Eklund’s Houston Sweep

• Larry Lawrence
Steve Eklund jumps his Yamaha en route to victory at the 1978 Houston TT. (AMA Press Kit photo)

Steve Eklund jumps his Yamaha en route to victory at the 1978 Houston TT. (AMA Press Kit photo)

The Houston TT and Short Track Nationals were the AMA Grand National season openers from 1968 through 1986. In its heyday Houston would pack in close to 60,000 fans inside the Astrodome to make it the best attended AMA Grand National event in the history of the series.

Surprisingly only one rider was able to sweep both nights of Houston in the rich history of the event. It was Steve Eklund in 1978, who won the TT and came back to take victory in the short track the next night. This is Eklund riding to victory in the Houston TT on his Yamaha.

Photo enthusiasts will be interested to know that Kodak Ektachrome 400 was introduced in 1977 allowing photographers to shoot color indoors without flash by pushing the Ektachrome to 1600 ASA and having it specially processed. That’s how this color photo of Eklund was captured.

Eklund was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. Here is his bio.

6 thoughts on “Eklund’s Houston Sweep”

  2. Jeff

    Hard to believe that in 16 years of Houston Doubleheader Nationals that Steve was the only rider to sweep both nights. Shows you the talent the guy had.

    Larry

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  3. Those TT500’s came out late ’75 if I remember right. That was a heck of a bike and pretty much set the stage for that era on worthiness in all forms of competition. Not to mention no more throwing 300 lb. XR’s off the TT jumps at speed anymore!
    Eklund was a helluva rider. He won the Pontiac TT in summer of ’76 with one of those as well. Him and Latus went on one heck of a run in ’79 to bag the championship. He died way too young and too tragically as well.
    Great story LL! Good stuff as always out of the Master! Thanks!

    Stu

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  4. I was there as well. Eklund was not one of my favorites at the time but soon became one. Looking back, he was a preview of things to come. I still miss the twins on the T T’s but times do change and Steve Eklund was on the cutting edge… 500 singles… 600 singles… and now 450 stock frame singles. The evoulution started somewhere. I would guess the modern singles evolution started with Eklund. But, I am thinking singles may have been the thing at a time before this. How about it L.L.? Were singles the ticket before the twins?

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  5. John

    There were singles in short tracks going way back to the 1950s and before. In fact British singles like BSA Gold Stars and Matchless G50s were competitive on big tracks into the mid-1960s.

    LL

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