Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125730
VESCO, CARRUTHERS FORM WINNING By Dave Swift Don Vesco pulled into his shop 45 minutes late for our appointment. He and his wife, Norma, shared a newspaper article with everyone in his little office about Pat Evans, one of Don's racers who was recen tly injured in a freak accident. I stepped up and introduced myself and he merely agreed - yes, I definitely was from Cycle News. We looked at each other for a minute; everyone of the 1000-odd questions I had mentally prepared faded into obscurity. Eventually, I came up with a good one: "Where's Kel?" "In the shop. I think." In the shop, Kel Carruthers hovered over a tableful of transmission parts,. juggling them and checking off a list. After exchanging polite amenities, the three of us engaged in a conversation the depth of which would have Joe Pyne looking like William F. Buckley. "Did you have any trouble at Atlanta?" "No. Not really." "How much mqdification do you perform on a racer after it comes out of a box?" "We modify every part." "Why do you choose to race Yamahas?" c ": .., ::l ~ w Z W ...J (.l >(.l ~'They're cheap." And so on. Don Vesco has transcended the role of super-tllner, and is now treading in areas of 1me art. His enormously successful TD2 and TR2 roadracers have slowly, painfully, crept up the standings of major event after major event for the last three years until he pulled a coup at Road Atlanta in April. Don won the top two spots in the 250 Amateur/Expert 50-miler. World Champion Kel Carruthers is not out-horsed on Don's 250's and the only person to give him a hassle was Cal Rayborn, on another Vesco wonderbike. In the I 25-miler, Kel was badly under-powered compared to all the factory-prepared multis sporting a a minimum of twice the displacement. Cal Rayborn had the sense to get back on his works Harley. But Don's TR2 ran flawlessly. Once on the pipe, the Yamaha has a competitive power-to-weight ratio and a rider like Kel Carruthers easily takes up the other loose end. The race was a tribute to Vesco's immaculate preparation. Kel would have placed much higher and possibly won Daytona few weeks earlier except a melted oil breather tube forced Carruthers to cool it early in the race 60'4•• Stat. S,••4wa, CO". P,.s••ts SPEEDWAY RACING Class A Ere" ' ••s4a, 8.,i.ai., June 15 .....11'""""""",11'","""""1 8 pm I II nlll . I Ii , ••tlra Co. fai,,'OI.4s Gen. Adm. $2.50 Reduced rates for children and servicemen Free programs For info: (213) 630-1155 SRA Sanctioned fr•• Pa,ii., (Fairground Exit Ventura Frwy) Ii I KAWASAK'II I 11 U II I 1,629 E!.~Co 's MotorcyclesPhon.-I ; all 1971 models available for immediate delivery! S. L c:"II"""II"II'""",;;'=.J Sa:::,: when he was running fourth right behind Dick Mann. He finished lOth. (Kel and Cal also had won the 250 classic at Daytona the day before, by the way.) Alone, I went to lunch for a head-sera tching session. Something just wasn't clicking; I had spent two hours wasting Carruther's and Vesco's time; I had taken four units of one of the most precious ingredients that goes into Don's machines. I wasn't ready for t,he blunt, but gentle, replies I was receiving to my myriad of blunt, dumb questions. To Vesco, I didn't seem to be much more interested in him than people that bother him every other day of the week. After my encounter session with a salad, I found Kel, still juggling the same parts. Carruthers had won the World Champion roadracing (he pronounces it "rewd ricing") title for Benelli in 1969. He had the usual disagreements with the factory and left. His pal, Rod Gould, got him a Yamaha 250 and used 350 to race, and he eventually met Vesco. A few more months of bad experiences with the European factories and Kel was ready to come work with Don permanently. While Kef related this length y and enjoyable monologue, taking full advantage of his thick Australian accent and English idioms, Don Quietly padded in and perched himself on one of the four roaclracers huddled into a comer the one marked "Rayborn". We talked about his land speed record. "Yarnaha called me and asked me to go for the record. I didn't really want to do it. After speed week, they decided I couldn't do it after all. That's when I did it." The streamliner was built in a couple of months from an old aircraft drop tank. It is entirely too heavy; in general, the 'liner, save the engines, is obsolete. It now sits under the shop, sharing a four·car garage with a variety of the dusty, maimed bikes that dealers always seem to gatner. The 'liner is a mess. "It was going to be in a show in Idaho. They took it away in a big semi with four or five bikes from California. I didn't see it for six weeks. While they were bringing it back the trailer must have come loose I really don't know what happened, and whoever does is not talking. Now th e bike looks worse than when I crashed it. The tail is destroyed, so is the underpan' and motor mounts. They managed to bend a short half-inch aluminum plate. And the engines are full of water. It'll cost about $800 to get it back into shape. " At Bonneville, Don went through the traps at 260 mph; a tire had blown and he was sliding. "How did that feel?", I wondered out loud. Vesco got a blank look and muttered, "Not too good. I'm 'glad the parachute went off." It was e->ident he wished to discuss it no further. He went home after that and Yamaha, in a manuever of bureaucratic naivtee, withdrew their support. Vesco went back a month later with backing, . mostly moral, from Champion spark plugs. With runs between the Blue Flames he achieved his LSR of 251 mph plus. Two 350 cubic-centimeter TR2 road racing engines did the trick and the only thing radical about the whole machine' was the gearing. The engines could still run quite well after the run. In a month, Harley-Davidson would smash the record. with twice the displacement, a stroke almost as long as the wheelbase, Lord-knows-how-much