CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
I
t was one of the biggest upset wins in
the early years of Supercross. A young
and relatively unknown Mike Bell seem-
ingly came out of nowhere to win in a
thriller over the hottest rider in all of
motocross, Bob Hannah, in that year's
Superbowl of Motocross in the Los An-
geles Coliseum.
Coming into the late June, 1978
Coca-Cola Superbowl of Motocross
VII, Hannah was at his very peak.
He'd won six straight AMA Super-
cross races and had that title just
about wrapped up. He also had, by
that point of the season, the 250cc
outdoor Nationals well in hand.
Hannah was considered just about
unbeatable and only Marty Tripes
was making Hannah look human
in Supercross that season. Tripes
had won the inaugural Supercross
event held in the LA Coliseum in
1972, so he had a history at the
race. So if anything, the '78 Su-
perbowl was expected to be a
Hannah vs. Tripes battle.
No one expected Bell to be
a factor in what was then the
biggest, most important event
on the Supercross/Motocross
calendar. A latecomer on the
National level, Bell only began racing
Nationals about a year earlier. The very fact that he
was racing an event such as the Superbowl was
almost an accident.
The son of legendary tuner Bill Bell, Mike was
making a tidy living racing on the Southern Cali-
fornia motocross circuit, regularly winning $500
per weekend, not bad wages at all for a teenager
in the mid-1970s. You might say Bell was comfort-
able. He could race locally, make a
good living and sleep in his own bed every night.
Hitting the road to try the National circuit not only
would be a rougher way of life, he would have
had to take a major pay cut while paying his dues.
But then he beat Jimmy Weinert in a local event
at Saddleback Park. That made team owners sit
P112
BELL'S BIG SURPRISE
