HH172
L
ook closely at the Supermini classes in any AMA
‘Major’ gate lineup and you might easily overlook the fact that there’s a girl amongst them. But
catch sight of her toward the front of the pack,
long hair flowing behind her, and you might go back
for a second glance. Hannah Hodges isn’t just a girl
on a dirt bike. She is a fast girl on a dirt bike. And on
most good days she’s schooling three quarters of the
boys on the track.
At the James Stewart Freestone Spring Championship,
Hodges dominated the Girls and Women’s Amateur
When I catch up with Hannah at Glen Helen for the
FMF California Classic, she’s pretty pumped on the
track: “Lots of elevation and it gets pretty rough in a
lot of spots, but it’s fun. It’s different than Florida, so
I enjoy it.” She’s nonchalant about the challenges,
but I’ve seen Mt. St. Helens, and the word formidable
doesn’t even scratch the surface. That thing is downright gnarly.
I press her about the hill, and she concedes a little:
“I don’t really like the hill cuz I got knocked out on the
big hill at Mammoth.” As a thirteen year old, Hannah
suffered a brutal crash at Mammoth Motocross. “I
don’t really remember,” she shrugs, “but I’ve been
told that I was going down the big hill at Mammoth
and I started to swap and just went over the bars and
went flipping down the hill I guess. My braces went
through my lips. Got knocked out. I’ve been told that
it was pretty bad… I don’t remember anything from
getting ready for the race until I woke up in the hospital. Even a couple days after that seems like a blur.”
“If she’s not challenged, she
gets bored.”
I imagine how people must have reacted to her
crash, how they might have questioned her parents.
Who lets their little girl get on a dirt bike in a pack of
boys and bomb giant hills? But five minutes with Hannah, and I think it’s pretty clear that this decision is all
her own.
classes, earning her three AMA titles after sweeping
all six motos. But in an age where there is so much
uncertainty in women’s racing, Hodges isn’t waiting
around for someone to decide her future. If the only
future for a motocross racer is joining the men in the
pros, then Hodges seems set on going for it.
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theROOTSMX • ISSUE 2 2014
When Wayne Hodges, Hannah’s dad, took five year
old Hannah to Atlanta Supercross ten years ago, he
began to discover just how unique his little girl was. He
had hesitated to even bring her, thinking she would
get bored. But as he went on to tell me, “She was
into it as much as I was. Finally it was the end of the
night and I was like, ‘Hannah, there’s nobody else left
in the pits. You’re not gonna get any more plastic, no
more jerseys.’ And that’s kinda where it really started.
I mean I was floored at that point.” Hodges’s passion
was ignited at first sight of an Atlanta Supercross stadium, and today, her family is still along for the ride.
Like so many moto families, the Hodges have made
great sacrifices to support Hannah’s passion. She
picked up sponsorship with Farren Racing and MAVTV,
and she trains full-time at MTF in Georgia, staying
there all week and driving home on the weekends.
Her dad spends most of his time with her in Georgia