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After a three-decade absence, the Steve Eklund Memorial Race marks the return of flat track motorcycle racing to San Benito County on Oct. 4 during the County Fair at Bolado Park.
Entries are open until Oct. 2. for this fourth stop on the High Point Series, described by organizer Tom Carriger as “high-action, bar-banging excitement.”
“We used to race Bolado Park back in the day,” Carriger said. “Flat track racing has had a 30-year sabbatical, and that’s too long.”
Eklund was an East San Jose native who made his mark by winning the 1979 AMA Grand National Championship as a “privateer,” funding himself against competing factory teams.
“Steve wasn’t flamboyant by any means, but he was a really gifted rider,” childhood friend Rod Spencer said. “He made it look easy, and it’s far from easy. When you start running at high speeds, you’re basically riding right on the edge. And he just had the finesse to do it.”
In June 1990, Eklund was leading a Grand National half-mile race in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he sustained severe head trauma. Remaining in a coma for 15 months, he died in September 1991 at age 34.
“He was gonna retire after the end of that season,” Spencer said. “He was leading the race, with about six laps to go, and he had a huge lead. A lapper got in his way, and he hit his head bad.”
Carriger organized the race because no dedicated memorial or benefit event had been held in Eklund’s honor, despite his major contribution to California and Nevada’s District 36 racing history.
“We call Steve ‘The Forgotten Champion,’” Carriger said. “Nobody ever talks about him, and he’s been gone for 36 years now. I felt it was the right time and Bolado Park was the right area to hold the Steve Eklund Memorial.”
Carriger, a former pro racer and 2008 American Motorcycle Association National Amateur Rider of the Year, began promoting races at county fairs in 2024. Turning the park’s rodeo grounds into a professional flat track requires almost two weeks of preparation.
“We water for 10 days till it gets down into the ground,” he said. “If it’s dusty, the drivers can’t see, and neither can the crowd. Then there is about five days of heavy equipment, blades, rippers, wheel packers, compaction units. It’s quite the ordeal.”
The Memorial race will be held on what is known as a “Tourist Trophy” track, which incorporates a right-hand turn and a jump in addition to standard left turns. A maximum of 12 motorcycles will be on the track at a time, with 20 heats to start. Every competitor gets a chance to race two or three times. The top three finishers from each heat advance directly to the main event, consisting of 15 races.
“Your average speed at this particular track is probably going to be somewhere around 85 to 90 miles an hour, and each race is about three minutes long,” Carriger said. “We’ll have a good racetrack, and hopefully we’ll keep everybody safe.”
Carriger said the sport is strenuous, comparing the experience to holding one’s breath for the three minutes it takes to run the course.
“It’s not near as demanding as motocross and people think, ‘How hard can it be to go around in circles?’” he said. “But it’s like you’re dancing with the motorcycle. And when you got a good dance partner, you guys blend well together.”
There are 15 distinct classes of riders, ranging from the Open Pro Class, featuring top-tier riders competing for purse money, to Vintage Class, featuring veteran racers like 68-year-old Spencer.
“When you’re out there,” Spencer said, “you’re not thinking of the danger; you’re thinking about beating everybody. The bike’s sliding around, and you’re constantly seeing what the track’s doing, how the dirt’s changing. That’s the challenge of it: you’re trying to conquer the track.”
There is also a Youth Revival Program, with kids under eight representing 30% of total entries.
“We are trying to get kids back into the sport,” Carriger said. “We used to have 700 riders show up at one of these events. Now we’re lucky if we break a hundred. So we are allowing any kid eight years old and under to race for free.”
Carriger said that the race is pure excitement, even for those who have never seen a motorcycle race before.
“It’s just stupid fun,” he said. “And because it’s at the country fair, there’s also a down-home atmosphere. I guarantee when you get there, you’ll find somebody to cheer for.”
The Steve Eklund Memorial Race happens on Oct. 4 from 1-3:30 p.m. at the San Benito County Fair at Bolado Park. Register to compete online until Oct. 2. General admission tickets go on sale at the fair at noon on race day. Pit passes are also for sale for spectators.
Pre-sale tickets for the fair, with discounted admission and discounted carnival rides, are available at Ace Hardware, True Value Hardware and Postal Graphics in Hollister, Pizza Factory in San Juan Bautista and County Line Designs 831 in Tres Pinos.
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