Although still only 24 years age, this will be the 17th season of racing for the native of Madrid who has been collecting honours and trophies almost all of his career; already in his third season of racing he clinched no less than five titles at local, regional and national level, and already gave the first indication that he could be a threat on the international stage when he finished runner-up in the World Junior Championship at the age of 16.

Without a history of world class riders and far distant geographically from the traditional centres of off-road racing, Spain had never been considered as a hotbed of youth talent and it was initially difficult for the young Barragan, whose father had himself been Spanish national champion in the early 80s, to find the financial support to display his skills outside his homeland.

Indeed, after winning the opening round of the European 125cc Championship in south-west France in 2002, Jonathan had to give up any hopes of the title as he was committed to giving preference to the Spanish championship, which of course he won !

By 2003 the Spanish federation, encouraged to build national prestige in motocross as they had already done in road racing, engaged former world champion Harry Everts to coach a national team of which Barragan was the star performer, but after two seasons they were still seeking a breakthrough at world level until they had a brainwave and put the super-fit Jonathan on a 450 !

The transformation was startling. Jonathan breezed into the world top ten in 2005 and has been there ever since. He deservedly earnt the honorary title “Rookie of the Year” even though he was essentially still a privateer.

Although universally acclaimed as one of the top riders in the sport, Jonathan had to wait until 2008 to score his first GP victory, but, having once tasted the winner’s champagne, he clearly enjoyed it and added three more wins before the end of the season, only an indifferent start to the campaign restricting him to 4th in the series.

Last year might have been even better. Again he quickly proved himself a winner, and was holding down second in the points until a serious training crash at home in Spain left him with a ruptured spleen and effectively ended his season.

Having taken his career to the brink of the ultimate success the opportunity to race for the Kawasaki Racing Team was clearly one which Jonathan could not resist.

Jonathan Barragan: “This season will be the first time in my career that I have ridden for a Japanese factory team, and I have great expectations. Already last year I won several GPs before I lost my chance of the title through injury, so I am determined to fight for the title in 2010. There’s a great relationship within the team, and I’m sure that we’ll be strong contenders; we had a good programme this winter, and we are ready for the World MX1 Championship to start.”

Career Resume