Biography
Kaye Earnest Donsky, known as Kaye Don, was born in Dublin on 10 April 1891. Kaye Don began his career as a motorcycle racer but soon switched to cars and won the inaugural 1928 Ards-Belfast circuit, Northern Ireland, Tourist Trophy with a Lea-Francis. In 1928 he had three ex-works Sunbeam cars which he named "Cub", "Tiger" and "Tigress". Don regularly raced at Brooklands and driving a Sunbeam on 22 September 1928 he set an outer circuit lap flying start record of 131.76 miles per hour (212.05 km/h) and increased this to 134.24 miles per hour (216.04 km/h) on 5 August 1929. Driving a Wolseley Viper at Brooklands Don achieved many class records between 1928 and 1930. Driving the V-12 Sunbeam Tigress at Brooklands on 9 June 1930, Kaye set a new Outer Circuit lap record of 137.58 miles per hour (221.41 km/h).
Kaye Don died in Chobham Surrey in 1981 aged 90. In memory of his heroic achievements at Brooklands race track the area has a street named after Kaye Don in the borough of Elmbridge District. Perhaps the best memorial to him was made by Kaye Don in a victory speech to the Empire Club of Canada in 1931, when he was the holder of land and water world speed records and said "One or two experiences that I have had have been somewhat thrilling".
Read more about this topic: Kaye Don
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)