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Profile: Robby Bell
Born: September 15, 1985, El Cajon, CA
Residence: Sun City, CA
Began Riding: 1989, age 4
First Race: 1990, age 5
Training: Mountain biking, trail riding
Height / Weight: 6’ 1” / 170 pounds
Marital Status: Single
Current Race Bike: Honda CRF450X, Honda CRF450R
Mechanics: Precision Concepts, Eric Siraton, and Self
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Bio: Robby Bell
"I got out my cell phone and pretty much called everybody I knew and said, 'You won't believe what just happened.' I was waking up people left and right. And they were like, 'Oh, why the heck are you calling me?' And I was shouting on the phone saying, 'I just won San Felipe!'"
Robby Bell probably startled every person he telephoned at 2 a.m., but no one was more taken aback by the news than Bell. He was driving home from the race when teammate Kendall Norman called to report that he was holding the trophy in his hand. Bell's response? "'Wait--are you serious?' And then the whole ride home I just kept hitting my dad with my shoulder--'We just won.'" You can't blame the 21-year-old for his beaming enthusiasm about the triumph. He's been with Honda since 2005 and continues to be floored by the opportunities he's been handed and the elements of racing he has been exposed to as part of the team. "I have friends and know other people who have, you know, 'normal' jobs, typical lives. And it's just like they don't even know. The experiences I've had, other people can't even touch that in a lifetime and I've already had that."
"That" would be a long list of accomplishments beyond the San Felipe win. Bell and Johnny Campbell (riding for an injured Norman) spent Round 4 of the Best in the Desert series nipping at the heels of Steve Hengeveld and Mike Childress, taking a respectable second place in that race aboard a CRF450X and sometimes being only a minute behind the first team. At the Baja 500, Bell and Norman took Class 22 and overall wins. Even Bell's own dad is a little surprised by the whole thing. "My dad looks at me all the time and says, 'In two years, how did you pick it up so quick?' and I'm just, 'I don't know.'" What he does know is that being around Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld has been an invaluable tool for shaping him as a rider. Rivalry with Norman hasn't hurt his mojo either. "When we're out in the desert, both of us are seeing who can drop the other guy, which has been just awesome. He's been such a great partner."
Before jumping into the off-road world for Honda, Bell was all about motocross. One might think never the two styles of racing shall meet, but he has borrowed from one to feed the other. Bell explains that once the gate drops at a motocross event, riders are wide-open and panic-revving around the whole course. While being off-road is more reserved because of the duration of the races and the unknowns in the desert, he opted to bring that same moto intensity, which has upped his performance. The other secret weapon? Watching Moto GP racing. "How they sweep corners and go outside in to out, and applying that to the fast roads in Baja, I mean, when you can pull it off on the outside of a corner and cut across the apex, it's just--it's an awesome feeling."
In case you hadn't noticed, Bell likes to pepper his dialogue with "awesome." But come to think of it, what other word could be used to describe Honda's 2006 season and Bell's standout skills? Contributing to his ease has been the machinery: the CRF450X. "It's lighter than the 650, which is a definite positive. Any time it starts to get twisty or rough, with bigger whoops, with the 450 you can just hammer it. I can attack it like moto. I can ride it aggressively, whereas with the 650, you really have to respect the bike." But he adds, "I think the 650 has met its match."
Part of Bell's learning curve has been understanding how to treat his body as he races, be it hydration or psyching himself up. He used the WORCS series as the main source for his training. "It's just such a mental battle. I mean, the last 30 minutes--it's everything you have left, which isn't very much, but it's just being able to be tough enough to push through it." So, by comparison, Best in the Desert and Baja must seem like a cakewalk, right? "If I'm on the bike for 102 or 105 miles in Baja, and it's only about two hours on the bike, it's not the same intensity as a WORCS race, so I'm just confident that I won't be getting tired at all."
What about that San Felipe race? Rain, blitzing through softball-size rocks, nearly no visibility? The race couldn't have been that "awesome" in the heat of the moment--or could it? "I was just counting my blessings getting to the first pit. After that, when the rain died down, from there on we had perfect traction; just picture the desert on the best day. I was just smiling underneath the helmet. It was so fun."
As easygoing as Bell is about his sport, he does take the future very seriously, and he has the utmost respect for those there before him. "I wanted so much to win the 1x plate, and even now I get goose bumps just thinking about wearing it in 2007."
On that ride home from San Felipe, Bell's dad told him, "You realize that your name's gonna be in the record books and nobody can take that away forever?" With a future as bright as Bell's, we hope that whoever is filling out those record books has plenty of ink in their pen.
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