An Interview with scooter legend Chas DeLacey
In the early days of scooter racing in the 1970s there were many great characters, but none more prolific than Chas de Lacy…
Former Lambretta Concessionaires employee Chas DeLacey fills in a few historic gaps with Stu Owen.
One of the perks of being an employee of Lambretta Concessionaires was the staff discount. Chas soon took up the option in the shape of brand new SX 200 at a greatly reduced premium, promoting him into the premier league of scootering overnight.
The scooter racing scene in Britain during the late Sixties and early Seventies was a frenetic period of time. With an abundance of cheap second-hand Lambrettas and Vespas in supply, just about anyone and everyone tried their hand on the track. Some were more successful than others and would spend years parading their talents within the scooter racing scene. For one or two individuals though, it would be a short-lived but rewarding career before moving on within the racing world.
Lambretta Gremlins
Chas de Lacy never intentionally set out to own a Lambretta or any other scooter for that fact; it came about more by chance. Having left school in the mid-1960s his first job was working for a photographic laboratory. One of his many duties required him to pick up material from clients using the staff bike, a Raleigh Roma. It was no racing thoroughbred, far from it, but it did give Chas the sense of freedom out on the open road. Soon afterwards he moved on to a better-paid job, but this meant losing the use of the company transport. Intent on keeping his upwardly mobile status, £40 would secure him the purchase of a Li 150 series 11. It was way ahead in terms of power and performance compared to the tiny Roma and set about his interest in anything to do with the Lambretta.
The Lambretta was the easy choice for Chas to make when purchasing his first scooter. Though the Vespa was seen as more appealing to the layman, it didn’t have the looks and the sleek lines of the Lambretta. More important was the fact that in the TV and SX the Lambretta had a 200cc engine, something the Vespa didn’t have. Though the series 11 would do in the meantime, there were greater aspirations of owning an SX 200 one day. Having started to do the essential basic maintenance on his scooter, the purchase of such magazines as Scooter World would help with articles on the subject. The magazine would provide far more than just that though. Stacked with a wealth of information on clubs and rallies, it opened up a whole new world. Soon enough Chas became a member of his local club the Cheam Cheetahs and not long afterwards, the Lambretta Club Great Britain.
By then the teenager from Merton was becoming more involved with the fast pace of life as the swinging Sixties seemed to
step up a gear. Not only was he involved in the world of scooters but also the world of music. Chas was a guitarist in a beat group called The Gremlins, who had just started recording and later went on to support groups such as Pink Floyd. Though music was his passion, the reality was that he would still need some kind of employment to keep him going financially. Having found out that Lambretta Concessionaires was just around the corner in Croydon, a phone call was made to see if there were any job vacancies.
Company policy was to take on the local population for employment where possible and Chas soon found himself working in the service department. One of the perks of being an employee of Lambretta Concessionaires was the staff discount. Chas soon took up the option in the shape of brand new SX 200 at a greatly reduced premium, promoting him into the premier league of scootering overnight.
Regularity of racing
Now armed with the powerful SX 200, Chas was keen to embark on a career of scooter racing, even though it only partially existed at the time. Having read about the regularity trials in Jetset magazine, courtesy of the LCGB, it seemed like fun. The problem was the trials that were often set in either 12 or 24-hour format were a bit boring. The idea was to keep to an average speed over the allotted time, the winner being the person nearest to the average. This wasn’t racing as such, but Chas recalls that the organisers would deliberately set the average to high, meaning you would have to go much faster. The other method was to slow down for a while meaning in the last hour you would be going flat out to get your average back up. Despite all these tricks it wasn’t racing as such, but pressure from riders and clubs were going to force it to happen sooner or later.
Exactly that happened in 1970 with the first full season of scooter circuit racing held in Britain and Chas was right in the middle of it. Its overnight popularity was huge with vast numbers of riders joining in but also many teams were forming all over the country. For now, though, Chas would remain a one-man band with his new GP 150 that during the week was his vehicle to commute to work on but by the weekend it would become his race machine. Keen to do the tuning on the engine himself, learning from his experience at Lambretta Concessionaires was a good starting point. Help was gained by local tuner Ron Moss, who would port the barrel for Chas who, in return, would paint his Lambretta in the Supertune scheme until Ron left to go and work at Roy’s of Hornchurch, more commonly known as Royspeed.
