1979 New Orleans Supercross Main Event - Marty Smith Holeshots

[MMACHMP]

those guys were so slow

[MetricHotrodsdotcom]

@MMACHMP They were on 240lb aircooled bikes with 7 inches of suspension, riding sand tracks that make Southwick look smooth. If you put even James Stewart in this race, on one of those bikes, he would not even FINISH.

[motokev]

Marty Smith was my hero growing up along with Decoster.

good old days !

[kxsteve]

It's 79. Look at Hondas rear suspension.

And I was there.

Wise was a under appreciated rider..very good on squaring corners and woops.

Honda factory bikes were worse than Yamahas of showroom floor..They broke like glass.

[stellastarr69]

I forgot to mention the winner of this race was Steve Wise on a factory Honda. I think this is his only SX win of his career.

[MotodudeMT]

This clip is 1977 not 79. Nice Kiss sountrack.

[stellastarr69]

I think this clip is in 1979. If you look closely, you can see that Hannah is wearing the #1 plate. In '77 he wore the #2 plate in supercross. Also you can tell he has the JT/Sinisalo chest protector on with the red background for his name and number, and he didnt start wearing that until '79. Look at some photos from '79 if you have any and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[stellastarr69]

If I remember correctly Hannah had hurt himself earlier in the year and wore a cast on his wrist or arm during the week and took it off on the weekend of this race so he could get enough points to secure his 3rd straight Supercross Championship. I believe he finished 6th on the night, good enough for title #3.

[rmrooster01]

Even though Marty won the 1977 500 class nationals, I think that after the 1976 Dallas SX , where he dislocated his shoulder, he wasnt the same after that. And the Jet lag: hed fly to europe to race 125 World championships, and then fly back to do the Nationals. Jet lag city.

[muzzmatrix]

@rmrooster01 I thought Marty Smith broke his hip in a supercross race in 1979? He was national number 7 that year, then Honda fired him & when he hooked up with Suzuki for 1980 he was riding national number 26.....which I thought was due to his missing in action for quite some time in 1979. You're right about the 1976 125cc World Championships though. I'd like to see Dean Wilson of Pro Circuit Kawasaki do that in 2012.

[2oldcoots]

I think the Honda munched a gearbox. Hannah ran Smith down like a cheap battery after the start. When the Hurricane blew onto the scene in '76, Smith had nothing for him. MS got a freebie in the '77 500 series, when Hannah had the throttle cable come loose in St.Pete ,Florida. Otherwise , BH would have a 500 title as well. That was Smith's last good season.

[muzzmatrix]

Was Smith leading & then went down? Didn't he win New Orleans once?