Miguel Oliveira to Moto2™ with Leopard Racing

Leopard Racing proudly announces a contract signed with Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira to compete in Moto2™ in 2016.

After just one year as a new entry in Grand Prix racing on the world stage, Leopard Racing is to start a project in the highly competitive Moto2™ category alongside to its Moto3™ outfit. Miguel Oliveira is signed for the 2016 campaign in the intermediate category of the MotoGP™ World Championship. The agreement was finally reached during the weekend at the San Marino Grand Prix.
 
20 year old Oliveira, born in Portugal’s city of Pragal, will make his step up to Moto2™ with the conclusion of the 2015 season. Oliveira currently occupies fifth spot of the Moto3™ standings with already two race wins to his hands this season.

Miguel Oliveira: "Honestly speaking I’ve been playing around with this idea since the beginning of this year. Of course it will be a big step for me, but I feel I’m ready to do it. Moto2 is a very difficult category so I’ll need a lot of training to start this new chapter in my career well prepared because we’ve seen many riders to enter this class but struggling to adapt to it quickly. Anyway, I’m convinced that I’m doing it with the right team, I trust in the guys around me as well as in the whole project. I think we’re going be successful. From my side I can say that I’ll put my 200 percent in this stage of my career and I’ll try to do my best from the very beginning. I’m really happy to reach this agreement with such a successful team and with an experienced crew.”

Leopard Racing's Miodrag Kotur: "First of all, we are pleased that Miguel Oliveira has seen what we want to achieve with our global road-racing programme. We’ve been watching him for some months and there is no doubt  that Miguel is a rider of great talent and potential. We certainly feel he can open a few eyes. We are very confident that his smart riding style will suit perfectly with a Moto 2 bike. We are looking forward to meeting the Moto 2 World championship challenge with this young rider."