matured, so did my ra cing . So we get to San Anto nio, and the night before the race, we have a team meeting in a hotel room. The entire team was in the room.
Nobody was as ke d to pla y rollerball o r do anything
unsportsmanlike. They were just there in the event that if
anything had happened to Dann y or his bike , the y could
m yself, 'Pus h. Don 't let up.' When the two -Iaps-to -go
board ca me out, I wa s still five to 10 seconds behind
him. Not at a ny tim e during the race did I know what
was going to happen. "
Th en out came the fa mous pit board . With LaPorte
20 secon ds beh ind Glov er, and Hannah in th e lead ,
Yamah a tea m manager Ken Cla rk was ba cked into a
corne r. Clark was forced to ta ke m atters into his own
hands. Hannah's mechan ic Keith McC arty was pulled
as ide and as ked to si g nal h is rid er t o let Glo ver
th rough . And with th a t , t hree of the most famous
words in mot ocross were written onto a pit board with
a piece of cha lk. Fla shing by the s ignaling area Han nah re ad the wor ds : "Let Broc k Bye " [sic]. Hannah ,
and Glov er for that matter, ha d no c hoice in th e a ffair.
"I went into the final lap un a war e of what wa s going
on . We wer e runn ing 40 -mi nute-plus -two-lap m otos
then and, in a race like th at , you could pass upwards
of 50 gu ys. In fac t you m igh t lap a number of guys
twice. Th er e was so much attrition in th os e mot os that
you jus t ke pt on passing pe ople . During the la st lap at
S a n Anton io , I passed a ride r a nd I thought to m yself,
' Hey , that bike ha d a nu m be r o ne on it.' I kin d of
quickly look ed ov er m y shou lde r a nd thought, 'That
was Bob !' I fina lly m ade it ac ross the finish . line a nd
nothin g reall y made se ns e to me. When I rolle d to a
stop , m y mech anic, J im Felt , was rea lly excited a nd
ran up a nd h ug ge d me. He was tota lly s toked a nd
said, 'We wo n the c ha m pions hip!' I was so exha usted.
After all, this was San Anto nio in Aug ust. It was more
tha n 100 degre es o ut. a nd I was s pe nt. Wee ks later, I
heard th e sto ry that, after the race , Bob ha d ha stily
ridden off into the woo ds be ca use he was so upset."
By the tim e Broc Glover had m ade it ba ck to the
Yama ha team pits, a scandal was brewing . In the eyes
of a few , it was believed that the team had cons pired
to fix th e outcome of the seri es . Yamaha pr agmat ica lly p leade d th e ir case. Politi c s and team o rde rs are
noth ing new in motor racing .
"What wa s Yama ha s upposed to do? Not win the
c ha m p ionship? During th at e ra , Yama ha was selli ng
mor e YZ125 s th a n the entire c urre nt YZ m odel line
com b ined . Th ey were selling ove r 10,000 YZI25s a
yea r then and the championship meant a lot to their
s a les . After all, promoting sa les is the re ason manufac turers race. I guess how th e team we nt about doing
it was the prob lem. Keith [McCa rty] wrote that famou s
p it bo a rd an d all it did was tarn ish the cha mp ionship.
Wha t shou ld have been the happiest mo ment in my
life turned into a b itte r dis a p pointm en t. I was a 17 ·
year-old kid a nd , instead of the swe et taste of champagne, wha t I got was more like stale beer. O ne of the
day's happiest moments occurred at a dinner with m y
immediate famil y and Rick J ohns on. Rick was all of
14 an d had driven from San Diego with m y father a nd
m e . Dur ing the even ing , we went to the top of Sa n
Anto nio 's Towe r of Am eric a for some foo d a nd a priva te celebr ation . Things were pretty loose in Te xas
ba ck then , and as long as an ad ult was buying , a kid
could have a coc kta il. Rick and I got a little wobbly
that night. With all o f th e ba c klash about to come
m y wa y from a s e lec t few in the media , it was my
one short-l ived moment of c e lebrati on ."
Howeve r, it wo u ld all come o ut good for Glover
in the end. One ye a r later he wo u ld win th e AMA
125cc Nati onal Championsh ip by a whopping 110
p o ints . He wo u ld e ve n t u a lly a ma s s three 125cc
titles and th re e 500c c titles.
Look ing b ack , Glover probably can't he lp but
c huc k le to th ink that, had it not been for 01 ' m ischi evous Jack and his Ma ytag d rye r, Broc and his
father might not have gotten back to gether and that
he would not hav e gon e on to win six National
Champ ion sh ips. Not o n ly that, but there m ight
never have been a "Let Brock Bye."
CN
squeeze a few mo re points awa y from him. It was just
co m mo n se nse to have them the re."
Teammate cooperation had been a nd wou ld continue
to be a part of profes sion al raci ng for yea rs.
"In the meeti ng , our tea m mana ger sai d, 'Bob and
Broc can both win this c hampions hip . We c a n't fairly
work for one and not the other. Tomorrow. after the first
moto , we will see how it plays out. Whoe ver does best will
rec eive the te am 's full support. Either Bob will ride for
Broc or Broc will ride for Bob .' Going into San Antonio, I
was 10 po ints beh ind laPorte, and Bob was seve n more
beh ind me."
S un day mo rni ng , Sa n Anto nio d a wn ed hot and
mu gg y. Realizing ther e was noth ing left to lose , Glover
lined up behind the sta rting gate and waited. When metal
met dirt, Glover leaped out of the ho le. By the time the
pack made it a round the start/finish line to begin lap two ,
Glover had a 12-second lead. Soon , lea ding by 25 sec onds , Glover paced himself to a brillia nt mo to victory,
setting up a dra ma tic fina l-moto showdown.
II:
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