Circuito de Jerez: a race track with a long history / MotoGP

Since 1951, the motorcycle world championship round, which was founded in 1949 by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), has been held in Spain with short interruptions. In the early years the race was held in the modern Montjuic Park in Barcelona, ​​​​​​​​but from 1969 onwards the venue alternated with the Circuito del Jarama near San Sebastián de los Reyes.

In the early 1980s, work began to build another permanent race track near Jerez de la Frontera in a structurally weak area of ​​southern Spain. Although there were no pits or a race management building, the first race was held in December 1985. Despite some difficulties, the race’s ambitions, which have nine right-hand turns and five left-hand turns, were met.

Just four months later, Andalusia hosted the first Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix. This event has remained in the memory of many fans to this day. Ayrton Senna in the Lotus-Renault and Nigel Mansell in the Williams-Honda fought a wheel-to-wheel battle that had the spectators out of their seats. In the end, the Brazilian legend had beaten his British rival by a ridiculous 14 thousandths of a second.

In 1987, the Spanish Grand Prix as part of the World Motorcycle Championship was held for the first time on the 4.428 km asphalt track. Jorge Martinez and Fausto Gresini were the winners in the 80cc and 125cc categories respectively. Martin Wimmer celebrated one of his three GP wins in the quarter-litre class. In the premier class, Wayne Gardner laid the groundwork for his world title and the side race was won by Steve Webster/Tony Hewitt.

In 1988 the assistants of the World Cup returned to Jarama, but since 1989 the two-wheel racing elite has met every spring in Andalusia. Since its first edition, the race track has attracted tens of thousands of motorcycle fans from all over the world, not least because of its special atmosphere. Year after year, they transform a place famous for sherry wine liqueur into a colorful madhouse.

Security requirements required remote architecture from time to time. Between 2017 and 2019, new covers and side stone repairs were made and the fall areas were expanded. In 2002, an observation deck – known as UFO – was built. It is a major attraction of the station because it is located directly above the finish line and provides a live view of most of the track.
Large parts of the race can be seen in the grandstands, including the final section, which has featured some impressive braking maneuvers over the years.

The one in MotoGP in 2005 was particularly memorable. In the fight for victory there was contact between Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau. The Spaniard managed to avoid falling into the gravel trap, but had to hand the victory to his Italian rival.
A new generation of motorcycle racers took this maneuver as an example, and since then there have been similar events at this stage in all categories. In 2013 there was a “copy-paste” between Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo. This time it was up and coming star Marquez who uncompromisingly pushed his fellow Spaniard – then the MotoGP world champion – off the track.

The race track, which is often used as a test for the MotoGP and Superbike World Championships during the winter break due to mild weather, has had the addition of “Angel Nieto” to its name for several years. The Spanish motorcycle legend, who lost his life innocently in a road accident in 2017, has not only won 13 world championships, and eleven victories is still the record winner in Jerez.

This year, local motorcycle fans can expect exciting racing again. From a Spanish point of view, there are several contenders for victory in MotoGP with Jorge Martin, Pedro Acosta, Maverick Viñales, Aleix Espargaro and the Márquez brothers Alex and Marc, and the KTM test rider Dani Pedrosa, the wild card pilot of the class on who has nothing to do with it is lost. And in the small classes the Spaniards kept the voice anyway.