PENSIONER speed demon Pete Williams has always enjoyed defying the odds and his detractors.

The 74-year-old spends his time building bikes and racers in his Culcheth workshop when he is not trying to break speed records.

He clocked a personal top speed of 203.1mph at Elvington runway in Yorkshire in August 2014 using a nitrous oxide boost on his Suzuki Hayabusa bike.

Now Pete is aiming to reach a speed of almost 300mph when he finishes building his three-wheel land speed racer which is powered by a Viper jet engine from an aircraft.

The Beaverbrook Avenue resident has been working on 'Two-Faced', named after his original double-engine Triumph drag bike from the 1960s, for about 15 months.

And he reckons there is about another year of work ahead of him before it is ready for a speed test at Pendine Sands in South Wales where many speed records have been set.

It is all being slowly funded by Pete's pension and loans with the two rear wheels costing him £680 alone.

He said: "I’m hoping I can get somewhere towards 300mph – preferably on the ground!

"I’m probably not going to get a record but I just want to see what I can do as a personal best.

"I had a target speed of 200mph originally and I’ve done several runs above that on my bike.

"Now it’s time to put the jet in the land speed racer and see how much faster I can go.

"Some people talk about adrenaline rushes but I don’t get that. I just get a good feeling of satisfaction that I’ve done what I set out to do.

"The only time I’ve got an adrenaline rush was when I was driving my car on Bridge Foot and some idiot cut me off. I was seething.

"I get a few butterflies when I’m coming up to the line and ready to go as I worry something might go wrong. It’s a bit like stage fright.

"But once the engine is running and I’m in gear I just concentrate on the run."

Pete, a member of the Straightliners Club, has let nothing stop him including a heart attack in 1998 and bowel cancer in 2010 which involved chemotherapy and 27 doses of radiotherapy.

He also came off his bike in 1977.

Pete, who has been racing for more than 50 years, added: "I was spinning around at about 120mph when I hit the deck and cartwheeled down the runway.

"When I finished bouncing and sliding I got up and walked away but I had bad cuts and bruises and my skin was off every joint down my left hand side.

"People say: ‘Are you mad? Do you have a death wish?’ If I had a death wish I wouldn’t bother to get my cancer treated.

"There is a risk to it but it’s calculated. Now I’m going to be inside a vehicle I feel safer because even if it flips I’m strapped in there and I have a fire suit."