Bob Hannah vs. Kent Howerton - Dirt Rider Magazine

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There's a new DVD out, "Bob Hurricane Hannah's 1981 Massacre at Saddleback" that shows, explains, and critiques one of motocross' great battles, the two-moto throwdown between Bob Hannah and Kent Howerton. Suzuki's Howerton was the defending champion in this AMA Outdoor Series round two clash, Yamaha's Hannah was the former champ who had been off for a year with a horribly broken leg from a water ski accident. With Howerton's title won in Bob's absence, he had a point to prove that he deserved the number one plate. And Bob, well, he was Bob Hannah, and that dude did not like to lose.The DVD is mostly home movie footage from 1981 matched with Hannah's modern day commentary. Bob tells fun stories, doesn't pull punches, and does a great job of explaining to the viewer what was going through his mind during the confrontation.I had a great time watching the video, and decided it would be fun to call Bob Hannah to ask him about it.Pete Peterson: It's touched on in the video, but you and Howerton were pretty good friends before that Saddleback race, weren't you?Bob Hannah: I don't know what you call pretty good friends, but we weren't enemies. We did some riding together, I even went to his house one time and spent a couple days there and rode with him down there in his own territory.(But) things were certainly different after I was gone that year (1980). And rightfully so. He'd beat me prior to that, what, maybe three times in my career. And I'm gone a year, I'm sure he takes a lot of flak that he wins because I'm not there. And when I come back he's got to prove that that's not right. I don't put any blame on him there, you know?PP: The 1981 season was your return back from your bad broken leg, how were you physically on that day at Saddleback?BH: Physically, obviously fairly strong if I could ride with Howerton for forty five minutes. Not riding like I used to, but physically strong, yeah.But the bike was certainly a piece of %#@$. The biggest thing, I hate to blame it on the bike, but McCarty (Keith McCarty, Bob's mechanic at the time and now head of racing at Yamaha) can back me up on that, if I'd have been on that Suzuki there'd have been no race. I mean no doubt about it there would have been no race. I'm sure I was down some (on speed), but I was plenty strong to go the distance, but the bike was just a tub of $*@$. You cannot give someone thirty pounds. They took five pounds off between Hangtown (round one) and there, but I think we were still 25 over. Go put 30 pounds on somebody's bike and see what happens. It won't work.PP: Did the bike develop more through the '81 season, did you have a decent bike at all?BH: No, it was too late. And it was partially the riders' blame. We were in Japan when we rode 'em on a test track, and things seemed to be fine.Obviously we didn't weigh them. When they came over here and we weighed them we were astounded. When I was gone that year they just didn't do any development. They just sat back, they were winning before and they figured they'd be winning again, and then when they brought the bikes over here they were all heavy. Everyone was complaining. The whole team was screwed up, you know?PP: Back to the DVD, it mentions that the AMA came over and had a talk with you between motos (about the bar-banging and dirty riding back and forth).Were you willing to risk a penalty to finish the battle with Howerton?BH: I don't know that I ever thought of a penalty. They basically said 'you've got to knock that off,' and I told them, 'Don't talk to me about it, I didn't start it. You need to go talk to the guy that started it. You know me better than that. I don't start it, but I will finish it. You tell him to quit banging and I'll quit banging.'PP: How did your team respond to this aggressive riding?BH: They yelled at McCarty to yell at me, and he told them to go screw themselves, 'you want to talk to him, you go talk to him, there he is.' And I told them to go talk to Howerton. I'm not gonna take a brow beating when that son of a bitch starts it.PP: How much was it personal ego or pride, how much was it about points in the championship, and how much was it about getting into Howerton's head that you could beat him.BH: No points, just a particular race, and if Howerton would've never touched me that day, he would have won easily. The only reason I (battled for the win) was because I was extremely pissed. He would've whipped me easy. He had me. I was just having to put out 100%. I was riding over my head the whole day. If you watch that race close, both of us are about to go down quite a few times.PP: Were you and Howerton ever friends again during your racing careers?BH: I don't know that we ever said another the word until... Remember when Yamaha was putting on those Race of Champions in California at Glen Helen? I used to go out there and I'd do some commentating with Myers (Larry Myers).Howerton rode one year and I went over and said hi to him and that was the first time I'd ever said anything to him since the