Rob North (June 30, 1940 – October 16, 2024) was born and raised in Coventry, England. His sidecar racing in the early 1960s led to starting a business primarily selling road race sidecar frames (chassis). Coventry is where the Triumph factory was located, so he knew people there, including Percy Tait (racer and part of the Engineering dept at Triumph). It was Percy who recommended Rob to Doug Hele (head of racing) to build the race frames for the 1970s BSA and Triumph 750 Triples. Years later, working for Don Vesco, Rob built the rolling chassis for Don’s turbine-powered Turbinator- still the world’s fastest wheel-driven vehicles (record of 458 mph set in 2002). Don’s brother Rick has since run it at Bonneville (pilot Dave Spangler) and hit a top speed of 503, but never put the needed two runs together to earn the record.
I took the first photo at Rob’s shop in National City years ago. Not sure who pulled the trigger on the second photo on my camera? This was in 2007 at an AHRMA vintage race at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. I was invited to take some exhibition laps on Rob’s own “Tribute bike.” It had the names of the British riders who rode those Triples on the right side of the seat and the American riders on the left. (Because British riders used right-foot shift and American riders used left-foot shift.)
More, from Rob North’s daughter, Zoey North Johnson:
Rob, age 84, widowed, survived by:
Children
Robert (Vanessa) Cain, North Wales
Richard (Tina) North, Alabama
Zoey (Todd) Johnson, Wisconsin
Chantelle (Ben) Gibbens, Texas and California
Rhena (Gary) Kirkes, Texas
Grandkids
Kay, Richard (Emily), Briana (Luis), Todd, Chloe, Shelby, Kayla, Michael
Great Grandkids
Eliana and Kaiden
Lots of Nieces and Nephews in England and USA
We are working on a celebration. We will have it figured out in a few days. He was cremated in Chicago and I will pick him up October 31st and bring him back to Kenosha until the celebration.
Highly possible it could be Bonneville. He wanted to go back there again. But we will let you know. Thank you. Everyone’s kind words and stories about him mean more to us than you know.