Thundersport GB is now officially go. The series saw a big launch at Mallory Park ahead of its first meeting at the Leicestershire track on March 16 and organiser Dave Stewart is already planning bigger and better things for next year.

But he isn’t looking to attract big names. He intends to help make them. Stewart, through Bemsee and MRO, has already helped the likes of Casey Stoner, James Toseland and Bradley Smith on to the world stage – and he prefers to stay out of the spotlight.

“We aren’t interested in attracting big names, we want to make them,” he said. “At one point, 90 per cent of the British superbike grid had come from MRO, my series. They then took those and made them into the superbike cup. It was a victim of its own success.”

Stewart is already thinking ahead and into next year. He has plans for an 80cc class in the pipeline, and he has already approached a big manufacturer to come on board. He is only interested in nurturing home-grown talent, and progressing that talent at the right pace.

“The way we do it is we take nice, little steps. From 11 years old we want them to be ready to ride a big-wheeled bike, so an 80cc class is perfect. We can then move them onto Superteens when they are ready, after they have done a year or so on a geared bike.

“After Superteens, they can go to Moto450 if they are physically big or GP2 if they are built like Danny Webb. At 15, we will have one set going the superbike route and one set going 250GP.

“It’s the same as the original MRO design – which everyone said wouldn’t work. We want riders to end up as the finished product and Thundersport can do that.

“Some of our guys will go straight to GP racing and some of them will go to Superbikes. That’s the layout and a lot of people don’t seem to be able to understand that."
Stewart is a man on a mission. The mission seems to be not to make money. Far from it. It’s to make bike racing successful for the riders.
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