The Silver Haired Scooterist
Luke Kitto was and still is one of the humblest people I know. We caught up on the Isle of Man last year during the 2022 Scooter week, sitting on my 90ss brought back great memories and you couldn’t get the smile off his face.
I was born the same year the Vespa was launched, 1946. When Vespa was 50, I was 50, and so on. My life with Vespa all started in 1966 when I bought a wee 1961 Vespa 125, a 152L2 model to be exact, and through that wee scooter, I’ve been to foreign lands, met wonderful people, and made many friends. I’ve been 54 years with Vespa, it’s still part of my life.
I was introduced to AVVC by my good friend of over 55 years, Tony Simpkins. After leaving the club meetings most of us would ride down Park Street to the Wimpy Bar for a burger and coca cola spider.
After gaining skills over a few years I managed to win the overall champion title in the British Scooter Grass Track Championship, years 1970, 71 and 73.
Looking back at these old photos gives me goose bumps when the chasing group includes the legendary Nev Frost (2) and Brian Hull (47) waiting for me to make one mistake.
In 1972 I set out to become the overall champion in the BSGTC for the third consecutive year.
It was great to become the 1973 overall champion in the British ScooterGrass Track Championship for the third time prior to emigrating to Australia
I only managed two or three rounds in ’74 due to emigrating to Australia and snuck in at 7th overall.
I became adept at leaping over wooden structures and shooting through water pipes. The white business shirt eventually changed to one piece leathers in future years.
The IOM has a small race track called Onchan Raceway and every day they had a couple of sessions where you could hire midget racing cars. I think I spent more time there than on my scooter. I spent so much money there that they let me drive a tuned up model called the White Flash.
Quote from Scooter World: “With Dot Hasler as Scooter Queen and Peter Chapman as Scooter King (both on 90ss Vespa’s) the Isle of Man Scooter Rally was as pleasant as it was surprising”
Said Colin Morgan (Torbay Tigers): No, I didn’t do very well but I finished in practically everything including the sand races. This is my first Manx. I’ve been over the full week. On Sunday I got 3,000 penalties. That must be something like a record. I broke a throttle cable and was 45 miinutes late, but I finished. In the hill climb I didn’t do much-it was very wet but I enjoyed the Druidale. Some sheep got in my way too. My scooter is a Lambretta 150 but it’s bored out to 175.
I need your help in identifying certain aspects of the photos below, it might be the event, the person or the year so I can insert them into the correct posts.
The tow bar broke and I was overtaken by my own trailer which then overturned in front of me!!
VESPA 125 CORSA “ALLOY FRAME” 1949
In 1949 Vespa was first built with a race chassis which was made from the same aluminium alloy used for the construction of aircraft and was assembled with rivets, alloy wheels and technology which was highly advanced during the 40’s.
The fuel tank and steering position gave the rider more autonomy which resulted in the optimisation of high speed riding. Vespa 125cc Corsa participated to many competitions and celebrated many prestigious victories in 1950, with the riders Giuseppe Cau and Dino Mazzoncini achieving the first and second place in the Grand Prix of Bologna; In the same year Cau also won at the Circuit of Perugia riding Vespa 125 in the race No. 38. Worldwide only six copies of this model along with some prototypes were ever produced by Piaggio.