Welcome to another tenuous link ladies and gentlemen, as we congratulate British rider Danny Kent on becoming the first British rider to win a grand prix world championship title since Barry Sheene won the 500cc title in 1977.
Debuting in the World Championship in 2010 at the British GP as a ‘wildcard’ rider on a 125cc Honda earned 21-year-old Danny Kent a ride for the remainder of the season as part of the Lambretta Reparto Corse team. Kent was one of six riders who raced for the team which was more of a publicity exercise related to the Lambretta brand than anything scooter related (Engines Engineering of Bologna were behind the engines of this rebranded ‘Loncin’ race team), 2010 when one of the newly built ‘Lambretta’ scooters was due to be launched).
Danny Kent with Lambretta Reparto Corse at the Valencia GP 2010 (photo from http://www.motogp.com)
The team last until the end of the season (Mahindra taking over for 2011), Kent riding five races on a ‘Lambretta’ motorbike, before he moved on. In 2015, Kent signed with the newly formed Leopard Racing team in the Moto3 class (which had taken over from the old 125cc class), and after a closely fought season with his rival riders which saw Kent take seven race wins, he needed just two points in the final race at Valencia on 8 November to clinch the title – and a ninth place finish meant Kent was crowned the 2015 Moto3 World Champion. Congratulation young man!