Bradley Smith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Smith at Motorcycle Live 2012.
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Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England |
28 November 1990 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 38 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | www |
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Bradley Smith (born 28 November 1990) is a British motorcycle racer, currently competing in the MotoGP World Championship. He was a regular frontrunner in the 125cc class, recording three wins, twenty podium finishes as well as nine pole positions in his five seasons in the class. He won the Suzuka 8 Hours in 2015 with Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Pol Espargaró.
Born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, Smith's father raced in , and the family owned an open practice track. Smith got his first motocross bike aged six.
Smith applied for selection to the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) academy for young racers, but was never chosen. He spent a year in 2004 aged 13 competing in Aprilia Superteens competition, finishing fourth behind three ACU Academy riders. In January 2005 he was asked to compete for the year in the Spanish 125cc championship as part of the MOTO GP Academy, winning the last three races ending the year 2nd just one point behind the champion.
For 2006, he joined the Repsol Honda 125cc Grand Prix World Championship squad, managed by Alberto Puig finishing 19th overall and rookie of the year, with a best result of 8th place in Motegi.
Remaining with the team in 2007, he took a first podium with third place at Le Mans. Nine more top-10 finishes left him 10th overall.
Smith signed with the Polaris World Aprilia team for the 2008 season. He secured his first pole position at the opening round of the season at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar on 8 March, but suffered a technical problem while leading. A number of midseason injuries affected him, but he scored podium finishes at Jerez and Le Mans (after briefly leading the five-lap sprint required by a red flag for rain). He led at both Assen and Sachsenring, but finished off the podium in both. He ended the season sixth overall, with three poles and four podium finishes but no victory.