Repsol Riders. Joan Olivé
Date of Birth: November 22nd, 1984
Place of Birth: Tarragona, Spain
Age: 20
First race: 1995 Spanish Minibike Championship
First podium finish: 1996 Spanish 50cc Scooter Championship
First Grand Prix: 2001 Japanese Grand Prix (125cc, Honda)
Total Grand Prix: 64 (32 in 125cc and 32 in 250cc)
Best Grand Prix result: 3rd (Dutch Grand Prix, 2002, 125cc)
Podium finishes: 1 (Dutch Grand Prix, 2002, 125cc)
Fastest laps: 1 (Dutch Grand Prix, 2002, 125cc)
Career highlights 1998: Open RACC 50cc ChampionRunner-up Aprilia 50cc Cup
1999: Movistar Activa Joven Cup Champion (Honda RS 125)
2000: Spanish 125 GP Champion (Honda RS 125)
2001: 19th 125 GP World Championship (Honda RS 125)
2002: 12th 125 GP World Championship (Honda RS 125)
2003: 12th 250 GP World Championship (Aprilia)
2004: 19th 250 GP World Championship (Aprilia)
Since he was a child, Joan Olivé used to take a ride through the mountains every week on his Mecatecno 50, with his father, who had taken part in motocross and road racing events. Thus, the love for the sport was already present in the youngsters home when, at the age of seven, he went to a karting track to try his cousins minibike and decided that all he wanted to do was to race on two wheels. 1992 was the year of his first race, in the Pocket Bike Open within the Catalan Championship. Joan won the four first rounds out of six and was second in the other two races, becoming champion in his first racing year. Olivé went on taking part in the Catalan Pocket Bike Championship the following years until 1995, when he took part in the Spanish Championship as well. Joan proved to have a good style ever since he began and sometimes joined the track with Dani Pedrosa, Toni Elias, Héctor Faubel, Pablo and Fonsi Nieto.
Keeping the same bike, Olivé took part in the Spanish Pocket Bike Championship in 1996. He also entered the Spanish Scooter Championship on a Honda 50, a stock Scooter provided by Honda Tarragona, getting one podium finish and finishing fourth overall. Through the Catalan Motorcycle Federation, Joan and his dad decided to take part in the first Open RACC 50, with a 50cc Honda. With only two races left for the end of the season, Joan was already third behind Luis Costa and Toni Elias, but two ill-timed crashes set him back to the seventh overall position that year. In 1998, the 13-year-old Joan was crowned Open RACC 50cc Champion, his first official title. In the same year he took part in the Aprilia Cup finishing second, behind Jorge Lorenzo: That same season, Joan managed to finish third in the Catalan Enduro Championship on a Honda CR 80cc.
In 1999 Joan decided to take part in the selection trials for the new promotion cup, the Movistar Activa Cup, held at the Jarama circuit: He decided to try luck and he was one of the chosen, making the second fastest time of the trials. His regularity and good style allowed him to finally take the victory of the Championship, thus earning his credentials for a place in the team Alberto Puig created one year later for the 125cc Spanish Championship. He took part in the 125cc Spanish Road Racing Championship in 2000, and again had a great performance. He took the 125cc Spanish Championship in his first participation and became the youngest rider in the Spanish motorcycling history to get that award. Joan showed that he had a great future ahead of him, so when in 2001, Alberto Puig decided that the young rider was ready, Joan Olivé made the jump to the World Championship within the Telefónica Movistar Junior Team. Racing against much more experienced riders with mechanical superiority, Olivé scored his first points and took the nineteenth overall place of the Championship.
After a year of adaptation behind the shadow of Elias and Pedrosa, Olivé achieved his first podium finish in the 125 class at the Dutch GP in Assen, in 2002. He finished twelfth overall in the Championship. In 2003 and with the support of Jorge Martínez Aspar, Olivé decided to switch to the quarter-of-a-litre class, with a new team and on an Aprilia RS 250. He changed team and make, entailing a great challenge for the young rider, with the aim of scoring points and gathering experience. He had a very good start of the season, but it became less towards the end, and his best result was a seventh place in Brazil. He finished his first season in the 250cc in the twelfth overall position.
Joan changed team for his second year in the 250cc class, and signed for Campetella Racing. Although not very consistent during 2004, he managed to be fighting among the top ten more than once. He wasnt able to finish five races, but he scored in seven and was finally nineteenth overall. This year, Joan Olivé is back in the minor class within the Rauch Bravo team. His aim: getting back to his best riding style and to a place on the podium. This discreet, affable and hard-working rider will with no doubt give something to talk about in 2005. Outside the circuits Joan Olivé enjoys spending time with his friends, skiing or enduro riding.
