Jose Luis Cardoso made his 125cc World Championship debut in 1993 at his home track in Jerez, the same year he won the Spanish 125cc title and the Andalucian series 250cc title. He combined GP and Spanish 250cc racing over the next two seasons, winning the Spanish 250cc title and finishing 11th in the GPs in 1998. This was enough to earn him a 500cc World Championship ride with the TSR Honda team in 1999 where he stayed until moving to the D'Antin team in 2001 to finish 16th overall. He made 5 appearances in MotoGP in 2002 with Yamaha, returning in 2006 aboard the previous season’s spec Ducati with the D'Antin team.