Today in motorcycle history, March 11, 1958

  Eddie "Steady Eddie" Lawson is born (1958-03-11)in Upland, California.

  Eddie Lawson began his motorcycle racing career on the famous Southern California dirt track circuit.   1978 he found himself with a need for speed so he switched his attention to road racing.  The next season Eddie finished second behind Freddie Spencer in the AMA 250cc road racing National Championship.  Soon afterwards, he was offered a ride with the Kawasaki Superbike team and won the AMA Superbike Series in 1981 and 1982.  He also won the AMA 250cc road racing National Championship in 1980 and 1981 for Kawasaki.

  Feeling the need for more power, and no loyalty to Kawasaki, Eddie accepted an offer from Yamaha to ride in the 500cc World Championship as Kenny Roberts' team-mate for the 1983 season.  Lawson spent all of the 1983 season learning the ropes of the Grand Prix circuit and it paid off as he won the 1984 World Championship.  It would mark the first of four world titles "Steady Eddie" would go on to win.

  After winning two more titles for Yamaha in 1986 and 1988, Lawson shocked the racing world by announcing he would be leaving Yamaha to sign with their arch-rivals Honda fulfilling his desire to work with Erv Kanemoto.  He went on to win the 1989 title for Honda, becoming the first rider in history to win back-to-back championships on machines from different manufacturers.  

  Eddie Lawson also won the ABC Superbikers event at Carlsbad, California, in 1983 and 1985.  It's a race which pitted the best riders from several disciplines against each other on a combined dirt and paved course.  He was riding a specially equipped factory YZ 490 Yamaha and it rekindled his long-forgotten love for dirt.

  In 1990, Lawson won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race on a Yamaha FZR750R paired with Japanese rider Tadahiko Taira. 

 When he retired from GP racing in the early 1990s, he ranked third on the all-time 500cc Grand Prix wins list with 31.

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