T-Dog’s Takes: I Disrespected Wil Hahn and I’m Sorry

Notice that this column now has a sponsor? That’s right! Troy Dog joined the Blu Cru and you should too! I have one in my garage right now and I can’t wait to go shred it! Thank you to Yamaha for believing in my ELITE columns on this dirt bike website enough to sponsor me. What a dream come true! BTW: Have you seen the all-new YZ450F? OH. MY. GOODNESS. I can’t wait to test that bad boy.

Last week I put out a Tweet that said that amateur motocross peaked when Austin Stroupe, Trey Canard, and Nico Izzi turned pro. Well, Wil Hahn commented on the post, stating that he was hurt that he didn’t make the cut.

The T-Dog in me wanted to give Wil more crap because…well it’s Wil and that’s what he likes. However, why wasn’t Wil hyped up with those three when they all turned pro after Loretta’s in 2007? Do we blame Vurb Wes for not hyping him up as much as the other three? All amateur content went through Wes and as a 17-year-old high school kid I just assumed that those three would take over the sport. Wil wasn’t in the spotlight when he really should have been.

Lucky for you, my loyal readers, I’m in the running for the AMA Media Member of the Year and so I went right to Wil to figure out what happened here.

Wil said that in 2006 he got some attention from the then Sobe/No Fear/Samsung Honda (later known as GEICO Honda) team. They helped him out a little bit. Hahn also said that he thinks that this actually hurt him in the long run because people just viewed him as Tommy’s brother. Tommy turned pro at the end of 2004 with the team and was still on the roster in 2006 before moving up to the Factory Honda team in 2007.

Potentially with that attention and support, Wil could have had the ride that Canard ended up getting and the motocross world could have had some crazy Butterfly Effect happen. Instead, Hahn said that he felt like he needed to be better.

At Loretta Lynn’s in 2007, Wilbur finished second overall in Motocross A to PJ Larsen. Then he finished fourth overall in a stacked MX Lites A class that included Stroupe, Izzi, and Canard. Wil would go 5-4-3 and beat Izzi in the final moto.

Instead of turning pro with his peers Canard and Izzi at Spring Creek a week later (Stroupe wouldn’t debut until the end of August at Steel City) Hahn would turn pro on September 2 at Freestone.

“The Big Three” had support of a team their final year(s) as amateurs. Hahn had Honda of Houston help, but nothing on the books for the pro side of things. That is until his Loretta Lynn’s results earned with a ride with Star Yamaha. So, why was it that he waited for Freestone for his debut?

“I needed more time to get used to the switch to Yamaha and honestly it took that long to get my stuff sorted, gear and bikes etc,” Hahn said.

What I thought was another cool bit of info from Hahn’s debut was that he couldn’t believe how fast Ryan Villopoto and Ben Townley were going that year. He said it was unreal to see when they lapped him. He also remembered that he finished moto 1 without any gloves because of a crash. He went 20-13 in his debut for 15th overall.

He deserves an apology from me. So, being the man I am here we go. I’m sorry for my Twitter Take that didn’t include you. There I said it. You can flip me off to get even I don’t care.

I still feel like Wil could have done something to bring his hype level up. I know that it all worked out for him in the end with all of his podiums, wins, and a championship. Not to mention he was on Factory Kawasaki as well. However, Wil needed some extra flare at the races to bring attention to himself.

Wil, I think you should have had T-shirts with targets on your back. That’s worked out great before!