Kenny Eggers Remembered

Kenny Eggers at Daytona in 2004. (Larry Lawrence photo)

I just heard the news that Kenny Eggers has passed away. He was 80.

Eggers was one of the top racers on the West Coast during the 1950s. He won the Bay Meadows Mile AMA National in San Mateo, California, in his rookie expert season. He also earned fame for winning the AMA national road race at Willow Springs Raceway in 1954, the first motorcycle race ever held at that venue.

He was part of BSA’s famous Wrecking Crew that dominated the 1954 Daytona 200. That year BSA distributors Hap Alzina and Alfred Child assembled a virtual wrecking crew of racing talent, including former Indian star Bobby Hill, Eggers, Tommy McDermott, Al Gunter, Warren Sherwood, Gene Thiessen, and previous Daytona winner Dick Klamfoth. The combination proved lethal to the competition, and BSA swept the first five places, as well as 8th and 16th. Eggers was fifth.

The Willow Springs road race of ’54 was the one that most interested me since I’d seen numerous road races there and was curious as to what the track was like at the very beginning. Kenny told me when they raced the first national there in 1954 it was nothing more than oiled dirt, smoothed out by road rollers.

Eggers won that very first AMA national at Willow Springs and here are some excerpts from an interview I did with Kenny in 1999.

Kenny on the crazy botched start he suffered.
Eggers on 1954 Willow Spring AMA road race national

Kenny on the style he used to race to victory Willow Springs.
Eggers on riding style at Willow