Top 5 Yamaha MotoGP riders of all time

#4 Eddie Lawson

He was called 'steady Eddie' by many people as he had a penchant for not crashing and consistently finishing the race with points

Eddie Lawson is a former American four-time Grand Prix Motorcycle champion. He made his debut in 1983 for 500cc class at the South African Grand Prix.

He was called 'steady Eddie' by many people as he had a penchant for not crashing and consistently finishing the race with points. This is a very rare achievement, as very few racers are able to do what Eddie did in his career.

Eddie began his racing career in the Southern California dirt track circuit. He had to switch to road racing as he was finding it difficult to compete with the ever so dominating Harley Davidsons.

In 1983, he accepted an offer from Yamaha to contest in the 500cc world championships as a teammate of Kenny Roberts. At the start of the 1983 season, Eddie spent most of his time learning the ropes of the Grand Prix circuit.

In 1984, he won the world championship which is a significant achievement for a person who had just learned the ropes of a Grand Prix circuit. This started a journey wherein he would go on to win four more world championships.

In 1988, Eddie shocked the world when he announced that he would be joining Honda for the next season and went on to win the 1989 championship with Honda thus becoming the first rider to win back to back championships with different bike manufacturers.

After his racing career was over, he pursued a career in open wheel single seat racing competing in the Indy Lights series. He has been inducted into the FIM MotoGP hall of fame in 2005.