Learning the skills of racing a Lambretta seemed natural to Chas as he slowly moved his way up the grid. He competed not just at track circuits like Snetterton, Mallory Park and Cadwell Park, but also straight line sprinting at RAF Fulbeck and hill climbs and twisty sprints at Curborough and Baitings Dam. It seemed as if anywhere there was a Tarmac surface Chas would race his Lambretta on it. As he became more successful and started winning, more power was required. To move forward would mean working with others to achieve that goal.
Teamwork
Chas was part of a group of enthusiasts dedicated to both racing and tuning. This consisted of brothers Alan and Dave Jupp, Paul Marshall and Barry Passingham. Though a member of the Cheetahs, Chas, along with the others, would soon get
In his class, the 150 standards, he was unstoppable, taking several records along the way to becoming the 1972 British scooter sprint champion.
associated with Bromley Lambretta Club known as ‘The Innocents’. This was a club that concentrated more towards racing and soon they all joined as racing clubs wanted to win championships as well, good riders being the answer. The Jupp brothers and Paul Marshall were beginning to get a good reputation for their tuning and engineering work and they formed JJM racing. Several others used their services, including Chas and the great Nev Frost.
Working as a close-knit group, ideas, facilities and machines were shared. At one point, after Chas and his wife had their first child, it meant he didn’t have as much time to go racing. The GP 150 was loaned to Alan Jupp, which is why his name appeared on the side panels in later years. Even Nev Frost borrowed it on odd occasions, using his great riding skills to take the machine on to win even more races. This was what made the team so successful, by having a great friendship among them and all fighting for the same goal.
Though The Innocents were good, Nev Frost, who was the driving force behind them, wanted to take the challenge to other teams even further. This would mean bringing in other riders, some of whom raced Vespas. As The Innocents were a Lambretta-only club, this meant a new one had to be formed. It was decided in the end to call the team ‘Bellerophon’, named after a hero of Greek mythology, a slayer of monsters. The idea seemed to be a cheeky swipe at their biggest rivals on the track at the time, the Kensington scooter club named Team Pegasus. If anything it showed how rivalry on the track was competitive but also light-hearted.
The teamwork within Bellerophon and, more importantly, JJM, was certainly helping Chas on the track. Though he did the majority of work on his own Lambretta, there were ideas used on other machines within the team that found their way onto his. Like anyone who goes racing, there is always the quest to go even faster and Chas, like anyone else, was always trying to find new ways to improve performance. Even though he was having good success on the circuits, it was sprinting where Chas came to the forefront. In his class, the 150 standards, he was unstoppable, taking several records along the way to becoming the 1972 British scooter sprint champion. It was a great achievement and one that was hard fought, as there were so many other riders competing for the same accolade.
A bright finish
By the end of 1972 Chas had achieved his goal of becoming a champion within a sport that was going through many changes. Production of the Lambretta scooter had stopped altogether at Innocenti, which was seen as a threat due to the worry that interest would slowly die off. In fact, it did totally the opposite, with an influx of cheaper second-hand machines flooding the market, it made racing cheaper. Chas, like many other racers, was so engrossed in what he was doing he didn’t give the closure at Innocenti a second thought and just carried on racing.
At home things were also changing. Now married, his first daughter was born at the end of 1972 and home life started to take over. Finances became tighter while the focus of risking your life going racing didn’t seem quite as important as it was before. Plans were made to build a kneeler-type sprinter to run alongside the full-bodied Lambretta, but by the end of 1973 Chas decided to call it a day.
Though it wasn’t intentional, not only did the racing stop, but also going to meetings, but living near to Brands Hatch meant there was the opportunity to go and watch the odd motorcycle or car race. Doing so, in the end, made him realise that the racing bug never actually leaves you and in 1986 he returned back to the track, but this time on four wheels, not two. This allowed Chas to compete competitively in the Alpha Romeo Championships for five seasons before finally calling it a day.
Though most will remember Chas for his racing exploits, it must never be forgotten how he led the way with his machine preparation, most notably the paintwork. Its contrasting dark and light green colours were offset with a white number board hugging the shape of the GP side panels. Finished off with the rider’s name, this was a definitive forerunner to the modern day street racer style, not forgetting his racing helmet painted in the same colours and featuring his race number, an early influence perhaps on what Moto GP riders do today. So not just content playing in a band or racing a car, Chas de Lacy will always be remembered as one of the early influences on British scooter racing and a true champion.