OBITUARY
track machine and also raced a three-cylinder Suzuki 750 two-stroke in dirt-track events . Not surprisingly , he was pretty ‘ handy ’ on almost anything . He got bitten by the tarmac racing bug after early successes on a modified Suzuki T20 street bike originally prepared by Ron Grant , who was to become a career-long mentor . After progressing through the AMA Novice ranks , Hennen stepped up to Junior status , one level down from AMA Expert , before being upgraded to Expert ranking in 1975 .
NEW ZEALAND CONNECTIONS He had a legion of fans in New Zealand , where he won three successive Marlboro International Series for Suzuki in the 1970s , the first two racing three-cylinder 750cc TR750s , the third on a 500cc Suzuki GP machine competing against 750cc competition . Before those series wins , he had raced in New Zealand over two previous summer series . It was a measure of the esteem in which he was held in New Zealand that in 2012 he was flown out from California for the 60th Anniversary of the Cemetery Circuit in Wanganui , scene of his many local wins . In fact , he held the lap record there for seven years . It was not only New Zealand fans that Hennen won over with this quiet but friendly demeanour . He had deeply impressed Auckland Suzuki dealer Len Perry who had provided the American with that Steve Roberts-framed TR750 to race in 1974 . Perry was not the only Suzuki man impressed . So too was Wanganui-based importer Rod Coleman who wrote a letter of commendation to the Suzuki factory , which doubtless influenced Suzuki Motor Corporation USA to offer Hennen a full-time ride in the 1975 season . When Suzuki withdrew from US road racing at the end of 1975 in favour of Supercross , Coleman was in California and arranged to buy one of the last factory Suzuki TR750s , the sixspeed 140hp model . He then called Hennen in Northern California , told him to buy a van and
get down to Santa Ana , load the bike and all the spares he had bought , and ship it all to New Zealand . Coleman paid for everything . Coleman ’ s faith was repaid when Hennen won the 1975- ’ 76 Marlboro Series , and went on to race the bike in the then prestigious 1976 Daytona 200-mile race , finishing third , the first and only time a three-cylinder 750cc Suzuki two-stroke made the podium there . But before heading back to the US , Hennen raced the highly promoted Australian TT at Laverton outside Melbourne . There , Kawasaki ’ s Gregg Hansford reversed the Marlboro Series order , beating Hennen by a whisker , the pair of them on water-cooled three cylinder twostrokes . Third placed Warren Willing ( Yamaha TZ750 ) was lapped .
TAKING ON EUROPE With Suzuki out of US road racing , Hennen saw little point remaining . So with brother Chip , who had been helping him since he first took to the tarmac , he packed his bags for Europe . He had already experienced racing in England at the Easter Anglo-American Match Races in 1975 and he was in the USA team for the 1976 edition . Using that as a spring-board , he and Chip joined
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