Bob Hannah's Third National Championship

BOB HANNAH'S THIRD NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Jim Gianatsis

Most motocross championships in America involving Team Yamaha’s nearly invincible Bob Hannah are foregone conclusions. Once the Hurricane enters a particular race series, barring mechanical breakdowns, it is only a matter of time before he walks off with the title. This year’s 250cc National Championship was no exception as Hannah cleaned house for the second year in a row, racking up in the process a total of 50 major wins since joining Team Yamaha in 1976. He now has seven championship titles to his credit, including three National, three Supercross series and one Trans-AMA series championship.

This year’s 250cc National Championship consisted of 10 race meetings across the country and kicked off just as expected. The traditional season opener at Hangtown, California, saw' Hannah making a clean sweep of both 45 min. motos then going on to do the same thing again the following weeks at Saddleback, Phoenix and Omaha. And w here was the rest of the competition?

All the other top National riders were racing in the 500cc National class where they felt they had a better chance at winning, while the few who had chosen to stay in the 250cc class and challenge Hannah were busy trying to make their bikes work right. These included the top four 250cc riders in the country besides Hannah, Team Honda’s Marty Tripes and Steve Wise, Team Suzuki’s Kent Howerton and Team Kawasaki’s Jimmy Weinert.

While Hannah had shown up at Hangtown with Yamaha’s new OW-40 works bike, the bike itself was nothing more than a refined and proven version of an all new model introduced the year before. The three other major Japanese factory teams, however, introduced completely new and redesigned bikes for Hangtown.

The most radical of these bikes was Weinert’s Uni-Trak Kawasaki. It had a monoshock rear suspension like the Yamahas, but where Yamaha positioned the shock in cantilever over the engine, Kawasaki located the shock behind the engine and inside the swing arm which lowered the bike’s center of gravity for improved handling. Of the three Japanese teams, though, Kawasaki’s Uni-Trak was fully developed when it hit the racetrack at Hangtown, but it took Weinert a couple of weeks to fully sort out the suspension.

Team Honda’s new RC works bike looked fairly conventional, but was a completely new design as well. The frame featured twin front downtubes (where Honda had always used single front downtube frames in the past) and revised geometry. The engine was an all-new longstroke 250cc motor w ith a broad and tractable powerband. It didn't have the peaky top-end power which the riders felt they needed for the fast American tracks so they soon had switched back to the production CR type short stroke engines they have been using for years. Steve Wise would stick with the twin front downtube bike with center port exhaust short-stroke engine which is expected to become the 1980 production bike. Marty Tripes opted to go back to the regular production CR single front downtube frame with the short-stroker engine. None of the riders at Honda, including those in the other classes, were particularly happy with their bikes at any time and usually complained openly. Most of the time it sounded like poor excuse considering how well Graham Noyce was doing with his works RC in the 500cc World Championship.

Kent Howerton started the series with a new RH-250-79 works Suzuki that featured a downsized and more compact engine along with slightlv revised frame geometry and slightly shorter suspension from the previous year. In the area of suspension travel all the factory teams have now settled on 300mm ( 12 in.) as the practical limit for a bike to handle well and still remain manageable.

Beginning with Hangtow n. Bob Hannah continued his winning streak right through four races to Southwick. There on the hilly sand track Kent Howerton figured he had a chance against the National Champion, pressuring him hard. In the first moto Howerton pulled off a good lead which Hannah tried to catch, hut couldn’t. It frustrated Hannah to the point he sideswiped a trackside post at one point and broke a finger. Bob kept on racing, pushing as hard as he could and lost control again a couple of laps later as his bike got out of shape coming off a jump and he crashed through a trackside fence. Kent had the moto won and returned in the second moto to battle with Bob again. They clashed in an exciting race lasting nearly the entire moto before the transmission on the usually reliable works Yamaha blew up. leaving Bob with a long walk back to the pits and Kent Howerton with the overall win.

Tough Competition From Howerton, Tripes and Weinert Make an Exciting 250cc Series

The following week in Atlanta. Howerton and Hannah renewed their battle and it was just as hot and heavy. Kent collected the first moto w in. but Bob. bv virtue of coming back to beat Kent in the second moto, collected the day's overall win. The Rhinestone Cowboy had proven in those two weeks though, that the Hurricane was not invincible.

