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a bombshell. He told him the frame was his, absolutely free of charge—sort of! "Take it to the Houston," Kas- ten said. "Win the race and it's yours!" Houston, of course, meant the Houston Astrodome TT. It was the first National of the year, the race that every major motor- cycle magazine covered, the highest-paying dirt track race of the year, the race that every team and every rider wanted to win. And all Mike Haney had to do now was be the one rider who actually would win! Likely already thinking about how he might have to come up with $410 for Kasten's frame, he loaded up his new Redline- framed Triumph and headed to Houston in February. He had plugged in his own very compet - itive engine. "I always built my own motors, and this one was very tractable. It wouldn't have been good on the miles, but it would work well that night." "Houston was one of the most difficult races on the cir- cuit," says Tom Horton, an AMA dirt track racer from 1971-77. "It was rebuilt every year, of course, so the dirt was always different. It was a difficult night of racing, and sometimes even the biggest names would struggle to even qualify for the main event." The rest of the field got a glimpse of Haney's skills when he pulled off a win in his heat race. He got a good start in the 20-lap main, right behind a young Yamaha rider named Kenny Roberts. Haney, who was 10 years Roberts' senior, stayed close in the early going. A second-place finish to a future National and World Champion would've been a strong show- ing. But on lap five, Roberts clipped a hay bale and was down on the ground. Haney motored past and into the lead. Kenny was quick to remount and rejoin the race, but Haney slid, jumped, and roosted his way to victory in the most presti - gious dirt track race of the year. "I was never nervous," Haney remembers. "Not once. I just made sure I rode smoothly and didn't do anything stupid. I re- member there was a huge hole that was forming in one of the corners. Every rider would hit that hole, wobble, and bounce and nearly crash. I just went around it!" Haney collected $3500 for his win that night, which included a $600 bonus from Triumph. After he returned to California, he began dreaming about the next step in his career and even used some of the funds to purchase a Triumph road racer. Mike Haney was going to Daytona. It was a bike he would never race. A few weeks after Houston, Ascot Park put on a 100-lap TT. Haney was there, along with most of the other top racers. He was running well when "I missed a shift, and the bike popped into neutral." Haney and his Triumph crashed hard into the wall, and his left leg snapped in two places. "Back then, you just couldn't get the kind of care that you can today," Haney says. "They reset it, but it broke again. They put rods in it, took the rods out, and it just kept breaking. "They would take the cast off, and my leg would look like my arm, just skinny and hanging there. Eventually, I found a doc - tor who fixed it correctly. It took five years, and by that time, it was a full inch and a half shorter than my other leg." Haney returned to the life that he knew, working on Triumphs. He and a partner purchased the dealership and kept it going until 1990. Today, he lives in the desert and is still working on Tri - umphs, restoring old machines for those with a fondness for the old British bikes. In April, Haney will be honored with an induction into the Trail - blazers Hall of Fame. "He's one of the most humble men I've ever known," says Tom Horton, former racer and Trailblazers' Board Member. "We call him 'Modest Mike.' But he deserves his place in the Hall. He's earned it." "I just look around at my world and laugh sometimes," Haney says. "I live right next to my shop and get to work on motorcycles all day. And I still ride. I'm 80 years old, and I have everything I ever wanted in my life." CN CNIIARCHIVES P108 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives