o
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A broken crankshaft prevented Do n Vesco fro m b reaking Cal Rayborn' s mo torcycle Land Speed Re cord . Vesco' s wif e, Norma, offers their pet dog a 200 MPH rid e. He ref used.
The riles of
speed
By Ja ck Mangus
WENDOVER, lITAII , AUG. 18-24
The Corbin-Gent ry battery powered cycle set new reco rd s in th e
Electric/Experime nt a l cla ss, going 165 MPH .
Ve sco's liner : T he best la id pla ns of
men a nd . . • Yamahas.
Warner Riley went 19 9.500 on h is
Har ley .
Although Don Vesco failed to set
a -new absolute motorcycle Land
Speed Record as expected, the
26th Annual Bonneville Nationals
week provided speed freaks with
out-a-sight weat her, excel lent
(albeit dirty) salt and records
galore.
12
Vesco's
twin
Yamaha
TZiOO-powered streamliner. slightly
modified to accept the two fou r
cylinder. two-stroke powerplants, was
an odds-on favo rite to top the late Cal
Rayborn's 265 l\1 1'1I world record. T he
power was there and Vesco had p ro ven
his abi lity bo th to construc t and pilot a
streamliner success fully countless tim es
in the past.
While us ually a " nickel and dime"
part wr it es fa ilure on Bonneville efforts ,
this time it was a majo r part t hat ru in ed
t he Vesco effort. /\ broken crank.
suffered during a Wednesday even ing
qua lifying fu n . all but wrote finished on
t he efforts of the EI Cajon. Ca lifornia
resident.
That run had qualified Vesco hy a
safe m ar gin - 251 l\IP lI . Efforts late r in
the week to run wi th six cylin de rs doing
their up an d down act fai led to get t he
st reamliner rolling at anything .ab o ve the
qualifying run and Ra yb orn 's reco rd is
safe - at least for a few more weeks.
The n
Den n is
1\1 ann i n g •s
Norlon .powe red streamliner, and
probably Vesco's will take ano ther shot
at the one record that really counts in
the m inds of sponsors, advertisers and the
public
/\ 11 reco rds co unt for each and every
one of t he competi tors who make the
a nnua l trip to Speed Mecca. When -t he
week ended . many Easterners had put
their na mes in th e reco rd hooks.
Topping the list was Florida's Scott
Gu thrie . Sco tty to o k ho me four reco rds
wi th o ne llarl e y-David so n . T ha t fea t has
been d u pli cat ed in t he past, h u t never
to pped .
Complete re co rds we re unavailable at
press time. but will ap pear in nex t
week's paper. Lo o k at t he m. Behind
each and every onc lies a story. So me
untellab le, like the one belonging to
Ne w Jersey's Bria n Erickson. His swin
arm is lettered " Leo's Ca t 1I0 us
Special." Nuff said?
