Fastest woman on a motorcycle is an IT analyst from Scunthorpe: 264.1mph speed record set by amateur racer whose husband built her superbike in their garage.
- Becci Ellis, 47, set the record on by going 264.1mph on her modified bike
- She smashed the previous fastest speed by 20mph at an airfield in Yorkshire
- The mother set the record on a second hand bike modified by her husband
- Now she has pledged to keep trying to get quicker and hang on to the record
The world’s fastest woman has been revealed as a British mother-of-two who smashed the land speed record by going 264.1mph on a motorbike her husband built.
IT analyst Mrs Becci Ellis set the record on her modified Suzuki bike, smashing the existing fastest land speed by 20mph. Mrs Ellis, from Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, bought the off-the-shelf bike second hand in 2008 to use as spares but after testing it on a track she realized it had potential to be a record-breaker.
Her husband Mick has spent the last two years tweaking the 1300cc bike and developing a one-of-a-kind turbo system
so his wife can reach break-neck speeds.
And his hard work finally paid off when on the 17th August 2014 Becci Ellis blasted down the one measured mile-long
course at Elvington airfield in North Yorkshire on her beloved 550bhp Suzuki Hayabusa bike at 264.1mph, destroying
American rider Jennifer Robertson’s existing record of 243.6mph.
The lightning-quick speed is the equivalent of traveling at a 118 meters a second and it took her just over 20 seconds to
complete the course.
It also makes her the fourth fastest rider in the world, just 30mph behind the overall world record set by the late
American rider Bill Warner who died in a crash during the record attempt.
The 47-year-old has been riding motorbikes since she was a youngster but it wasn’t until she met her husband (who was
a motorbike drag racer) in the early 1990s that she started racing.
She explained: “I’ve had a passion for bikes since I was nine years old and I knew that was what was going to help me
live my dream. I met Mick when I was 25 and working as a bike instructor. He had been drag racing since the 1970s and got me into it. I’ve always had a passion to be the best at something and it became obvious to me that I was going to try to be the fastest woman on two wheels. In 2008 I bought a second-hand Suzuki Hayabusa for spares but after testing it on the track I realised it was quick enough to set records on.”
“Mick has been building my bike’s boost system for a number of years and we’re the only people in the world using it.”
“The amazing thing is my bike is basically a street bike – I could put lights and indicators on it and it would be road legal.
The record for a standing mile on a conventional motorcycle ridden by a woman stood at 243.6mph which had been
held by an American rider since September last year. In June this year I managed 248.5mph and then in August I did 264.1mph. There is no other woman who has ever gone faster than me on a conventional two wheeled motorbike.
‘It was a dream come true. I know going that quickly could be dangerous but I don’t find it scary at all. I wouldn’t get on the bike if I didn’t have full confidence in it and the team running it.”
And now she predicts her new record will stand for years to come – but has vowed to keep trying to go quicker.
She added: ‘I get up to about 90mph in first gear before changing into second and then the boost from the turbo really
kicks in – it’s like being shot out of a gun, it’s so fast.
“I get an adrenaline rush but there’s no nerves. I’m totally focused and I know exactly what I’m doing. The feeling is phenomenal. I absolutely love it – I can’t get enough. Completing the mile only takes just over 20 seconds so everything’s over very quickly. It’s utterly exhilarating. I think my record will stand for some time. 20mph is a big increase – it’s the biggest increase in 40 years. I’ll keep trying to set speed records for as long as I can. I’ve no intention of stopping any time soon. I love it and when I can’t do it any longer I’ll help someone else to.”