race, I think.PP: How about today?BH: No, we don't socialize.PP: Did you talk to him about anything for this video?BH: Oh no, no. And I really don't care what his opinion is on that day. It really doesn't matter, it's old footage that Terri (Bob' wife) wanted to put together and I'm telling my story. If he doesn't like my story he can tell his, and people can make what they want out of it. In my mind I'm fairy clear what happened. I don't T-bone people for laughs. You'll never find a guy who says I T-boned people intentionally for any reason. I'd banged a few people. I banged Roger DeCoster fairy hard, and he banged me fairly hard. But my classic line, and I don't even know that it's in the DVD, if I'm riding with you, Pete, and intentionally I come over there and I ram the $#%@ out of you like I did Howerton, are you not gonna come over and punch me in the face after the race? Are you not going to come over to me and go, 'what's your problem?' My point being, he damn well knew he deserved it, or he wouldn't have taken it. It's plain and simple. If you rammed me like that intentionally, we're gonna be in it.PP: How does Howerton rank in terms of guys you most wanted to beat during all your racing?BH: I never really thought much about it prior to that. After that, sure I wanted to beat him. Although the following year I had to ride a 125 for Yamaha so we didn't see each other. But in '83, I believe he was on Kawasaki and I was on Honda, and when I did come up and pass him I used to always yell at him, "Where the hell are you today? Here I am, what are you doing?You wanna race, I got a bike now." When I was on that Honda, forget it, he wasn't gonna be on the same lap. He caught me on the right day in '81, there's no doubt about that. And that happens. You break your leg, you're down, you're up, you're down, that's motocross. And being on the right bike at the right time is everything. Getting the right break at the right time, too. If Bob Hannah had not have had the right breaks in 1975 and '76 I would have not rode for Yamaha, I wouldn't have been national champion, maybe I never... Maybe it was a totally different ending. And Howerton, being on a Suzuki in '81, was a lucky damn thing for him. He was riding good in 1980. I wasn't there. He's got a fabulous bike, on the weight limit, no one's gonna beat him in '81. Suzuki was on the ball right then. And all the power to him. You gotta have some luck, you gotta have some lucky timing, you've gotta be in shape and not have a twisted knee. I mean, there's some guys right now, Villopoto, top of his game right now. Twist your knee, guess what, he's out. That's the way it goes. It could be worse. I'd say you walk out of this sport on your two legs, you shouldn't gripe. You win the races you do, that's racing. You get lucky some days, you get unlucky some days. I win Daytona in '83. In '84 some kid leans on the fence when I'm leading and catches my brake lever, throws me down, and I break my ankle and screw up my arm. Luck of the draw. I look back and think, 'why was I so close to that fence?' Well, I didn't know those kids were gonna lean on it. Things happen, and hindsight's everything. If hindsight's everything, though, on that day in '81, I'd still ram the $#%@ out of Howerton. The only thing I'd have changed is I'd have hit him harder the first time where I didn't have to hit him again.

Note: At this point I asked Bob some questions that were inspired by the forum members here at www.dirtrider.com.From Pojp58: If there was one thing you could have done differently in your career, what would it have been?BH: In the Honda years, when I finally went to Honda, we rode, basically, six days a week. We trained, rode bicycles, lifted weights, six days a week.Crazy schedule. Just so I could annihilate everybody. I would have backed down a little bit, and I would have backed the racing down, and I would have backed the jumping down. Because acting like Superman will bite you. And it did bite me. If you look a the points I had a near 100 point lead in both series, and I busted a bone in my wrist on a jump that I did not have to jump. And that was stupid. And I had a mechanic at the time, Brian Lunnis, who rather than telling me to mellow out, he would drive me even more than I was driven myself. He had in his mind to destroy everybody, too. He got his kicks out of that. And, you know, I would have backed it down. If I was going to advise James Stewart I would tell him that, and he wouldn't listen.And I did tell him that one time, through a guy. He was jumping all sorts of crazy crap in supercross one year and I said, 'why don't you give him some advice and tell him only jump what's necessary to win, and on some days, only what's necessary to get second. Because you'll have a lot longer career and win a lot more races.' Because you are not Superman. Villopoto or James Stewart. Nor McGrath. Because one day you'll get bit, and you could probably win a lot more race and have a lot longer career, but people will not listen to you when they're young and they think they're Superman. But I wasn't really young in '83, I was 