BACK
First moto at Hangtown: #352 Danny LaPorte, #5 Billy Grossi, #17 Bruce McDougal, #20
Warren Reid, #11 Danny Turner, #1 Marty Smith, #14 Steve Wise,
#39 Bob Hannah.
As told by Dave
Arnold and Bill Buchka
Photo:Photo:
Mike Stusiak FTE
Introduction (part
1)
There has never been a professional
motocross series that was so filled with drama and excitement as
the 1976 AMA 125 Nationals. It is best known for the fantastic battle between
Marty Smith and Bob Hannah. It has been the topic of many bench
races but hardly anything has been written about it. It
was the year of the assault on Honda’s dominance in the 125
class. A virtual unknown rider, Bob Hannah, came out of nowhere
and provided the biggest upset in AMA motocross history. It was
also the year that the claiming rule went haywire. Almost
everyone knows that Mickey Boone tried to claim Bob Hannah’s
works Yamaha, but hardly anyone knows that another privateer
also tried to claim one of Marty Smith’s works Honda’s. Another
little known fact is that at mid-season Honda came out with a
brand new, designed from the ground up, works bike that had
Yamaha actually thinking they might lose their grip on the championship. This
caused Yamaha to make a very bold move and risk losing their
super exotic OW27. The drama that went on behind the scenes was
as dramatic as the classic battles that went on at the track.
There were so many twists and turns that took place that year
that you really never knew what to expect from one week till the
next. The complete story of the biggest upset in AMA motocross
history has never been told, until now.
Photos: Mike
Stusiak FTE
MXworksbike.com caught up with two old
friends, Dave Arnold and Bill Buchka who were at center stage
for the entire series. Dave Arnold was
Marty Smith’s mechanic and Bill Buchka was tuning for Bob
Hannah. It was these two that had the closest view as to what actually
happened as the drama unfolded. In this
exclusive interview, both Dave and Bill were kind enough to
share with us all the
details of the events that happened in this historical series.
While Smith and Hannah were battling it out on the track,
turmoil was going on back at headquarters. With the threat of
the works bikes being claimed on a weekly basis, the factories
were now faced with major decisions. Do you run the works bikes
and risk having them claimed, or do you run modified stock bikes
and hope that you do well enough on those? Everybody soon found
out that it was next to impossible to beat a top rider on a
works bike with a modified production bike. The difference in
the bikes, was that big. Within the factory circles, it was a
real pressure cooker behind the scenes. Rumors ran wild among
the privateers and speculation as to who was going to claim what
bike became common fodder. One of the privateer's fathers was
even going around to the journalists, telling them that he was
going to claim a bike the next week, no matter what. It was like
that nearly the entire season. Ironically, Dave and
Bill were both involved in another nail biting series the prior
year, the infamous battle of New Orleans, where the 1975 500
National Championship was decided in the final moto.
Reigning 125 National Champ Marty
Smith had won the last six 125 nationals in 1975 which gave him
his second consecutive 125 title. Marty had also won the 125 USGP twice in a row, beating the Europeans, who at the time were
considered the best in the world. For 1974 and 1975 Marty rode
for the Honda factory team on the incredible RC125 works bike.
Without a doubt Marty Smith was the best 125 motocross rider in
the world. He was a national hero and had a fan base that
stretched across the United States. This success led Honda to
sell every single CR125 production bike that they could make.
Starting lines across the country were literally filled with
CR125 Elsinore’s. Honda owned the 125 class. For 1976 Honda
decided to expand their horizons even further by going for the
125 National Championship in the US and the 125 World
Championship in Europe. They were going to fly Marty back and
forth in an attempt to win both titles.
What
spawned out of the Honda Elsinore phenomena was another
flourishing business, the 125 aftermarket speed shops. Most of
these shops were located in Southern California and most of them
specialized in making the already fast Honda CR125 even faster.
1976 was undoubtedly the pinnacle year of the 125 speed shops.
Millions of mid-seventies dollars were spent hopping up the125
Elsinore. There was FMF, DG, T&M Engineering, CH Industries and
a few other smaller shops. For 1976 each of these aftermarket
firms fielded full-blown teams to contest the 125 nationals. The
mail order business was booming and success across the country
on the national circuit meant more sales. They hired the best
125 talent that they could find, many of whom were former
factory riders. They then put them on the fastest bikes that
they could produce and hauled them around the country in
transporters that were equal to what the factories were using.
This was the only year that saw an effort of this magnitude by
so many aftermarket companies.
