Home Advantage: Chloe Jones Leads GR Motosport into Her Home Round

GR Motosport, a British racing team founded in 1995 by Brent Gladwin, has steadily carved out a reputation as a breeding ground for top tier talent and championship success. What began as a rider turned team owner venture quickly flourished. GR Motosport claimed the British National Supersport title in its debut year and has since amassed numerous British and European championship wins while nurturing world class riders and technical staff. The team has also attracted sponsorship and strategic partnerships with globally recognised brands such as LKQ, NVIDIA, Intel, and WD40 collaborating on marketing campaigns, product development, and hospitality endeavours to bolster their footprint both on and off the track.

GR Motosport has embarked on a high profile pivot, exiting the British Superbike Championship after nearly three decades to pursue full time competition on the World stage. In a bold move, the team announced its entry into the World Women’s Circuit Racing Championship ( WorldWCR ) for 2025, fronted by rising star Chloe Jones aboard a Yamaha R7. This strategic shift not only marks GR Motosport’s first return to world-level competition in 25 years but also signals a reinvigorated commitment to diversity and growth within motorcycle racing. With Chloe Jones delivering a strong debut of two sixth place finishes on her 2024 WorldWCR wildcard outing at Jerez, the stage was set for GR Motosport to make its mark on the international circuits once again.

We now approach the teams home round as the World Superbike paddock, which houses the WorldWCR makes its way to the UK for round 3 of the Women’s Championship, heralding its halfway point in the season. Chloe Jones is the highest ranked British rider in the series with 32 points and sitting 8th overall in the championship and with expectations running high in the GR camp for home round success, the goal is to close the gap to the front three returnees of the 2024 season, Hererra, Neila and Ponziani.

Chloe, who comes to the WorldWCR off the back of the 2024 British Superbikes Superteens Championship, in which she finished the season fourth, has a wealth of

racing experience starting from the age of 13 in British Mini Motos and Mini GP, where she won all her races bar 1 and stormed away with the Championships. Chloe has proved that racing is racing regardless of gender, for Chloe this isn’t a barrier. Simply, she will race whom ever is in front of her. We sat down to chat with Chloe and Brent and team manager, Danny Wright recently as they were carrying out some valuable testing at Donington ahead of next weeks action. The first thing that comes to mind when I met up with the team was ‘commitment’. GR Motosport have built two exact replica Yamaha R7 race bikes for Chloe, one dry set up and one wet for training.

For those that don’t know, the WorldWCR is a one bike manufacturer championship, being the Yamaha YZF- R7. The Series transports the bikes and the equipment for each team to each of the six rounds in the championship, making it a more viable option for smaller and independent global teams to partake in the championship without the worry of logistics. With Chloe having limited, if any, experience at the tracks on this years calendar, the team made the commitment to a season long testing regime ensuring that Chloe can familiarise herself with the tracks ahead of a race weekend and to gain valuable bike set up data – something that is limited within this championship, but more on that aspect later.

Jumping straight in on how Chloe and the team are settling in within the World Superbike paddock, especially as the WorldWCR are all housed together in the paddock under and extended awning – close on the track and off – Chloe isn’t particularly a fan of the arrangement “ It’s very different being set up right next up to your rivals, I’m used to being set up in my own awning with my team and having that space, but here you are right next to each other. At Cremona I was set up next to the rider who I was battling that weekend on the track. I had beaten her in the race so it was a bit awkward back at paddock, but that being said everyone is in the same boat and we all have to deal with that aspect of it”

With it being a very international grid, with 14 nationalities represented this year in the championship, it’s understandable that a language barrier comes into force in keeping the extended paddock family feeling that riders often experience at home championships a little strained in this multilingual paddock. “You can definitely see that the Spanish riders all socialise together and the French and German, but a lot of the girls speak English so for me personally it isn’t too bad. It does feel very intense though, that we are all together, we all get dressed in the same areas together and you quickly get to know who is friendlier and those that like to be left alone” says Chloe.

Round_3_WCR_Assen_2025_SundayDanny, who is not only Chloe’s manager but also the GR Motosport Team Manager and principal bike technician. Danny has been working with Brent and GR Motosport since he was an apprentice a little over 16 years ago and has been alongside the team through some incredible moments in the British Superbike paddock. Speaking on his experience of integrating into the WorldWCR paddock life, Danny said “ Dorna is predominantly a Spanish run organisation, so similar to Chloe’s experience really in that the officials and championship techs that I interact with are mainly Spanish and within Yamaha they are Italian. Most of the people do speak English but as long as you are clear and structured in what you ask for, it makes it easier. Everyone is really helpful, and the weekends run very smoothly.”

Besides helping with the official aspects of owning and running a Racing Team, being a spotter for Chloe out on track along with assisting in the marketing and promotions of this venture, Its also clear that Brent really does want to enjoy the racing and the atmosphere of the whole Worlds paddock “ I think for me my main job is to enjoy it, which we are doing a tremendous amount of, its such good fun. These guys work incredibly hard and when you see all the things that are brand new to Chloe, new things for the team to experience, helping put this all together – its good fun”

Home advantage

Back on home soil for Round 3, with plenty of experience of the track and with two rounds under her belt, the expectations are high for a successful weekend – and no one can say that Chloe hasn’t been putting in the effort. Coming in off the track after a session, Chloe tells us that she is looking forward to it “ I have the home advantage, with Cremona and Assen it was difficult to learn the track in such a short amount of time and the majority of the girls that were in front of me at Cremona did last year in the championship. Here, I have the biggest advantage and I’m confident, I have done a lot of laps around this track, I know where I am strong and being here today we are able to continue working and spinning more laps so that as we head into the round we are all confident that we can do a decent job”

