Uckfield man sets UK record

Sussex electric motorcycle designer Phil Edwards is celebrating after setting a new UK record at Santa Pod Raceway at the weekend.

Phil, whose company Weald EVT is based in Uckfield, said he was shaking after his dragster smashed the record in its first outing on Saturday, May 14.

On subsequent runs fine tuning saw the electric motorcycle get even faster.

The new UK record, set by Phil's bike in the standing start quarter-mile run in the Alternative Energy Racing event, is 14.1245 seconds. The previous record was 14.99 seconds.

The dragster ridden by motorcycle racer Rob Moon, from Battle, reached speeds of 96.5 mph. The top speed of the previous record holder was 92.8mph.

Phil, aged 47 from Olives Meadow, Uckfield, said: "I am delighted to have broken the record, meeting the target I set myself a year ago. I have learned a huge amount in the process and look forward to pressing on with other projects which revolve around harnessing the raw power we created in the dragster."

Sharing in the excitement is Phil's family, wife Sue and teenagers Ben and Lucie who have supported him through the year of development.

Sue said: "In my heart I knew Phil would do it but there have been anxious times because our savings were invested in the project."

She added: "It has been very exciting to see interest in the dragster build up over the year and to see new projects coming in."

Phil will now be turning his attention to helping bring a new electric recreational motorcycle to market.

He is also working on an electric speedway bike and an electric track bike.

Development rider Rob Moon who set the new UK record on Phil's dragster will be competing for Team Agni in the TTXGP European Championship, the first clean emissions Grand Prix, and racing his own privately developed Yamaha R1 machine.

And the dragster? Phil is negotiating with a leading university which is interested in taking it on and developing it further.

Previous Uckfield News stories about Weald EVT:

Interest grows in Uckfield engineer's electric bike technology

Phil aims to build UK's fastest electric drag-racing bike