PAT HENNEN
Before Roberts, Spencer and Rainey there was Pat Hennen – the first American to win a GP
The motorcycling world lost a true legend when Pat Hennen passed away on April 7 at the age of 70. Hennen opened the doors for the flood of American riders who would dominate 500cc Grand Prix racing. And so unexpected was his win at the 1976 Finnish Grand Prix that the race organisers didn’t even have a copy of the US national anthem to hand for the podium ceremony and had to use the British one instead. Hennen got his point across by wearing a Stetson on the podium.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1953, Hennen moved to the San Francisco Bay Area as a youngster and made his racing debut on his friend’s Honda C90 at the age of 14. He bent the chassis landing a jump but came fourth and caught the racing bug.
Over the next four years Hennen raced dirt track and developed the rear-wheel-steering skills that would later transform GP racing.
In 1973, having decided to try road racing, he scored two top tens on a borrowed 250cc Suzuki then took his first big win in the Junior race at the Daytona 200 in 1974.
He was snapped up by Suzuki US for the 1975 season and made his European debut in the Transatlantic Match Races, which he helped the US team to win for the first time.
When Suzuki US folded in 1976, Hennen returned to being a privateer and built a TR750 from parts donated by Rod Coleman of Suzuki New Zealand. After putting that bike on the podium at Daytona (a first for Suzuki) Hennen took delivery of a production RG500 and, with his brother Chip, headed to Europe to race in the 500cc Grand Prix world championship. “Looking back, my brother and I really took one helluva risk in doing what we did,” Hennen said. “We literally lived race-to-race.”
Although he had raced against many of the top GP riders in the States, Hennen was shocked at the pace. “It was a whole new world,” he said. “When the European riders came over to the US in those days, they really didn’t put their all into the races because they were non-GP events. It wasn’t until the world championship events that they pulled out all the stops. Sheene, Read, Agostini, and the rest were suddenly so much faster.”
Despite this, Hennen took a victory in Finland and finished the season third overall, behind Barry Sheene and Tepi Lansivouri, despite operating on a shoestring. At Spa in Belgium, Pat and Chip Hennen met a young engineering graduate called Frans VandenBroek and roped him into the ‘team’ as a mechanic. VandenBroek was shocked by how basic Hennen’s outfit was. “As I walked past rows of exotic Grand Prix machinery, I remember saying to myself; ‘Whoa, this is the big time!’” he said. “Then, in a far corner of the pits, I found Pat and Chip working out of a Ford Transit. There was a blanket on the dirt floor, and a disassembled engine on the blanket. Pat was doing his own maintenance, and as I walked up, I remember saying to myself: ‘This is the big time?’”
The real big time was just around the corner; Hennen’s performances earned him a ride in the biggest
‘It was a whole new world. They were so fast…’
team in GPs for the 1976 season – the Texaco Heron Suzuki squad. The only problem was, the number one rider was Sheene, and he didn’t take too kindly to young upstarts.
“Pat was a very serious pretender to Barry’s throne, and Barry wasn’t going to do anything to help him,” Chip said. “Pat watched Barry’s every move on and off the track to learn as much as he could from him, and Barry was very aware of it.”
Despite the uneasy relationship, results on-track were good. Hennen won the very first British Grand Prix at Silverstone (the Senior TT had counted as the British round until 1977) and finished the season in third place, while Sheene took his second and final world title.
Hennen took his third and last Grand Prix win at Jarama in 1978 before making a fateful trip to the TT – against his wishes. Suzuki, desperate for him to ride as Sheene refused, threatened to withhold the race truck they had been going to supply him until he agreed.
After setting the first sub-20minute lap, Hennen crashed at Bishopscourt. He was in a coma for months and was affected by his injuries for the rest of his life, but he was never bitter. “I’m still very interested in racing and certainly don’t feel cheated,” he said. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”