Julian Miralles back in world championship thanks to wedding gift: A wildcard ride at Assen
23-year-old Julian Miralles, son of former European champion and world championship rider Julian Miralles Sr., will be back in the MotoGP championship after four years absence with a wildcard ride at the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen this weekend. Despite the long timespan Miralles has only limited experience in the world championship, having done just eleven races total over three seasons – 2004, 2005 and 2008 – racing mainly with the Aspar Team, but never getting into the points positions.
The Valencian native looked to become one of the most promising young riders of his generation, but suffered big setbacks with several very serious injuries which almost ended his career before it started, including a spinal cord injury. After he had debuted with four wildcard rides in the 2004 world championship, he started the 2005 season as a 125cc regular, but a crash at the fifth round, the Italian Grand Prix, resulted in multiple serious fractures of his right leg and ankle which nearly led to amputation.
But having started with racing at a very young age, Miralles is now slowly making his way back to being competitive, currently riding in the Moto3 class of the Spanish Championship with the Mir-Bankia Honda and sitting 13th in the classification after four rounds.According to Spanish media and Miralles’ personal Facebook profile, he received the wildcard entry for Assen as a surprise gift from his father for his wedding in August. Miralles Sr. has been developing the new all-Spanish MIR chassis which his son will now debut in the world championship.
Aside from being a present to enjoy, the race is mainly supposed to be a first shakedown test for the chassis, to see how it holds up against the competition and results won’t be the first point on the team’s agenda. However, as Miralles is working to return to the highest level of racing he’ll be eager to show his talent once again and trying to be as competitive as possible in the new Moto3 class.
Source: Motocuatro, Facebook Julian Miralles