Gábor Talmácsi

Gábor Talmácsi is one of the most widely known and talented MotoGP riders and the first Hungarian champion of speed motor sport.

Gábor Talmácsi was born in 1981 and started racing at the age of four, soon winning nearly everything in the minibike championships. Later, he placed first on the podium in the 125 cc bike category, and after that, in 1997, he placed 4th in the European Championship held at Hungaroring. He finished in 5th place in the combined European Championship series the following year. After a long break, Gábor Talmácsi was again a Hungarian representative at the Moto World Championship in 2001. His best result was in Brazil in 2002, when he reached 4th place. He started competing on a 125 cc Aprilia bike in 2003 and placed 14th in the World Championship, scoring 70 points. "Talma" was the only pilot in the category of 125 cc bikes to finish each race, and in so doing he put the highest amount of race kilometers on his motor bike. He placed 17th with a total of 43 points in 2004. He attained his best result of the season in Portugal, when he brought the Malaguti team to 7th place.

He joined the Red Bull KTM team in the 2005 season and gained three race wins out of five podium placements, achieving a new record in Hungarian motor sports. Accordingly, he also closed the year with a unique breakthrough during the final scoring, because he won the World Championship bronze medal self-confidently with a total of 198 points.

After that he accepted an offer from the Humangest Honda Racing Team in 2006 and started racing in the pole position as the team’s number one motorcycle rider in the category of 125 cc bikes, and although he had to tackle a technically problematic year, he successfully managed to get third place in Brno, making both him and his large camp of fans very happy.

In 2007, Gábor continued his career as a member of the Aspar Team, in which Alvaro Bautista, who was the world champion in the 125 cc bike category in 2006, had also been a member earlier. "Talma" was supported by an experienced service team and full factory support, in addition to his famous teammates, and all this brought him outstanding results: Hungary could celebrate a new world champion! Owing to this fantastic and unique sports success, Gábor received plenty of recognitions: he received the so-called Casco D’oro (Golden Helmet) award that is also considered the Oscar Award of motor sports by Italian journalists, and he became Sportsman of the Year based on voting by Hungarian sports journalists. Moreover, Hungarian President László Sólyom granted him the Knight’s Cross Order of Merit of The Republic of Hungary, while his manager, Stefano Favoro, received the Golden Ring for his work supporting the Hungarian motor sport.

Gábor is still a member of the Aspar Team. In 2008 he had to face a number of difficulties so the bronze medal in the 125cc category he won last season should be seen as a very good performance, particularly since this was the second time he had captured third position. Following initial engine failures and skids in the French and British GPs, the final part of the season reserved another twist of fate for him when, at Indianapolis, an injured hand required an operation with a Herbert screw installed. Gábor Talmácsi received the Bronze Medal and the Tissot award at the end-of-season prize-giving ceremony as the rider who had captured the most pole positions (4).

In 2009 Talma went on to a higher category, 250cc, but on 25 May he left the Balatonring Team to became a MotoGP member of the Scot Racing Team on 12 June 2009 and will continue his sports career in the MotoGP king category.

Talmácsi started the 2010 season in a brand new category, the MOTO2, where competitors ride motorcycles with 600cc four-stroke engines. As prescribed by the regulations there are no real differences between engines and this may improve the level of competition among riders. MOTO2 is already attracting a lot of interest because of spectacular races and genuine competition. 40 riders from 25 teams fight for one of the 15 lead positions where points can start being won.