LEICESTER mascots Dan and Joe Thompson will step up to National League racing with the club next season.
The highly-rated twins, who turn 15 next April, have been familiar faces at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena for many years with regular appearances both on and off-track.
They have starred in the British Youth Championship in recent years, each winning one title at 125cc level.
And now in a move which is sure to delight the club’s supporters, they will take their first steps in league racing with the Lion Cubs, who will enter the full third tier competition for the first time in 2019.
Co-promoter Stewart Dickson said: “This is the whole idea of National League racing at the club, for us to develop young riders, and where better to start than with two local lads?
“Dan and Joe are Leicester through and through, and it’s great that the Leicester public get the opportunity to watch that development for themselves.
“The reality is that if the club wasn’t in the National League, then these lads would be plying their trade elsewhere. Now we have them in the team and hopefully they’ll be Championship riders in the next couple of seasons.
“They’ll both come in on 2.00 averages under the new system, which still leaves plenty of room to bring in five other riders up to the 32 points remaining, and it should make us a strong side.”
Dickson has confirmed that with the twins’ 15th birthday falling on Easter Monday (April 22), the club’s National League programme will not commence until after that date, and is likely to start the following weekend.
PICTURED: Dan (left) and Joe (right)
