James Lodge
2010 saw 21 year old James Lodge win the highly competitive Speedy Retail® 125GP British Championship for the second time in a row and joins an illustrious list of names including Mike Hailwood, Barry Sheene and Bill Ivy who have also won this championship. The series is run within the televised British Superbike Championship, the most well supported motorsport series in the UK.
James was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. He is a chemistry student at the University of Manchester. Having only ridden a motorcycle since he was 16, he won his first British Championship, the top level of competition in the UK, after only 4 years. For 2011 James is moving up to the competitive Metzeler Superstock Championship. He is looking for support to help with his future racing ambitions.
James Lodge started racing in 2005 aboard an ageing Yamaha 125, riding at club meetings in New Era, Darley Moor and then onto the ACU championship in 2006 where he finished 4th overall. He competed in his first British Championship meeting at Brands Hatch, and finished 12th on his standard Honda.
For 2007 James competed again in the national ACU Motostar championship, finishing 3rd overall with two race victories. He Also entered three British championship races with the RS Racing team, getting a best qualification of 9th and a best race result of 9th. In 2008 James was a full time competitor in the British 125GP Championship. Running and working on his own bike for the first ten rounds he achieved a best qualification of 2nd, and a best race result of 4th, including a further 5th place, three 7th place and two 9th place finishes. For the last two rounds in the championship he got a ride with the KRP team as a replacement rider, and got two 2nd place qualifications, a 4th and a maiden race win at Brands Hatch at the last round. This placed him 6th overall in the Championship in his first full year.
For 2009 James competed with the KRP 125GP team in the British Championship. During this season he scored one win and six podium finishes in total with only one non finish. He finished the final round in 4th place, winning the Championship by 12 points.
Jonathan Lodge
After a year out of racing due to finances, Jonathan returned to the Metzeler 600 Superstock Championship in 2010. A highly competitive class that is supportd by many larger teams that run both Superbike and Supersport teams. Each weekend has been oversubscribed with some meetings attracting 60+ riders.
It took Jonathan till half way through the season to get back into the swing of it and feeling comfortable on the bike. Finishing in the top 20 seemed a good result at the begining of the year, but he progressed forward with every weekend. By mid season he was scoring his first points both at Silverstone GP, a race held at the World Superbike Championship and the race weekend after at Brands Hatch.
From there he was racing at circuits he had not ridden in over two years, but was still finishing inside the top 20. It wasn’t until he went back to Oulton Park for the final round where it finally all came together, A track he both loves and knows well. He qualified 7th on the grid and finished 5th in the race, been the first Yamaha home and behind four factory supported Kawasakis and Triumphs.
In addition to all this Jonathan raced in the Thundersport GB championship at Anglesey. He qualified on pole and won all three races. This goes to show just how competitive the British championship is. It has been a huge learning curve for Jonathan this year, both in setting the bike up to his needs and getting back into the competitive sport of racing motorcycles. Goin into 2011 he knows that he has the ability to finish well in the championship.
Jonathan started racing in 2004 when he was 17, first riding classic Honda 125s with his Uncle Jeremy who still races the same bikes today. Then moving to a 1991 model Honda RS125 he competed in some New Era and Darley Moor meetings. In 2005 he rode a brand new Honda 125 and took the Darley Moor 125GP championship.
For 2006 he rode along side brother James in the ACU 125 championship, finishing 2nd and then winning the championship in 2007. Then for 2008 Jonathan rode a new Yamaha R6 in the Metzeler Superstock 600 championship and the Nantwhich supersport championship. The year started with promise running in the top ten and even top five during sessions, but inexpereience both in riding and bike set up showed soon with a series of non finishes.
Running in the Nantwhich and District championship showed that Jonathan could still ride the larger bikes riding both the Supersport and Powerbike championships for 1000cc tuned superbikes, winning both on the 600 stock Yamaha. For 2009 Jonathan had no means of riding the full championship and so only rode at two British championsip meetings and two Thundersport GB meetings. He had good results at Thundersport, winning races and always finishing on the podium and finished both times at British inside the top 20, but the lack of track time and experience restricted him from showing his full ability.