27. The only thing is I had the blinders on, I could only see one thing. I quit everything in life. I had no life. I trained to win motorcycle races, that's it. Rode every day. Before the year, let's see, I had something like 79 days out of 90 on the bike before January 1. We rode every day except for travel or if something got screwed up. And that's all right, but I should have backed it down and not jumped stuff I didn't need to jump to win. I didn't need to be the innovator, I should have backed it down and we would have won, easy. And that depresses me that I wasn't that smart. I just didn't see everything. Somebody asked me, 'Aren't you going to get burned out?' I said, 'I'm long burned out. I do this out of pure will power. I'm burned out two years ago. It's my job, I do it.' When I'm out there (training) I think about those guys, I think about the days that I got beat by Howerton and I didn't have the bike. Well now I'm on a Honda. My philosophy on Honda was if you can't win on a Honda, go home, quit. I said, 'they gave me a fine bike, and I'm gonna make it win.'PP: Do you think that discrepancy between equipment still exists today?BH: Probably. I don't know, but I'm sure someone has the advantage sometimes. I'm sure, maybe especially in the smaller ones, the 250s, maybe Payton's bikes run quite a bit better and work quite a bit better than anyone else's. And if you're lucky, and you're at the top of your game, and you're on the best bike, you're a lucky dog, and you better take advantage of it. And then you'll have bad luck and twist your knee... And you know what, Villopoto ought to laugh, take some time off, and say 'I'll be back when it's fixed,' because it could be worse, you could have broke your neck. And if you walk out of this sport you oughta look back and go, 'you know what, I could have won three more championships, so what, big deal, so could Ricky Johnson. He could have won three or four more. David Bailey unfortunately probably could have won seven, but #$%@ happens, and if you're walking when you're leaving, and you won two races and you had a good time and you made some money, shut the hell up. Because some people never got the opportunity to do it. There were some guys coming into the sport when I signed with Yamaha that should have beat me to the contract, but they got hurt. I was lucky to make it in there. I consider myself very damn lucky.From DLHamblin: Going to supercross 2009, there was some battling and aggressive riding between James Stewart and Chad Reed. Was that racing too aggressive, or is there not enough of that today?BH: No, it wasn't too aggressive. If they leave those guys alone, it'll stay on the track. I don't think it's too aggressive.From Mxracer199: Did you ever get arm pump, and did you have a cure for it?BH: You know, here's a funny story. I never got arm pump in my life until we went to upside down forks. When we went to upside down forks, I got it, and you just have to ride more. And when I really got it was when I sort of quit riding, in '87, '88 and '89 when I was only riding about ten races a year.Well that was only racing about once a month. In those days my arms would give me some trouble. So I'd get someone to rub 'em really aggressively before the moto, and that would tend to help. I don't hang onto the bars tight, but those forks, they put everything, all that shock, back into your arms. They do not flex. And the guys that have never ridden anything else don't know that. On an outdoor, grand prix track in Europe, I'm still not convinced that a 50mm conventional fork would not be a better set up.Because they do have some flex. If you can get 'em to turn right, have some rigidity there, in the clamps, and have some flex forward and backwards, but have real rigidity in torsion, I think would be better. Now on the supercross, maybe not. Outdoors... If I was riding right now in my heyday I'd make 'em make me some conventional forks to try. When we went to upside downs, I know the conventionals would outwork 'em, I know that, but they wouldn't let me run 'em because they wanted to develop those upside downs.Nobody's every gonna change back, but I'm not a firm believer in 'em.From sanders: You ran lighting bolts on your helmet. Where did the idea for that come from?BH: It came from a shop in Illinois. Friends of mine owned a Suzuki shop and they had a lightning bolt in their logo. It was Midwest Action Cycle.PP: And you started running it for a sponsor and it caught on?BH: No, it wasn't a sponsor. They were my friends and I liked that lightning bolt and I ran it and it kinda just took off.If you want to hear more from Bob and see the race, check out www.hannahracingproducts.com or www.motocrossfiles.com to order the DVD.Both sites have a trailer so you can get an idea of what you're in for. And watch the website here and Dirt Rider magazine for more from Bob in the future. I hope you like reading about him, because it sure is fun to interview him.Artwort provided by Michael Petersen. For prints, a portion of which go to road2recovery during the month of July, check out www.michaelsactionart.com.