Don Vesco

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Donald A. "Don" Vesco (born April 8, 1939 in Loma Linda , California , † December 16, 2002 in San Diego ) was an American motorcycle racer . In his career, which began at the age of 16, he set 18 records for motorcycles and six for automobiles .

Career

Don Vesco with his Yamaha Silver Bird on the Bonneville Salt Flats

Don Vesco was the son of an owner of a body shop and ran a Yamaha dealership in his hometown of El Cajon . He started racing motorcycle races in the 1960s, soon on a factory Honda RC 161, but won the US Grand Prix in the 500cc class on a 250cc Yamaha in Daytona in 1963. He met Cal Rayborn in a “ drag race ” and they both became good friends. Vesco had its own racing service that supplied riders like Kel Carruthers and Rayborn, like the latter, he attempted record attempts with his motorcycle on the Bonneville Flats and was successful: in 1970 he achieved his Big Red (two Yamaha engines, each 350  cm 3 ) 405.25 km / h - world record. After Rayborn improved the value to 410 km / h in the same year, Vesco had again success with the Silver Bird and 487.5 km / h in 1975. Yamaha had requested a silver paint job for the machine, but Vesco preferred red and yellow: if he should go off course on the white salt on a gray day, he wanted to be found quickly.

In 1978 he improved the value with the Lightning Bolt (two turbo-charged Kawasaki engines, each 1000 cm 3 ) to 505.98 km / h. On October 18, 2001, Don Vesco switched to four wheels when he set the land speed record for wheel-driven land vehicles at 739.41 km / h with his vehicle Turbinator (powered by a Lycoming T55-L-11A SA helicopter turbine ) on the salt lake near Bonneville. h rescheduled. He succeeded even though he was disabled after losing an eye while watching a "sprint car" race in 1995. Don Vesco died of cancer in 2002.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Don Vesco, 63, Record-Setting Motorcyclist , The New York Times , December 20, 2002 [1]
  2. ↑ Cal Rayborn II , Internet portal "AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame"
  3. ↑ Coles Phinizy: Flat Out On The Flats , Sports Illustrated, November 10, 1975, on si.com (accessed November 9, 2014)
  4. ↑ Don Vesco smashed wheel driven record - Turbinator top 458 MPH! , Internet portal "archive.is" ( Memento from September 9, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ↑ Jerry Garrett: 458,440 mph - The Turbinator. The Vesco brothers claim the highest speed record that hot rodders covet most , Internet portal "CarAndDriver.com", January 2002 [2]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.caranddriver.com  

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Vesco, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vesco, Donald A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American motorcycle racer, motorcycle world record holder (1970–1990)
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Loma Linda
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 2002
Place of death San Diego