Education
Hennen finished third in the 1976 500cc road racing World Championship.
Hennen finished third in the 1976 500cc road racing World Championship.
Hennen began his career racing in dirt track events in Northern California, where his family had moved when he was young. He was successful enough to earn a place on the Suzuki factory Grand Prix racing team He was also the top point scorer at the 1978 Transport-Atlantic Match Races, scoring three wins, two seconds and a third.
Hennen"s career was cut short when he crashed competing in the 1978 Isle of Manitoba TT. He had just recorded the first sub-twenty-minute lap in TT history when he struck a kerb at 150 m.p.h.
There was a suggestion at the time that he had struck a bird although this is now considered to be unfounded rumour. The subsequent crash caused severe head injuries from which Hennen was able to recover over time, but the lasting effects forced his retirement from racing.
Hennen currently resides in California and was inducted into the American Medical Association Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2007.