In my toilet, next to a picture of Britney Spears, is a framed certificate from Guinness World Records. It proclaims that on April 8 last year I reached a world record speed of 141mph while driving an Audi S8 blindfolded. For the past year and a bit I’ve been able to complete my ablutions safe in the knowledge that nobody has ever driven faster without the aid of sight.

But not any more. On August 13 Mike Newman, a blind bank manager from Cheshire, achieved a two-mile average of 144mph in a Jaguar XJR. It was a stunning achievement, not least because Newman has been blind since childhood.

But his record did not make him the fastest blind man. That title belongs to Billy “the Whizz” Baxter, who on August 2 averaged 164.9mph on a Kawasaki Ninja motorbike.

In the space of a fortnight two men redefined the parameters of what’s possible for the blind drivers. And it doesn’t end there. Waiting in the wings is a cast of other blind speed demons with an eye for ever more demanding records. I decided to catch up with my erstwhile competitors and find out why it is they do what they do.

To my embarrassment Billy Baxter recognises my name when I call his office. “You’re a bloody lunatic,” he exclaims with a laugh, “but it’s nice to finally speak to you.”

Baxter picked up an eye infection while serving as a staff sergeant in Bosnia in 1997. “I’m no war hero, I just had an infection that hit both of my optic nerves and left me as a blind man with a wife and three kids,” he says. Far from sitting back and lamenting his bad luck, Baxter decided that being blind wouldn’t stop him enjoying himself. “I’d just returned from skiing in Italy when I realised that if I could ski, I could ride a motorbike again.”

He contacted the Royal Artillery Motorcycle Display Team who supplied two outriders and developed a three-way communication system to keep the Whizz in a straight line. They even devised a way of controlling his trajectory should the radios that directed him fail: while Baxter would throttle back, the outriders would pull alongside and lean on his shoulders until they came to a stop. “We practised it at over 100mph,” he explains nonchalantly. “It was like a comfort blanket.”

The previous motorbike record of 89mph that Baxter broke had been set in 2001 by Newman. But unlike Baxter, Newman had never ridden a motorbike before he set the record, nor had he driven a car before strapping himself into the XJR and reaching a peak speed of 155mph.

“It was my dream to drive a car on my own,” he says. “I also wanted to show that blind people have ambitions too, and to raise money for buying guide dogs.”

Newman claims he was happy to relinquish the motorbike record, but he will fight vigorously to defend the car record. His success may well depend on the efforts of another group of challengers who are pushing the boundaries of blind driving even further.

Mike Duxbury is arguably the most experienced blind driver in the country. He lost his sight as a six-year-old, but started driving a Land Rover at the age of nine and until recently was the proud owner of a Porsche 911 Turbo which he used on track days at Silverstone and Donington Park. Rather than just go flat out on a straight, Duxbury wanted to race around a circuit.

In 1993 he challenged a Formula Three driver to a race for charity. “We contacted the Jim Russell Racing School at Donington and I underwent a rigorous training programme that included time on a skidpan and learning to handle the car in emergencies.”

Duxbury also needed to develop a series of command prompts that could be delivered from the passenger seat to enable him to go around bends. “My brother and I adapted a Scandinavian rally technique,” he says, “with the number five equating to straight ahead, two, three or four representing the severity of a left turn, and six, seven or eight indicating a right.” Duxbury didn’t win his race but he did lap Donington at an average of more than 98mph.

Duxbury is the only blind person to have competed against a professional driver, but he’s not the only blind racer. Last October Miles Hilton-Barber and Caroline Casey went head to head at the Sepang grand prix circuit in Malaysia. Hilton-Barber drove a standard Lotus Elise, while Casey, with just 40 minutes’ driving tuition in a pickup, drove the Proton pace car used in the world sportscar championships.

Despite a spin at the hairpin, Hilton-Barber won the three-lap race and also established a blind lap record. “We were drunk on adrenaline,” he recalls. “It was a great moment I’ll never forget.”

Last year Hilton-Barber was voted alternative sports personality of the year and he has now set himself a target of piloting a microlight from England to Australia. Meanwhile the 31-year-old Casey wants to fly a light aircraft and race her blind sister from Ireland to England. But neither has targeted a speed record, unlike Duxbury and Baxter.

Duxbury is the disability access manager for Vodafone, a major sponsor of the Ferrari Formula One team. “It’s my dream to break the blind speed record and the 200mph barrier in a Ferrari F1 car,” he says. “If I was given time to understand its quirks, I think it would be possible.”

And if he joins the 200mph club he might have Baxter for company. “I will do 200mph on a motorbike by the time I’m 50,” says Baxter. “I’ve already done 180mph in practice and if I modify the Kawasaki it will be possible.”

Baxter, Duxbury and the other blind speeders will continue to enter races in a bid to inspire others. “I feel morally obliged to do this because I’m able bodied,” says Baxter.

As for me, that certificate will remain on my wall but from now on I think I’ll be leaving the blind speed records to the professionals.