Joe Thompson kicks off Scunthorpe team for 2023

SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS have commenced announcing their Championship line-up for the 2023 season – with the signing of talented teenager Joe Thompson.

It will be the first team that the 18-year-old Midlander will have ridden for a team other than Leicester, due to the Lions moving up to the Premiership next season. It is also the first time that Joe will ride in a team not also containing twin brother Dan.

Both the Thompson twins both came up through the junior ranks together, and in Joe’s case, he was British 125cc Champion in 2015. Both brothers also won the National League with Leicester Lion Cubs in 2019 and moved up to also ride for the main Leicester team in 2021. 2022 was another successful year for Leicester, again winning the NL, while they topped the Championship league table and finished as runners-up to Poole in the play-offs.

Joe enjoyed a great start to the 2022 season, which saw him move out of the reserve berth, but he found the going tough in the No 4 position.

Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “It made perfect sense to sign up Joe Thompson for our 2023 team.

“Joe and his brother Dan have always been really fast around our track, right from their youth racing days – they certainly know the best way around the Eddie Wright Raceway.

“With Leicester moving up, we’ve gone for Joe. We wouldn’t have minded having Dan in our side as well. But I think it will help them riding for different tracks.

“When you look back at the Worrall twins, they both started at Scunny together and that was initially a big help to be riding together. But it helped them later on when they split up and forged their own separate careers.

“Joe comes in on just a 3.00 average because he had a poor second half to the season. But if you look at this average across the whole season, it was much better at 4.15, so he’s on a gift of an average compared to his overall ability.”

Godfrey also confirmed that team manager Dave Peet, who missed the second half of last season after surgery to remove cancer, is back on board and helping with team planning.

He added: “When people see our whole team, they will see that bringing Joe in works absolutely perfectly.

“Dave has been a big part of this as well. He’s feeling a lot better and got himself out the week before last so Dave and myself have put this team together and we genuinely think this will be the team to emulate 2012 (Scunthorpe’s title-winning year), something we’re long overdue to do.

“Dave and I looked at everything, we had lots of permutations with what we could do, and we feel this is the best way to achieve something for next year.”

Scunthorpe will announce their second signing for 2023 next week.