Miguel Praia (born 2 March 1978) is a retired Portuguese, 5 time world champion

motorcycle racer Motorcycle racing (also called moto racing and motorbike racing) is the motorcycle sport of racing motorcycles. Major varieties include motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Oth ...

. He now works on the broadcast team for MotoGP in Portugal.

Career

Portuguese championships

Praia was born in Portalegre,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. His first race was in 1994 at the age of 16 on a

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

TZR50. In 1997 he rode a full championship for the first time, finishing 3rd overall riding a Yamaha TZR125. After the death of his brother Alberto Praia, he stopped racing, but returned in 1999 riding a Yamaha TZ125 in the Portuguese 125GP championship, finishing in 6th place. In 2000, Praia had a good year in the newly established Aprilia Challenge 125cc, ending most races in 1st place and setting several lap records, but a jury decision in the last round placed him in 2nd position overall. In 2001, Praia moved up into the 600cc category. He finished in 8th position in Troféu

Honda CBR600RR The Honda CBR600RR is a sport bike made by Honda since 2003, part of the CBR series. The CBR600RR was marketed as Honda's top-of-the-line middleweight sport bike, succeeding the 2002 Supersport World Champion 2001–2006 CBR600F4i, which was t ...

. After a not outstanding year in a supersport class, 2002 was Praia's breakout year. He set new lap records in most rounds, and became champion for Troféu Honda CBR600RR 2002. In 2003 he repeated this achievement, winning the champion's title for Troféu Honda CBR600RR again. In 2005, at the end of the Portuguese Stocksport 1000 championship, he entered the

Superbike World Championship Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette-class road racing series based on heavily modified production motorcycles, also known as superbike racing. The championship was founded i ...

, winning the last two races on a

Honda CBR1000RR The Honda CBR1000RR, marketed in some countries as the "Fireblade" (capitalized as FireBlade until the 2000s), is a liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder superbike, introduced by Honda in 2004 as the 7th generation of the CBR series of motorcycles ...

he had never ridden before.

European championships

In an attempt to get more and better experience from an international competition, in 2002 and 2003 Miguel Praia raced in European Supersport Championship, as the highest-performing Portuguese racer.

World championships

By invitation of the Portuguese Government, Miguel Praia participated in the

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of onl ...

in 2002 and in 2003, finishing 5th and 4th respectively. In 2003 he entered the Portuguese round of the MotoGP 250cc championship as a wildcard and finished 22nd. 2004 was his first year in full World class championships. He joined team NCR Ducati in the

along with his teammate

Garry McCoy Garry McCoy (born 18 April 1972 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former professional motorcycle racer. He has won races in the 125 cc and 500 cc World Championships, as well as in the Superbike World Championship. He is ...

. As the number 2 in the team and a newcomer into the Superbikes world, Praia had a disappointing season, racing on a Ducati 999RS and then a Ducati 998RS. He finished the championship in 30th place. He switched teams the following year to join DFX Extreme team with a

Yamaha R1 The Yamaha YZF-R1, or simply R1, is a -class sports motorcycle made by Yamaha. It was first released in 1998, undergoing significant updates in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2015, 2018

in 2005, and saw much improvement in his lap times, but in a year with many newcomers from other world championships in the Superbikes class, his finishing placing dropped to 34th. Praia switched to a lower class in 2006, the Supersport World Championship, but this time with a new Portuguese team, Parkalgar Racing Team, and riding a

. The team experiences some problems in getting the right setup for the machine, and the year did not go well; Praia had to abandon some races due to mechanical failures, and eventually retired from the championship. In 2007, Praia made better lap times compared with the previous years, but more new rivals from Superbikes and other world championships also joined the championship, and his faster speeds were not reflected in the final standings, again finishing 34th. In 2008 the Parkalgar Racing Team secured Factory Honda support and a new Honda CBR600RR better shaped then the previous year's ones. The pre-season tests at

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city g ...

(Circuito de Almería) in January raised expectations for the team, with Praia's team-mate Craig Jones setting a new lap record for the track and Miguel Praia less than a second behind.

Career highlights

* 1997 - 3rd place in 125cc Produção (Portuguese championship) * 1999 - 6th place in 125GP (Best Rookie) (Portuguese championship) * 2000 - 2nd place in Aprilia Challenge 125cc (Portuguese championship) * 2001 - 8th place in Troféu

(Portuguese championship) * 2002 - Champion in Troféu Honda CBR600RR (Portuguese championship) * 2002 - Best

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

in European Supersport Championship * 2002 - 5th place in

Macau GP The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of on ...

* 2003 - Champion in Troféu

* 2003 - 22nd place in Portuguese round (in

Autódromo do Estoril The Circuito do Estoril or Autódromo do Estoril (Estoril Circuit), officially known as Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva, is a motorsport race track on the Portuguese Riviera, outside of Lisbon, owned by state-run holding management company P ...

) of MotoGP 250cc * 2003 - Best Portuguese in European Supersport Championship * 2003 - 4th place in Macau GP * 2004 - 30th place in

(Best Rookie) * 2005 - 34th place in

* 2006 - Not-classified in Supersport World Championship * 2007 - 34th place in Supersport World Championship * 2008 - 25th place in Supersport World Championship * 2009 - 15th place in Supersport World Championship * 2010 - 12th place in Supersport World Championship * 2011 - 13th place in Supersport World Championship * 2012 - 23rd place in CEV Moto2 Championship * 2013 - 4th place in Brazilian Moto 1000 GP Championship * 2014 - 4th place in Brazilian Moto 1000 GP Championship * 2015 - 4th place in Brazilian Moto 1000 GP Championship

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Races by year

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

External links

miguel-praia.com
- Official site
MotoGP.com rider profileWorldSBK.com rider profileMiguel Praia Sport Tv
- YouTube video interview for Sport TV
CBRWorld.net Interview
- Video interview with Praia after the 2005 World SBK Season {{DEFAULTSORT:Praia, Miguel 1978 births Living people Supersport World Championship riders Superbike World Championship riders Portuguese motorcycle racers 250cc World Championship riders People from Portalegre, Portugal Sportspeople from Portalegre District