With some of the other factory riders thus inspired, the next National a couple of weeks later at Sears Point saw Marty “Typhoon” Tripes and “Jamming” Jimmy Weinert joining Howerton and Hannah in what became the most exciting race of the series as the four of them battled nearly every foot of the way in the two motos. Coming out on top both races was the rider everyone least expected, Marty Tripes. It wasn’t that Marty wasn’t know n to be fast, just that he had not been bothering to show it so far this season. Hannah pulled off second overall ahead of Howerton and Weinert.

Denver came next. There rookie KTM rider “Boo” Stichter put on a good show’ for hometow n fans as he lead the opening laps of both motos before dropping back. Then Tripes took control of the races, holding a strong lead over Hannah. But then Marty pulled one of his surprise moves which hadn’t been seen since last season. He slowed dow n dramatically to let Hannah, Weinert and Howerton catch and pass him. No explanation was ever given as to why he had handed over the win to Hannah that day other than his usual vague references to how his Honda wasn’t competitive with the other factory bikes and Marty didn't want to over extend himself by taking chances.

What had happened at Denver stirred up a lot of controversial hot water in the Honda camp. Why was the bike which Tripes had won on at Sears Point suddenly no good at Denver? Marty knew his job was on the line then and there, as well as the chance to ride for any other factory team sometime in the future. The following week was Buchanan, Michigan, and there Typhoon Tripes demonstrated his superiority over Hannah and the other riders. He won both motos in a runaway performance. In the first moto, alone, Marty had built up a huge 30 sec. lead over Hannah in the opening laps at an incredible pace of 5 sec. per lap.

Kent Howerton pulled a miserable start in the middle of the pack in the second moto and was charging his way up towards the front as fast as possible in an all out attempt to catch Hannah. The two were only separated by a few points for the lead in the Championship and with only one race remaining after Buchanan, Kent could not afford to play things safely if he wanted to catch Bob. Unfortunately, coming off a downhill jump at full throttle where all the other riders had almost been coasting, Kent jumped so far over the normal landing point he came down in a mud bog which instantly grabbed his bike and sent Kent flipping over the bars. He was too bruised and battered to finish the moto which, in effect, gave Hannah a large enough points margin that his appearance at the final race in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, would almost assure him the 250cc National Championship.

After having run away with the race at Buchanan. Marty Tripes figured he didn't have to ride hard again for the rest of the summer. He had proved himself, though no point in particular regarding the factory modified Honda CR production bike and how “uncompetitive” it was. There were two riders w ho did have a point to prove at the final race and they were Hannah and Howerton. Hannah, because he wanted a decisive and clear cut w in to finish taking the championship . . . something he hadn't had in weeks. And Howerton, who wanted to prove he was w orthy of w hat had evaded him for so many years.

Things looked bleak for Kent though, as the opening moto at Mt. Morris kicked off with Hannah nailing the hole shot and running off w ith the lead. Kent had gotten away somewhere in eighth position and worked his way up to second with Marty Tripes pushing him the entire way and almost managing to pass at the finish line. Kent held on to his second place and backed it up in the final moto with a holeshot of his own to snare the lead. Hannah was right behind and w ithin a few laps Bob had closed right up on Kent's rear fender. For the next 30 min. they ran like a freight train, the Suzuki playing engine to the Yamaha caboose. The two riders were so evenly matched in horsepower and riding skill, choosing the same lines and braking points around the track, that Bob could never even manage to get a front knobby beside Kent in one turn. Finally, with just two laps to go. Bob Hannah shook his head in defeat at his mechanic as they charged their way through the signaling area and Bob backed the ÜW-40 off the gas. Howerton reeled the Suzuki out ahead to take the moto win by a good IO sec. The overall win went to Kent as well. The Rhinestone Cowboy had proven his point.

It was a shame this year’s 250cc National Championship had gotten off to such a slow start for everyone but Hannah. For once the other riders had sorted out their bikes and picked up steam, the series had certainly proven to be exciting.