A new world wheelie champion was crowned, a woman topped the speed trials and a motorised garden shed and world’s fastest toilet took honours at the Motorcycle Wheelie World Championship last weekend.
The new wheel champ is Gary Rothwell of Liverpool who carried the front wheel of his turbo Hayabusa aloft for a kilometre at just over 197.879mph (318.455km/h).
He beat 30 of the world’s top wheelie riders from Finland, France, Holland, Ireland, Sweden, UK and the US at the Motorcycle Wheelie World Championship on August 16 at Elvington Airfield, North Yorkshire.
Second was former champion Egbert Van Popta from Holland riding a Hayabusa Turbo to 195.805mph (315.117km/h) and third was Paddy O’Sullivan form Ireland riding a Suzuki GSX-R1000 at 189.822mph (305.488km/h).
There were also nearly 30 of the world’s top speed riders taking part in the top speed section.
The fastest was the UK’s fastest woman Beccie Ellis from Scunthorpe who rode her Hayabusa Turbo to 259.542mph (417.692km/h). After crossing the timing beam, she was caught by a gust of wind and blown off track where she crashed and broke her ankle, bruised some ribs and suffered whiplash.
Fastest rider Beccie Ellis on her Hayabusa TurboSecond was Jack Frost from North Ireland riding a Hayabusa Turbo 254.457mph (409.508km/h) and third was Les Marsh, Europe’s fastest grandad biker, from Cleveland riding a Hayabusa Turbo 245.622mph (395.290km/h).
But most eyes were on the range of strange vehicles put through their paces.
They included a jet powered shopping cart, a motorised garden shed, the world’s fastest toilet and one of the most powerful motorbikes in the world at 8000cc.
Top speed for an unusual vehicles was a motorised garden shed designed, built and driven by Kevin Nicks from Oxfordshire who did a top speed of 70.767mph (113.888km/h).
Second was a jet-powered shopping trolley made by Matt LcKeown form Plymouth with 55.8575mph (89.893km/h) and third was the Millyard Viper V10 8 driven by Allen Millyard form Berkshire, who took five years and £30,000 to design and build the bike. It reached a top speed of 182.511mph (293.722km/h).
There is no official top speed registered for the world’s fastest toilet, but Shawn Walker took it for a run, anyway.
