Don Vesco the fastest man on wheels
Don Vesco was America’s great speed demon of the 1950s-1990s. His wins were across disciplines and included drag racing, road racing (including victory in the US GP) and he shattered numerous land speed records at Bonneville.
As is often the case, the apple did not fall far from the tree. John Vesco was a fixture in prewar racing on dry lakes with his modified Ford Model ‘T’ and ‘A’ racers. After the war, Vesco’s streamliners were among the most innovative machines at Bonneville, sponsored by his bodyshop in the San Diego area.
Gordon Menzie is a lifelong friend of Don Vesco and their connection went back to childhood. He said: “We went to junior high school together. We raced soapbox derby cars together and I still have his trophies. We also knocked around on bicycles, Cushman scooters, and crap like that. I had a friend in the neighbourhood who drove an ambulance on weekends for extra money and one of his assignments was out at Paradise Mesa dragstrip, so I got a ride out there.
“I had seen this kid from school and I said: “Hey Don, you don’t even have a driver’s licence, how are you drag racing a motorcycle here? Vesco said: ‘Oh, my dad signed for me.’ He was racing a borrowed motorcycle. I was about 13, he was 15, and I ended up with his hand-me-downs. Don and I were both in the Hi Boots Motorcycle Club because there were only dirt scrambles back in those days.
“It all started when Don started drag racing with his rigid Triumph on the Paradise Mesa dragstrip, where we started putting on road races. There was a bunch of really good guys in San Diego. Don, Cal Rayborn, Jim McMurren and myself were inseparable as kids, all racing together.
“Don was 16 when he bought his first Triumph, a T100R dirt-tracker from Guy Urquhart’s Triumph shop downtown. He didn’t race flat track very much at all, but that rigid flat tracker was the fastest bike that you could buy at the time, so he was taking it to the drag strip.
“For 1957 he bought a swingarm Triumph T100RS from Larry Lilley Triumph up in Lancaster. Don took that
