127mph Vespa: Adie Horrocks claims eight world speed records | SPORT

Last week flew by for Green Light Scooter’s rider, Adie Horrocks. He took part in the Straightliner’s Speed Week at Elvington, York on his Vespa Smallframes and made history.

Adie has recently made the switch to track racing with the BSSO and BSEC but can still go fast in a straight line as well. As he proved very well at Elvington. In fact, he broke no less than eight official World Records last week and is the World’s Fastest Vespa Rider!

Those records included a 127.514 mph and a 126.135 mph run, which gave an average speed of 126.824 mph (speed records are done over two runs with an average speed taken). Adie’s top speed run is just short of Eric Cope’s 127mph Lambretta top speed record.

Adie beat his own 122 mph record from 2022 and is pushing for 130. That’s very fast on 10″ wheels!

Fastest single-run speeds

125cc – 117.2 mph

244cc – 127.5 mph

These records were achieved on a 125cc, 36bhp BFA/FRT powered Vespa smallframe and a 244cc BFA/FRT smallframe.

What does 127mph on 10″ wheels feel like?

We asked Adie what it feels like to do 127mph on a smallframe Vespa? “Well, it’s certainly exhilarating, a massive adrenaline rush. The level of concentration is maxed out as I am listening to any slight change in the engine note, as well as making sure the scooter is staying stable and the little bit of ‘normal’ movement isn’t going to escalate. At the speeds I’m doing, I just can’t slam the brakes on, as that will unsettle the scooter, which could cause me more problems. I’ve had to learn this during my time over 120 mph on the runway, as I can’t replicate all of this anywhere else.”

Proper fun though…”

121mph shock failure!

Adie’s Speed Week wasn’t all plain sailing, though, and a couple of incidents could have ended very badly for him.

The sequence of photos in the gallery above are the results of what happens when your rear shock absorber snaps at 121mph…

Adie said “Off I went again, I was pretty determined to go faster on this run, I wound the throttle on earlier and got into position on the scooter.  I hit the mile marker and was feeling good and stable when I thought I had hit a bump as the back end dipped a little, but it didn’t come back, so I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t just slam the brakes on.. Slowly closing the throttle was the only option, looking up I could see Paul (Straightliners crew) waving frantically at me, trying to tell me to stop (not easy at 120+ mph). Then I could hear a loud scraping noise, and I could see gusts of smoke. Finally, I came to a stop and jumped off the scooter as I thought I could have been on fire.”

“I had suffered a rear shock failure which lowered the back end of the scooter; the tyre was now rubbing on the engine case, which produced the smoke. The shock snapped at 121mph. The back of the engine went up, so the front went down, bringing the belly of the expansion chamber into contact with the runway. These things happen, but thankfully not every day.”

121mph tank-slapper

He’d already had worse earlier in the day, though. Adie said, “The tank-slapper I had earlier that day on the 125cc at 108mph was worse, though, and it just would not stop for ages; I thought that was not going to end well, but I managed to get it under control eventually, lol.”

Even racing in a straight line can be very dangerous but the need for speed is addictive…

Iggy

Thanks to Mike Crabtree for the images.