years championships birth_place teams nationality birth_date wins article_title name
1976 - 1985 ama 1979 125cc - 1976 ama 250cc - 1978 , lancaster , california , u.s. yamaha , honda , suzuki united states american september 26 , 1956 70 bob hannah
 bob `` hurricane '' hannah
bob hannah

robert `` hurricane '' hannah -lrb- born september 26 , 1956 in lancaster , california -rrb- was one of the most successful motocross racers in american history .
he won a total of seven ama national championships .
in 1976 , yamaha took a chance on the 19-year-old hannah , who was largely unknown outside of the local southern california motocross scene .
yamaha signed hannah to race the 125cc outdoor nationals .
he started out the year by winning all 5 races in the 500cc class at the florida winternational series -lrb- a warm up series -rrb- , but his real strength was on the 125cc bikes at the outdoor motocross circuits .
he won five of the eight 125cc nationals that year en route to the championship .
in 1977 , hannah hopped aboard a yamaha 250 and won the ama supercross championship in impressive fashion , taking six of the 10 rounds .
he would go on to win the ama supercross title for three straight years .
in 1978 , hannah moved up to the 250cc ranks in the outdoor nationals with devastating results for his competition .
he won a record eight consecutive 250 outdoor nationals , a record that still stood at the time of hannah 's 1999 motorcycle hall of fame induction .
in 1979 , he came back and dominated the 250 outdoor nationals again , handily winning the 250 mx title by earning victories in six of the 10 events .
a water skiing accident in the colorado river at the end of 1979 nearly cost hannah his career .
his right leg was broken in 12 places when he hit a submerged rock and was catapulted onto the riverbank .
doctors initially told hannah he would never be able to race again .
he was forced to sit out the entire 1980 supercross & 250 outdoor nationals series while recuperating , but returned late in the year to contest the trans-usa series .
during his recovery hannah earned his pilot license and for the first time in his adult life found interests outside of motorcycle racing .
hannah never was quite able to capture the magic he had during the 1970s .
while he won 20 nationals during the 1980s , he never was able to capture another championship .
his best results in the ` 80s were a second-place finish in the 250 mx series in 1981 and third in the same series in 1983 , after switching from yamaha to honda .
hannah 's final national win came in the 250 outdoor national held in millville , minnesota , on august 11 , 1985 .
he continued to race full-time until 1987 and then raced occasionally in nationals until retiring in 1989 .
in his 15-year career , hannah had become the all-time win leader in ama motocross/supercross history , having won 70 ama nationals during his career .
that record would stand until jeremy mcgrath broke hannah 's overall win record in 1999 .
hannah continued to seek the adrenaline rush even after his motorcycle-racing career ended .
after leaving motocross , hannah took up the sport of airplane racing in the unlimited class .
when inducted into the ama motorcycle hall of fame in 1999 , hannah was living near boise , idaho , running a sport aviation sales company and winery .
in 2000 , he was inducted into the motorsports hall of fame of america .
