Hannah vs the Dogger

Any idea where the picture was taken?  Bob had a lot of respect for Ron Lechien's riding ability. I spent a week or so at Bob Hannah's house back in the mid 80's elk hunting. Bob said that in his opinion, Lechien would be the next phenom.

Looks like Southwick, probably 1987, based on Hannah's #43.

Southwick '87, Hannah's last National moto win (and only one on a Suzuki).  I stumbled on pretty good footage of this race on youtube not too long ago (might have been a Motoworld clip)

Bob had an interesting year really in '87.  He won that Southwick moto and was 2nd OA to RJ.  About a month later he rode the 250 GP of France and won the 2nd moto again and was 2nd OA to Eric Geboers.  Another month and he wins the 2nd 125 moto at the Des Nations.

That’s two fundamentally different approaches to moto.. 

Well said, That's what makes moto so fun to observe and study.

That picture just reminds me how much fun that era of bikes were to ride; fast, totally unforgiving, multiple mistakes every lap, and loving every minute of it.

Two legends.....

I think Bob went 1-4 on the day, crashing in the 2nd moto. In an interview, Bob, who was always being critical of the tracks he was racing on at this point in his career, praised the sand for being crash friendly.

Which Southwick was it that Lechien won the first moto but faded to like 9th in the second moto? He took his highschool girlfriend to the prom the night before, got no sleep and flew in the morning of the race. 

That’s incredible. Did you guys have any action elk hunting? 

Did they used to do 45 minute Moto’s?

I saw him race that year at Hollister Hills on that thing for some kind of GP. Johnson won and Bob wasn't having a great day.

I was able to go out there with Gene Ritchie who set up the hunt. Bob was out hunting with us a few of the days but he had to fly to CA for some Honda business but he was a great host. We stayed at his house most of the time but als  camped in the mountains a night or two. We all called in some bulls but couldn't get any into bow range.

250 USGP, I was there too. IIRC, Bob dnf moto 1 and didn't even start moto 2. Here's a few crappy pics taken by my brother that day.