ROAD safety charities expressed outrage last night after a motorist was clocked by police driving in excess of 150mph on the region's busiest road.

The 37-year-old Audi RS4 driver overtook a North Yorkshire Police officer in an unmarked car on the A1(M), south of the Thirsk junction, while driving at among the fastest speeds ever recorded in the country.

His car was travelling so fast that the police were unable to catch-up.

As the patrol car officer attempted to follow the sports-focused executive car shortly after midnight on Monday (June 15), police colleagues were alerted to an "extreme speed" incident.

It is not known how many other vehicles the £55,000 car, which weighs nearly 1.8 tonnes and has a top speed of 155mph unless the limiter is removed, overtook before it was finally intercepted, 20 miles further south, near Garforth, West Yorkshire.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said officers seized the vehicle, which Jeremy Clarkson extolled on Top Gear in 2013, and five mobile phones.

He added: "The driver was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and money laundering."

It is understood the driver, who is from the Bradford area and remains in police custody, could face a jail sentence and a lengthy driving ban if convicted of driving at more than double the speed limit.

In 2012, in what is thought to be the fastest speed case to come before a UK court, a West Midlands man was jailed for nine years for driving at 180mph in a similar car - an Audi RS5 - alongside other offences.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) said the highest speed recorded by police in England and Wales in 2014 was 146mph, on the M25.

The highest speed recorded in the region last year was 111mph on the A66 at Galley Bank, near Barnard Castle.

Kevin Delaney, the charity's head of safety and former head of the Metropolitan Police's road traffic branch, said a speed of 150mph equated to 225ft a second.

He said using the Highway Code stopping distances in dry conditions, it would have taken the car 1,275ft - nearly a quarter of a mile - to come to a halt, while the maximum range of the Audi's headlights would have only been about 150 yards.

Mr Delaney said: "Driving at that speed is either homicidal or suicidal, but it was definitely dangerous.

"If a deer went onto the road there would not have been a lot left of it - the car or the driver.

"No matter how good the brakes are, unless the driver turns out to be Lewis Hamilton, he would be unlikely to be able to use the braking potential of the car as the G-force would be too great.

"I would say the driver was extremely fortunate to have done that and got away with their life."

A spokesman for road safety charity Brake said treating roads like racetracks showed disregard for others.

He said: "It should be remembered that it’s not only extreme cases of speeding such as this that put people in danger – even breaking the limit by a little bit, or driving too fast for the conditions, can often be enough to cause a crash.”