Martin Cardenas
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Date of birth: 01/28/82 |
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Honours
First Grand Prix: 2005. 250cc Spanish GP, Jerez
Sporting career
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Biography
Martín Cárdenas was born on January 28, 1982 in Medellín, Colombia. He is the second of 4 children and although he says that he would never change his hometown Medellin, hes been living in Spain for three years now, in Barcelona, with his sister.
His motorcycling career started in the early 1990s, when he began motocross racing with his cousins. He achieved his first titles in the 80cc class in 1993 and 1994. He wanted to make the change to the 125cc class in 1995 but he was too young so that he had to settle for racing with a Yamaha YZ 80 that had been changed to 105cc. Martín raced with that bike against the 125cc machines, achieving good results that same year, despite the different cylinder capacities of his rivals machines.
In 1996 he was finally able to race in the 125cc class and again in 1997 on a Kawasaki, clinching the motocross title. In the years to follow, Martín tried car racing, motorcycle road racing and motocross, achieving victories in all modalities.
In 2000, Cárdenas decided to move to the USA to try his luck in the Mecca of motocross, achieving satisfactory results and gathering valuable experience.
In late 2001 he decided to hang up his motocross boots and get on a road racing motorbike in Spain, where he took part in the Spanish Road Racing Championship (CEV), where he achieved an impressive fourth place in his second race of the Championship which is right now the most competitive Championship in the world.
In 2003, the Colombian rider got on a Yamaha of Luis Dantin’s team to race the whole CEV Supersport Championship. But Cardenas had an eventful season, filled with accidents, although he managed to win the last race of the season taking the seventh place in the overall standings. That same year he became Latin American Supersport Champion at the Autodromo de Tocancipa, on a Ducati 748, setting a new fast lap record of the class.
In 2004, the Promo Racing team recognised the talent of the Colombian rider and called him to become part of the team. He achieved four victories and the longed-for title of Spanish Supersport Road Racing Champion.
In 2005, Martín Cárdenas had his debut in the 250cc World Championship with the Aprilia Germany team, achieving positive results and gathering a lot of experience. His good style in 2005 took the Spanish Honda BQR team to pay attention to the Colombian rider, who finally became part of the team in this 2006 season. Once in Honda BQR the team realized that their choice had been the right one: Martín finished 8th at the Spanish Grand Prix, 11th in Qatar, 13th in Turkey, China and Francia, did not finish in Italy and was tenth in Barcelona.
With this record, Martín Cárdenas arrives at the Repsol Honda Team 250cc knowing that he is facing a big chance in his sports career, with no doubt the most important since he started in competition. Under the guidance of Alberto Puig, Cárdenas is looking forward to progress constantly and to be a regular among the top riders of the class.
