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/1408163
VOLUME 58 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 P129 Rayborn rode an iron-cylin- der XR racer owned by Harley- Davidson employee and tuner Walt Faulk. It was Rayborn's first appearance in England, so Emde showed him the way by drawing maps of the tracks they would race on a cocktail napkin. On the outdated bike and with no experience on the tracks, Rayborn went out and won three of the six rounds and tied Brit Ray Pickrell as the top scorer. That gave Rayborn instant hero status in Britain, and even more importantly it marked the beginning of recognition by the rest of the world that American riders, long thought only able to master oval dirt tracks, could be top contenders in international road racing. "I remember being on the inside of the Esso hairpin at Oulton Park one filthy wet spring day," said British journalist Frank Melling. "Sleet was falling mis- erably, and patchy fog finished off the picture. Out of the mist came a gaggle of triples led by Ray Pickerell, who was always hard on the brakes. Rayborn was about seventh. The surface was atrocious—beyond impossible for hard braking. Rayborn eased up the inside of the pack with the delicacy of a ballet dancer, squeezed the Harley through on the inside of Pickerell, and the booming twin accelerated away into first place, to the screams of the crowd. If I had just witnessed Moses parting the Red Sea, I couldn't have been more im- pressed." Calvin Rayborn II was born on February 20, 1940, and raised in San Diego. He began riding mo- torcycles when he was just eight years old. One of Rayborn's first jobs was working as a motorcycle delivery rider after school and during the summer. The teenage Rayborn built up thousands of miles of riding, as he put it, "as fast as I could, because that's how you made money in that business." Rayborn met Don Vesco at a local drag race in the late 1950s, and the two became good friends. They would travel to the races together, and Vesco tuned some of the bikes Rayborn raced. Rayborn also picked up sponsorship from Lou Kaiser, who had also helped the early racing careers of Joe Leonard and Jimmy Phillips. Vesco recalled that Rayborn would always cause him to be late to the races. "Calvin was shagging blue- prints and would be out there trying to make that last dime," Vesco recalls. "We'd leave my place at 5:00 p.m. and have to climb the fence at Gardena Speedway to get someone to open the gates to let us in so we could race." By the early 1960s, Rayborn was a regular winner in local club scrambles and TT meets popular at the time in California. He also started club road racing with Ves- co during this time, and it turned out that his hours of motorcycle delivery work had given him a great feel for the road courses. Rayborn's progress was slowed after he broke his back at a road race in Riverside, California. When he returned, he steadily moved up through the ranks and turned pro on the AMA Grand National Championship RAYBORN Rayborn's (and Harley's) last national road race victory happened at Laguna Seca in 1972. He was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.