Don Jones and myself along with one of the very first YZ Yamaha's that Don built.

                                                         On the line

 November has been an extremely busy month this year. My wife Cindy and I flew out to Southern California to see Bob Hannah receive the "Edison Dye Lifetime Achievement Award" at the White Brothers Vet Nationals at Glen Helen on Sunday November the 4th.  The night before, we attended the world premiere for the movie "One Chance to Win", at the historical California Theater in San Bernardino. It was really great to see so many past motocross champions and old friends there, especially my old friend Kim Blackseth (whom I traveled the 1976 125 nationals with) and his family. I hadn't seen Kim in almost 25 years. Todd Huffman from MX-Files did a fantastic job with the already great film and hosted a great show. As a surprise, Bob Hannah emceed the intermission and had the place up for grabs with his humor. I think Bob could hold his own in any stand-up comedy venue. On display in the lobby was Bob's 1976 Championship #39 OW27 and his 1985 #25 works Honda RC250. The place was just full of celebreties, and many flew in from all over the country just to be there. The film "One Chance to Win" is a fantastic film documenting the 1975 500 Nationals and as a bonus Todd put together a nice film interviewing the major players that were behind the scenes at that historical series. The DVD that includes both the original film converted to HD and the interviews should be out by now. You can order it here at www.onechancetowin.com. This is a must have!

While the film was playing, photographer Fran Kuhn was backstage setting up for a photo-shoot of Bob and the #39 Yamaha. This would be a rare opportunity to get a shot of Bob the bike and his 1976 mechanic Bill Buchka. After the movie, we stayed late as Fran did his magic with the camera. The photos came out fantastic! I will post a few samples soon.

Sunday morning Cindy and I had breakfast with Jimmy Weinert and Brad Lackey and that was hilarious. Lots of funny old stories came out that morning. Then it was time to go to Glen Helen for Bob's award. Tom White did a fantastic job with the display of many of Bob's old photos that his wife Terri had prepared and the #39 Yamaha and the #25 Honda were there as part of the award ceremony. For the ceremony, Tom brought in many people that were a significant part of Bob's career. Guys like Bill Buchka, Keith McCarty, Dave Arnold and Bevo Forte shared some of their memories of Bob with the crowd. This event is really taking on status and Tom White should really be commended for his efforts in making this happen. It is first class all the way!

After the award ceremony, Bob and Terri Hannah, The Blackseths, Dave Arnold, Todd Huffman, Cindy and myself headed down to Chaparral to meet up with Marty Smith and his film crew that are preparing a DVD series that Marty will soon be releasing featuring many films of Marty's career that his dad shot back in the day. They filmed an interview of Dave who was Marty's mechanic from 1976 through 1979 and then they filmed about an hour and a half of Bob Hannah and Marty Smith side by side talking about their battles in the 70's. This was the first time that Marty and Bob had ever sat down together in a format like this and I can tell you, for me this was the highlight of the weekend. It was absolutely fantastic! The stories and comments that came out during that interview were priceless and I only hope that half of it makes it to Marty's DVD's. What a treat it was to be there. Check out Marty's website for availability. www.martysmithmotocross.com.

After the interview, Cindy and I went to Dave Arnold's house for dinner and while Cindy and Dave's wife Kim were chatting in the kitchen, Dave and I went through a lot of his records that he kept while he was Marty's mechanic and Honda team manager. All I can say is WOW!! That stuff was so cool, my mind is still reeling from that. Things like original blueprints for RC Honda frames and engines, test results on what did and did not work, 60 page manuals on tuning an infinitely tunable works carburetor. Amazing!

Monday, I got a chance to sit down an interview Bob Hannah for almost 3 hours. Half of it was done at the Hotel we were staying at with Kim Blackseth present and the other half was done at Tom Whites museum office with Bill Buchka, Dave Arnold, myself and Bob. The whole interview was recorded and focused on Bob's memories from the beginning of his career as a Suzuki test rider through the 1976 125 Nationals. A lot of info was drawn out of the Hurricane and many things that Bob hadn't remembered in years, will be told in this. It will be very good and it will be great to finally get this documented for the ages.

Monday night was spent at Tom White's museum and like Saturday night, there were a ton of celebrities there. The place was packed. In my opinion Tom has the best and most well rounded collection of production motocross bikes in the world and that display sure creates a great atmosphere for an event like this. Roger DeCoster was there and when Bob took the mike, he paid great homage to the man. It was a great evening and really capped off Bob's award.

On Tuesday Cindy and I went to Ron Lawson's house and from there we all went up to the high desert to visit one of my favorite people, Don Jones. Don Jones is probably the one guy that inspired me into collecting works bikes and ultimately preserving the history that these bikes bring. Don was at the forefront of early American motocross and had a very large part in developing the very first YZ works Yamaha's. It was great just to walk around and see all of the stuff he has and everything seemed to have a story. As usual the time flew by and we had to get back. It was one jam packed weekend but we did save a little time to go check out our old stomping grounds and revisit Newport and Laguna Beach.

It seems that there is a definite resurgence of nostalgia going on here and on top of all the things mentioned above, Bob Hannah will be releasing a DVD that documents the famous "Massacre at Saddleback" in 1981 between him and Kent Howerton. I have been helping out with it and have seen the footage. You will not want to miss this one. There will be some narrating on it from Bob himself too. Watch for it at www.bobhannah.com.

Terry Good    November 26,  2007