Norman Hyde, the legendary motorcyclist from Leamington, has been honoured to mark the 50th anniversary of his land speed record. Back in 1972, Norman who lives at Radford Semele, rode his home-built Roadrunner III to a speed of 161.8mph at RAF Fairford and in doing so achieved the World Sidecar Land Speed Record – an record unbeaten for more than 35 years.
Members of the Triumph Owners’ Club invited the 77-year-old along to the National Motorcycle Museum, near Birmingham, to present him with a cut-glass trophy and discuss not only this achievement but some of his other 13 world records. At one point Norman, worked as a development engineer for Triumph Motorcycles in Meriden and at the Lockheed factory before going on to run his own business supplying spares and modifications for Triumph Motorcycles.
Norman’s records included world short-distance speed records over two distances, a kilometre and a mile, across two different regimes – a standing start and a flying start. In the 1000cc engine class, Norman set the kilometre flying start record at 161.8 mph and standing start at 105.09 mph. His Roadrunner III was added to the National Motorcycle Museum’s collection in the 1980s.
Norman has also just completed a book on the history of the Leamington Tennis Court Club based in Bedford Street, Royal Leamington Spa where Real Tennis is played.
David Morse, October 2022
Acknowledgements: Text & Photographs:: Norman Hyde.