
Ellesmere Port school boy, Joe Francis took his second podium on the trot on the GR Motosport / WD40 Specialist backed Banks Racing GP125.
In only his 2nd ride at Oulton Park, Joe started the weekend well upping the pace from the last event and continuing to improve. The Peter Banks GP125 showed its full potential lurking very close to the top of the speed traps with Joe making the most of it in qualifying to secure 10th on the grid.
Joe’s race start left a little to be desired dropping to 18th at the first turn but by the end of the lap he was back with the leading group. At only 14 Joe showed his maturity on live TV by settling into a fantastic rhythm and lapping faster than qualifying to catch the leaders. The last 3 or 4 laps had everyone on the edge of their seats as he battled with the much more experienced riders for the podium places. Down to the last corners and Joe captured 2nd place an awesome effort!
Jumping from 4th to 2nd place in the Cup Championship The Banks Team are proud of their achievements and look forward to Brands Hatch.

Our first outing with Hudson Kennaugh at Oulton went very smoothly as he settled back into the Aprilia RSV4, throughout practice and qualifying we made good improvements to the setup but unfortunately were caught out a little in the weather-struck weekend so were not able to make the most of the potential. Hudson made a good start to the race but ran into a little trouble with fallen riders. As he started to settle into the rhythm the pace car was deployed while the brilliant marshals made repairs to safety fencing as the pace car pulled in Hudson started to move forward only to have the race red flagged with 4 laps to go, as he was in sight of the points.
“I am very disappointed this is not the result we were looking for but I am sure we will be right up there very soon.” Hudson Kennaugh
Brent Gladwin, Managing Director of GR Motosport added: “We expected more from the Superstock 1000 but things just seemed to work against us all weekend, Hudson did a good job and we know there is much more to come from him. The updated livery looks great! Now we need the results to look the same and we are working hard to make that happen. Young Joe had to overcome quite a few strange things over the weekend but he showed his metal to bring home a stunning result so close to his home town. We are all really looking forward to Brands Hatch and hope to see you al there."