Bruce
McDougal and Warren Reid wait for the start at Hangtown Photo: Mike Stusiak FTE
Yamaha and Suzuki, having had enough of
Honda’s success, wanted their share of the market that Honda had
owned for the past two years. They each had their own plan on
how to knock Honda off of its pedestal. The works racing teams
would now put a serious effort into the 125 class. Each team had
brand new state of the art works bikes. Suzuki had the RA125
that had been developed in Europe over the last season by World
Champion Gaston Rahier. Yamaha was to debut the water-cooled
OW27 monoshock. This bike was so innovative that it even had a
thermostat in the shock that would adjust the damping as the oil
viscosity deteriorated. The shock alone for the OW27 was
$5000.00. Compare that to a brand new YZ125 that cost less than
a $1000.00. Kawasaki even had a new reed valve works bike that
finally broke away from their conventional rotary valve model.
All the Japanese works bikes were right at the minimum weight
limit of 176lbs. nobody was sparing any expense.
Suzuki hired seasoned veteran Billy Grossi
and CMC 125 specialist Danny LaPorte. They would later add
Southern California hot shoe Jeff Jennings to the team. Yamaha
on the other hand, hired the top privateer from the 1975
Nationals Danny Turner and a virtually unknown rider outside of
Southern California, Bob Hannah. Bob Hannah had quietly been
making a name for himself decimating the local CMC scene riding
the pre-production versions of the soon to be released Suzuki RM
series. Prior to that Bob had been riding for DG on a Yamaha
YZ125C. For some reason Bob wasn't taken that serious even in
Southern California, where he was winning a lot. I never
understood this. Every time I saw him he was flat hauling. He
had some come from behind rides that were unbelievable, yet the
locals at the time just wrote him off as a flash in the pan. It
seemed like I was arguing every week with someone about that. I
really thought he was for real. Kawasaki hired Steve Wise to
ride their new works SR125.
Photos: Mike
Stusiak FTE
As for the other manufacturers, Can-am had
veteran Jimmy Ellis on a works bike that at mid season became
water-cooled. Husqvarna was well represented by Swedish star
Nils Arne Nilsson. Nils won the 1973 125 USGP in St. Louis and
Jimmy Ellis won the Superbowl of Motocross at the LA Coliseum in
1975 against the worlds best, including Roger DeCoster.
With the new involvement from the
factories and the speed shop participation, the competition was
at an all time high in depth. It was not uncommon to see someone
like Warren Reid or Bruce McDougal, who were absolute jets,
battling for 15th place. Almost nobody rode the 1975
series so nobody was ranked. This meant virtually everybody had
to qualify. The qualifiers were insanity. Nobody shut the gas
off anywhere at any time. It was WFO all the way. Never before,
or since has the competition been this deep. I rode as a
privateer and for me it was a major accomplishment just to
qualify. I remember my first qualifier at Midland Michigan. I
was running seventh and at the end of a very long and bumpy
straight, I let off the gas just a fraction of a second too soon
and was passed by what seemed like six riders at once. I never
did that again. The speeds that Smith, Hannah, Grossi, LaPorte
and the other factory riders were maintaining for forty-five
minutes were incredible.
Team DG
Team DG
Marty Smith at Midland Michigan with a Modified Elsinore
Dave Arnold archive
Here is a list of some of the riders and
the teams they rode for. These are just some of the names you
had to beat just to get into the top twenty.
Marty
Smith Honda
Don Kudalski
Honda
Warren
Reid Honda FMF
Mickey
Kessler Kawasaki
Steve
Wise Kawasaki / Honda
Billy Grossi Suzuki
Danny LaPorte
Suzuki
Jeff
Jennings Suzuki
Bob
Hannah Yamaha
Danny
Turner Yamaha
Ron
Turner Honda T&M
Bruce
McDougal Honda T&M
Jimmy
Ellis Can-am
Nils Arne
Nilsson Husqvarna
Arlo Englund
Husqvarna
Mickey
Boone Suzuki
Brad Dutoit
Honda
Broc
Glover Honda DG
Mark Tyer Yamaha DG
John Savitski
Honda
Below is a copy of an
article that ran in Cycle News the same week as the 1976 125
Hangtown coverage. Obviously it was written before the season
started but it shows just how serious Yamaha and Suzuki were. Click
on the pages to enlarge for reading.

Part II will
be the complete interview with Dave Arnold and Bill Buchka on
the amazing battle between Marty Smith and Bob Hannah that took
place during this incredible series. You will hear some
unbelievable behind
the scenes stories that have never been told before. It promises
to be a fantastic read. Also included in part two will be photos
from Dave and Bill’s personal archive as well as a host of other
photos from other named sources.
Part
2 |