Bruce Kessler had a meteoric motorsports career, which started with drag racing his mother’s Jaguar XK120, progressed to practicing for the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix, and ended with a horrific crash in a sports car race at Pomona in 1959, and it all happened in the span of six short years. Born in Seattle, his family subsequently moved to the Los Angeles area. His academic career ended with graduation from high school, and it was just as well because road…

Kessler at the wheel of Warren Olson’s Cooper Mark IX-Norton at Paramount Ranch, on his way to winning the 1955 West Coast Formula Three championship. That success helped gain him broader notice as a driving talent beyond just his local California clubs.
Photo: Allen Kuhn