Rich Eierstedt RIP

Sorry to hear that. I knew he was in recovery. God bless his family at this difficult time.

WOW!
That's just awful.
Godspeed brother Rich.

RIP Rich.

Wow- I remember watching him at Saddleback TransAm back in the day. The MXA story is an excellent read. Godspeed.

Sad deal. Godspeed to all involved. Jody's input is top notch.

Sad news.....RIP Rich

Very sad. RIP Rich.

RIP Richard.

I remember him well and had his pics on my wall as a teen but only recall seeing him ride a few times; always very smooth, in control and fast.

A very sad but well written story.

God Bless him and his family at this time.

Godspeed brother

I am at a lost . Rich was one of my first moto hero . I remember being sponsored by a local shop where the owner was good friends with Rich . I told him you have to let me meet him . Well at the Jim West Memorial race I got to meet him .. he was so cool and very very nice . He took time to talk to me like I was his long time friend . I have never forgotten that day . Fast foward about 30 years and I was reading MXA online and read where Rich was looking for few old mxa's that he was on the cover and wanted them for his personal collection .. I had the issues he needed and dug them out and sent them to him . A week later I had a package delivered that contained a note from Rich saying thanks so much for the issues .. in the package was an old racing jersey of his from when he was with Can Am and a personal autograph photo from his days with Team Honda . They are proudly displayed in my office . When I got the tweet from Racer X saying Rich had passed away my heart sunk and I teared up a bit . Godspeed Rich and thanks for all the good memories

Burrito

Very cool story...

Rich used to be my White Brothers Rep
Very cool guy
He had some WILD stories
RIP Rich

Very tragic. Alcoholism is such a terrible disease. What a waste.

Godspeed Rich, you will always be one of my moto heros.

RIP Rich. Two losses to the MX community in less than a week. The MXA story on Rich is a good one. Jody knew him well.

Godspeed Mr. Eierstedt

RIP Rich. My condolences to his family and friends. I still have old issues of MXA from the late 70's with pics of him. He and Marty Smith were two of my idols when I was a kid.
Jody's story was an excellent read.

Before my time but heard a lot about him.Godspeed moto brother.

I'm really sad to hear this about Rich. I've known Rich for 35 years and he was always very cool to me. He was a tough competitor and smooth as silk on the bike. My most memorable dice with him was at the Dirt Digger's Grand Prix at Escape Country back in 1978. It was a huge purse race and every factory rider was there: Lackey, Shultz, Magoo, Semics, Eirstedt, Breker, DiStefano, Weinert, Moates, Mosier, Tripes, Myerscough, Jennings, Reid, Denton, Zahrt, Robertson...even our own Bobby Myers was there! It was epic, for sure.

The first moto saw Rich Eirstedt with the holeshot and his Can-Am teammate, Semics right behind. I got a great start and got by Semics and started on Rich, but that dude was working that Can-Am! The track had some really, and I mean REALLY high-speed sections, one of which was this fire road that dropped down into a g-out, with a really shallow creek crossing...it wasn't much more than a trickle. I had been trying to put a pass on Rich for a couple of laps (laps were like 8 minutes long) and I knew that there was a shitload of guys behind us that were in a hurry, if you know what I mean!

I remember passing Rich going down into the g-out and I will never forget my front wheel skating at the bottom of that thing at about 70mph as I went by Rich! I was totally out of control and almost took us both out. It scared the shit out of me and we weren't done dicing yet! Eirstedt passed me back a few more times before I was finally able to make one stick. Shultz ended up winning the moto, I got third behind Tony D after getting a flat front tire and Rich finished fourth...Bobby M got sixth!

Anyway, after the moto I went over to see if Rich had seen how fucking scared I was when I washed out at Mach 2 passing him. He said it scared the shit out of him, too, and he couldn't believe that I saved it. We both were laughing our asses off. He was a really good guy and one of my heroes growing up. Even though he was past his prime, he still put in a lot of good rides on those Can-Ams.

I saw Rich just a few times in the years since our racing days. I'd heard about his struggles, but we never talked about it. I'll always remember him as one of the good guys, for sure. My heart goes out to his family, friends and the racing community. He will be missed.

R.I.P., old friend!

God bless you Rich. Great article Motocross Action Magazine. Read it twice it was so good.

Bless you Rich. You fought the supreme battle.

Great stories, guys.
RIP, Rich.

Like others I met Rich at the races along with his mechanic Starky. He was always funny and always had a good time. I kept meeting him after he quit racing, one time I was sitting in traffic on the I-5 going to the I-22 and he did a nose wheelie on his BWM and flipped up his visor and asked how I was doing, another time he stopped in the shop I was working at selling for Joe Jones Distributing but always remembered me by name and asked how I was doing. He will missed and was a CMC sucess story. RIP my friend, Vio con dios

I got to know Rich through my boss Richard Thorwaldson. Rich was my White Bros rep and then MTA, had great moto stories and had a strong passion for motorcycling. We kept in touch and saw each other at the races… He always was trying to get me to come down and do an REM race with him…My heart sank I as today when I saw the tweet from MXA..

R.I.P. Rich

I used to see him at the races, sad to hear, the story Weisel wrote was a very good read. RIP

RIP.

God speed Rich

Danm, Rich was a hero in the neighborhood were we grew up.

He is one of the reason I got into motocross seeing him ride in the fields as a kid I was just amazed at the things he could do on a bike

RIP

How sad, two heroes passing away within a matter of days Ervyind Boyssen (Sp?) and Rich Eierstedt. God speed both of them.

x 2

Wow.

Alcohol, Cunning, Baffling & Powerful...

RIP Brother

Godspeed Rich