P132
CN
III FRIENDLY FIRE
BY STEVE BAUER
I
knew this was going to be a
more-fun-than-usual Monster
Energy Cup when I got a text
message on Tuesday from an
old friend that I banged bars with
for many years: "Hey Steve, you
going to Vegas? D Hansen."
My mind went back to the last
time Donnie and I hung out. We
were in NorCal shooting cameo
appearances for "American
Motocross Restoration," along
with Brad Lackey, Donnie Canta-
loupi, Rodney Smith and Chuck
Sun. I posted on Facebook an
innocuous picture of Donnie and
Chuck almost spooning during
a nap at AMR host Joe Abbate's
house, which quickly turned
into a "Who can take and post
the most humiliating picture of
the other guy sleeping" contest
between Donnie and me (which I
won, I think).
Although a small part of me
was saying, "Danger, Will Robin-
son, Do Not Respond!" the rest
of me was laughing and thinking
this should be good for grins—
and maybe even a column—so
the rest went something like this:
Bauer: Yeah, flying up on
Friday night, since I fly for free.
You in town?
Hansen: Murrieta. Let's take
my truck; I'll drive. Call me.
Bauer: Okay, my new place is
near Canyon Lake. I'm busy at
the moment, I'll call you when I'm
done and we'll figure it out.
Turns out Donnie and his won-
derful wife, Becky, have moved
back to SoCal from Colorado
for the winter, so Donnie can do
his www.dhma.com motocross
schools and they can spend
some time with their toddler
grandkids. It's a good thing they
aren't old enough for grandpa to
drive them to school, because
Donnie thought he lived in Mur-
rieta, until he mapped my ad-
dress and saw that he was only
about two blocks away from me.
I can see why he never raced
Paris-Dakar.
Donnie picked me up (an hour
early) in his Tundra, every square
inch of which is wrapped with
the words, Donnie "Holeshot"
Hansen Motocross Academy,
877-883-7260, Supercross
Champion, MXdN Champion,
AMA National MX Champion,
or some combination thereof.
I'm not going to lie, I prefer to
remember him as the skinny
Indian Dunes guy on the Kolbe
Can-Am that I battled hard with
at Mammoth, Saddleback and
Indian Dunes in 1978 and '79,
not as the factory Honda super-
star he later became. That said, I
HANGIN' WITH HANNY
Donnie Hansen hard at work at the Monster Energy Cup
