The Silver Haired Scooterist
THE LEGENDS
Luke Kitto
Lesley Cross
Ted Parrott
Brian Hull
Luke Kitto
Pete Woodland
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. It was a pre-arranged meet with Norrie and Janet Kerr, Gordon Roper, Steve and Mike Hare, Alan Atkins, Peter and Sue Curphey, Sheila and Luke Kitto and myself getting to enjoy memories of great times and a friendship of some 55 years.
Scootering began for Luke 1958 when he started work for a local engineering firm who specialised in agricultural and garden machinery. A Lambretta LD150 provided an economical way to get to work, from that a lifelong interest in scootering started. A local motor(cycle) club always ran an invitation event on Good Friday, so Easter 1959 was Luke’s first attempt at a competitive event on a scooter and he won an award.
In early 1960 he met with the late Ken Harris who ran the Vespa dealership in the local area and was soon to be converted to Vespa, from that he joined the South Devon Vespa Club, this involved regular Club runs to local beauty spots and competitive events, ultimately resulting in trips to the Isle of Man Scooter weeks.
These weeks were organised by the Isle of Man Scooter Association, and it meant competitive events each day, such as the Manx 400 which was 12 continuous laps of the TT course on open roads, a night event over various types of terrain, also sand racing on the beach in Douglas, and hill climbs on the west coast of the island at Peel. Luke continued to attend these until they ceased in 1976, when he won the overall event, after he had been runner up on two previous occasions, previously he won the team award with Bob Young & Ted Parrott.
Events enjoyed over the years have been VCB national rallies, the ACU 600 which was a point to point at which you had to cover a total of 600 miles in 24 hours visiting designated spots along the way finishing in Battersea Park, London. Luke has always been competitive and enjoyed competing and winning in the Vespa championship and Federation of British Scooter Clubs’ championships.
When not competing Luke also acted as VCB Council Member and Steward at some of the early race meetings and hill climbs. I can only imagine Luke saved many of us younger hotheads lives with his rigorous pre-race scrutineering on the Island.
Over the years he has owned many Vespa models including GS150 and 160, SS180, 90SS, 100 Racer, 125 ETS. His fleet today comprises 150 GS and 1953 Rod Type which he has painstakingly restored after it was found in a shed locally and was originally sold in a dealership 300 yards from where he now lives, also his youngest bike a Vespa T5. When not competing Luke also acted as VCB Council Member and Steward at some of the early race meetings and hill climbs.
After a lapse of several years Luke and Sheila met up with Vespa friends at a rally in Northampton in 1996, since then they have attended and enjoyed many events including the Vespa World Days in Zell am See, Austria and the Vespa World Days in Belfast in June 2018, followed by the Veteran Vespa Club rally in Wicklow, Southern Ireland.
In 2016 Luke & Sheila returned to the Isle of Man to join Mark Kelly for his two-day event and were pleased to see that the Island hadn’t changed. True to a promise they made in 2016 to return to the Island, they returned in 2022 and met up with entrant/friends, some of whom they had not seen for 50 years.
They have happy memories over the years of friendly competition with the now late Ian Kirkpatrick, Bob Young and Peter Chapman and glad to meet on occasions with well-known names from the scootering world such as Norrie Kerr, John & Norman Ronald, Dave Oldland and many more.They are both very happy to still be involved in a sport that has so well stood the test of time.