The team have built in not only a strong and robust testing programme for Chloe, but they are also very dedicated to helping Chloe develop her technical set up knowledge. By working as a team in this aspect, it allows a greater communication and understanding on what Chloe feels on the bike and how she can translate that back to her team with the understanding on how those changes will affect her, the bike and her overall performance. Something that Chloe acknowledges she has been lacking “ for me, it’s something that I have struggled with throughout my racing career. I would come in from a session and say that the bike was alright, but in fact the bike wasn’t alright, but I didn’t know how to communicate what the issue was or what I thought the changes needed to be. I would be trying to ride around problems, which ultimately made me suffer during races”

This new way of working was something Brent said was initiated right at the start of the WorldWCR team formation when the team built the test bikes at the tail end of last year, ahead of pre-season testing charging around Spain, ala ‘Lass and Van’ style esq set up. Brent dives into a funny story of Sandwiches being made with toothbrushes rather than knives, chasing the sunshine at tracks during one of the wettest Spanish winters in recent history, last minute diverts to French tracks, and track observations in a car – all of which helped the team establish those early communication and camaraderie baselines which all feed into an effective, productive and ultimately successful team.

With every preseason test being planned and structured to ensure that Chloe gets the most out the track and bike time, all while helping her understand the bike and its set up, is now starting to pay off as Danny says Chloe is starting to make these changes herself to her bike, making suggestions and driving the direction of the bike set up.

Speaking of the Race bike, Danny said “ There is no real data on the championship race bikes, its basically on/of brake switch, throttle trace, and raw GPS speeds. So, for the test bikes we have invested in some proper data equipment with full lean angles, brake pressures – basically all the data of a full superbike, which should hopefully now give us the last little bit in helping Chloe understand the bike. All of which we can then relay and implement the settings onto the race bike come a race weekend.”

During our time together, the team were also making preparations to head straight from Donington Park to the ferry to go do some valuable testing at the Hungarian race track, Balaton Park. It’s a track that hasn’t been on the World Superbike calendar before and will be another leveller throughout both the WorldSBK and WorldWCR paddocks as riders will all have had limited time there for practice. But is another clear indication on the commitment that the team have to the championship and to Chloe’s progression.

One of the biggest observations of The WorldWCR racers, and any racer in the worlds paddock as a whole is the ability to be on the pace straight from the green light. It’s something that Chloe acknowledges is something she needs to work on, admitting that she has the speed to run with the front group but by not being at race pace within that first lap is allowing that front group to break away “ If I can work on being up to pace rather than taking a lap or two to get up to speed, this will be a huge advantage to me. I’ll be with them and can go with them as opposed to being stuck in the second group. Once you’re in that second group you can get a bit stuck in it. Doing more testing and being more consistent is helping.”

“We are trying to get Chloe out once a week” Danny says “Brent has invested heavily in the testing programme to help Chloe and making sure that Chloe has a structed, race simulated track time with a purposeful goal for the days testing”

Girls on Track

One of the things I picked up from an earlier media event with Chloe and the team is the questioning of an all female race championship by members of the press, something that I’ve seen across some of the social comments on our own platform from time to time from the general public. Brent is quick to establish that there is a lack of understanding of the level of riding that these racers are at “ When you look at Maria Herrera, Betrice Niela and the like, they all have Grand Prix experience, they have huge amounts of experience within those and the World Championships and they have all learnt that all out speed from lap one, its something that Chloe hasn’t learnt from the British Championships, but its something she is gaining in experience as she races with them on track. What Dorna and the FIM have done by creating this women’s championship is a stepping stone from the former women’s European Championship and made it visible on the world stage, alongside the likes of Toprak and Jonny Rea. It’s that, that creates this level of competition. They are putting on a great race, and that’s what our sport does – if there is a great race there will

be a great fan base, and you’ll see that start to build”

Bike Talk

As a single make series, all participants compete using a Yamaha YZF – R7 and operate under strict regulations to ensure a fair competition. Here are some facts about the bike:

GYTR Yamaha Fairings The colour Scheme must be consistence throughout the grid, so anywhere that is yellow or white must remain, anywhere else can be altered. GR Motorsport have gone back to their iconic orange and black livery for the WorldWCR and is one of the stand out bikes

on the grid for it.

Standard Forks A fixed spring rate of 9.5 with a standard cartridge. The oil level canbe changed and free adjustability of the preload, compression and rebound as is the fork height within the yokes.

Ohlins rear shock Aftermarket racing product but it is a fixed length shock with compression adjustment only. There are 4 available spring rates available to the riders

There are two types of handle bars that are available, the ones used on the GR Motorsport bike are longer reach bars with the forward offset – this means we can move Chloe’s rider weight over the front of the bike to gain a bit back on the turning of the bike.

Brakes are completely standard bar the braided hose. Standard brake disc and standard callipers and we have to use SBS brake pads.

Tyres Pirelli slicks, SC1 front a rear 120 front and 160 rear.

Fixed front sprocket and 4 fixed rear sprockets available but we can only run the standard length chain.

A full titanium Akrapovic race system.

A rear hump can be used on the seat unit, though Chloe likes the full range so it’s not used.

Standard engine and standard air filters.

The ECU is sealed by the championship – its dyno’d at the start of the season by the

championship and set.

Min tyre pressure of 1.65 bar in the rear. Team are free to set the front, but work within

the guidance from Pirelli.

GB racing crash protectors ( though for the practice bikes they use R&G, a long term partner of GR Motosport)

GYTR Rear sets which offer full adjustability

Chloe and the GR Motorsport team take on Donington Park July 11 -13

Superbike News Will be covering the event from within the paddock – Follow our Social Media channels for updates throughout the weekend.