Posts
3166
Joined
8/17/2006
Location
Coto de Caza, CA
US
Fantasy
181st
Edited Date/Time
2/1/2014 1:27pm
I have had this poster hanging in the garage for the last 34 years. While I have had Bob Hannah and Marty Tripes sign things in the interim, I always forgot to bring the poster. Well last Saturday that ended at A2.
When I gave it to Hannah to sign he said "cool" and proceeded to give a first hand account of how/why it happened. You can read the whole story on his site. http://hannahracingproducts.com/news/changed_mind_2.html The jist of it was trying to chase Tripes down.
So I move down the line to the other legends and soon I'm in front of Marty Tripes, so I show him the poster and he proceeds to sign the poster. As he is signing he tells me he only saw this on the cover of Motocross Action Magazine after the race as he was in front of Bob and this all happened behind him.
Very cool of Bob Hannah and Marty Tripes.
A closer shot of Tripes autograph.
When I gave it to Hannah to sign he said "cool" and proceeded to give a first hand account of how/why it happened. You can read the whole story on his site. http://hannahracingproducts.com/news/changed_mind_2.html The jist of it was trying to chase Tripes down.
So I move down the line to the other legends and soon I'm in front of Marty Tripes, so I show him the poster and he proceeds to sign the poster. As he is signing he tells me he only saw this on the cover of Motocross Action Magazine after the race as he was in front of Bob and this all happened behind him.
Very cool of Bob Hannah and Marty Tripes.
A closer shot of Tripes autograph.
I still have the MXA with that shot on the cover.
The Shop
Very cool story!
It was nice to see Feld/AMA with an homage to the past Champions.
It would be cool if they remade them.
Probably not the one you're looking for but cool shot anyway.....
Pit Row
Bob Hannah - Changing My Mind
1979 250 USGP at Unadilla, NY
Changing my line…changing my mind…that’s what was going on in the picture.
Here’s what I remember about that moment back in 1979, at the 250 USGP at Unadilla, NY. We were on into the race, and I couldn’t catch Marty Tripes. He was probably 3-4 seconds ahead of me – and I couldn’t catch him. I was getting frustrated because in some sections I was faster, in others, he was faster. I could see that he was faster than me going through Gravity Cavity, so I slowed up enough to watch him.
I saw that he was using the far left side – when I’d been taking the far right side. So on the next lap, I moved over to the far left side. The only problem was, there was a hole at the top of Gravity Cavity on the left side that Tripes was pre-jumping – and I didn’t see it!
I whacked that hole with my rear wheel and started to endo over the front. Actually, I was going to jump off the bike because it was going to throw my ass off anyway. I had at least 6 seconds in the air for it to come back – and it did – it started coming back. I turned the throttle wide open to bring the nose back up and it started coming back, and I thought, “Hey…I can save this if I just hang the heck on!” Then, my foot caught on the seat and I just pulled myself back on.
THAT’S when the photo was taken…as I was pulling myself back onto the bike. I had changed my mind.
As the saying goes, I’d rather be lucky than good!
Different times indeed . . .
For you young pups one of the things Hannah was known for was NEVER shutting the gas off when he got out of shape. There was one race (Trans AM?) Bob got tossed off but ran along side the bike and jumped back on. For on the gas WFO riders I don't think any rider comes close to the Hurricane.
mike
Tripes was one of a select few that could beat Hannah "straight up" in Bob's dominate years. 1977 to the end of 1979.
Post a reply to: Chasing Marty ......... for 34 years