Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1333258
VOLUME 58 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 26, 2021 P117 the early '70s. He rode Greeves, and I had his practice bike, which we bought from Nick Nicholson. I talked my dad into taking me out there. That was in 1971." Eierstedt progressed quickly, and pretty soon he was fast enough and winning often enough to earn a factory ride. Even so, if it wasn't for his mother, Phyllis, Eierstedt might never have gotten his shot at the big time. "I was riding Maicos for Warren Burrell," Eierstedt recalls. "His shop was called American Moto- cross, and he sponsored me, Rex Staten, Mike Cram and Gaylon Mosier. We all rode Maicos, and he called it the sandlot because he had us idiots in there working on Maicos all day. But we never broke down because he showed us what to do, and it was pretty hard to keep Maicos running. Gaylon went to the CMC races, and I just traveled around and went to Indian Dunes and places like that, and my mom kept track of all the races that I won. "I'll never forget when Cycle World came out with a picture of the new Honda Elsinore on the cover," Eierstedt continues. "I saw it and said, 'Oh, look at that bike. That looks like the best bike. My mom said, 'Why don't you write a letter to Honda and tell them that you want a bike?' I said, 'I can't do that,' but she made up a little letter and put all my wins in it and mailed it to Honda without me knowing about it. Two weeks later [team manager] John Blum called me from Honda, and the next thing I know I was flying all over the world, riding for Honda." In fact, Eierstedt proved that he knew what to do with the Elsinore when he got on it, as he won the 250cc Support class in the Trans-AMA Series in 1973. "I am listed as Honda's first [MX Champion] in 1973, ahead of Gary Jones, for the Trans-Am's," Eierstedt says. "See, back then the Trans-Am's were a big deal. It was kind of neat. We had Eu- ropeans there, and so you had French guys and Finnish guys on the starting line with you. The whole atmosphere was differ- ent. They were heroes, and they didn't talk like us. I think I won five or six races that year in the 250cc class in the Trans-Am. My competition was Billy Grossi, Bryar Holcomb, Billy Clements. Then in '76 when I won it again, Danny LaPorte was my main guy. We were three points apart going into the last race in Arizona, and I beat Danny there. But there were a lot of guys back then, and it was a lot of fun." Despite winning his second Trans-AMA title, tying with Rick Burgett for sixth in the AMA 500cc National MX Champion- ship Series and finishing 10th in the AMA 250cc National MX Championship Series, Eierstedt was forced to go shopping for a ride for 1977. "Honda had told me that if I won the Trans-AMA, they would sign me for the next year," Eierstedt says. "Then the winter came, and they never called me. But I had four good years with them. What are you going to do?" With many of the top rides gone by the time that Honda had turned him away, Eierstedt wound up at Bultaco. "I have kind of a funny story about that," Eierstedt says. "I knew Jim Pomeroy really well, and he would stay at my house sometimes. I went to Bultaco and he went to Honda for '77, so we just traded clothes. I had all these Hondaline clothes from four years of being with Honda, and he had all these Bultaco clothes—T-shirts and all that stuff." The Bultaco deal didn't pan out the way Eierstedt had hoped, mainly, he says, because of per- sonality conflicts with the team's manager Gary Bailey. The clash ultimately led to Eierstedt leaving the team in the middle of the '77 season. "Gary Bailey fired my mechan- ic, and I was top-10 in the Nation- als, and I said if my bike broke, Eierstedt raced aboard many different brands throughout his career, including Honda, Can-Am, Bultaco and Harley-Davidson.