Brad Binder was born 11 August 1995, in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and began his motorsport career in karts and was national champion aged just eight. Looking for a new challenge, he moved on to two wheels at 10 years old, and hasn’t looked back since.
After rapid progress on motorcycles in his native South Africa, Brad was accepted into the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup for 2009, and his talent shone enough over the next few seasons.
In 2010, Binder took three Rookies podiums and finished fifth overall – but his star moment came in Estoril in 2011 when he won the Red Bull Rookies race from pole to flag by a margin of 15 seconds. That year he also rode his first 125cc GP, replacing the injured Luis Salom in the RW Racing GP team. Brad’s displays and professional approach impressed the team, and he earned a full time Moto3 ride with them for 2012.
In 2012 Brad competed in the Moto3™ championship for the RW Racing GP Team full-time, where he finished the year 21st. He ran with Ambrogio Racing in 2013 and improved his ranking to 13th overall; staying with the team in 2014 and riding a Mahindra machine again – reaching the podium on two occasions.
His consistent improvement earned him a move to the respected Red Bull KTM Ajo team for 2015 and his improvement continued, ending the year in sixth and scoring four podiums, including a second place in Malaysia.
For 2016 he and the Ajo team remained together as they attempted to return the Moto3™ title in KTM. The South African took his first Moto3™ victory in Jerez in 2016 under exceptional circumstances – demoted to the back of the grid for a technical infringement, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider stormed back through the field from last to reach the front group – and then disappeared into the distance to take his first win – becoming the first South African to win a motorcycle Grand Prix since Jon Ekerold won the 1981 Italian motorcycle Grand Prix.
The victory kickstarted the beginning of Binder’s dominance of the year that saw the South African take another four wins by the time the paddock rolled into MotorLand Aragon.
106 points clear by the third Spanish round of the year, Binder had his first chance to take the title at the Aragonese venue and become the first man to achieve the feat.
With the odds in his favour, the title favourite stayed calmed under pressure and raced how he knew how – to win – laying it on the line in the final corner and finally crossing the line in P2, behind title rival Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0). The points haul was more than enough, and the South African crowned himself 2016 Moto3™ World Champion.
Brad is just the third motorcycle grand prix world champion from South Africa. He is the first since Jon Ekerold won the 350cc title in 1980, which followed Kork Ballington winning the 350cc and 250cc titles in both ‘78 and ‘79.
His gap over his nearest title rival of 142 points is a new record for margin of victory in the lightweight class.
Brad moved on to Moto2 with the Ajo Motorsports team in 2017. After a difficult start he came on strong to finish a respectable 8th. He returned to Moto2 in 2018 to take 3rd overall. 2019 started poorly but in true Brad style he staged an incredible comeback, winning the final three races and missing the championship by just 3 points!
He make the move to MotoGP in 2020 on the KTM, taking 11th the first year. For the next 4 years he has has been a super reliable performer, finishing 6th, 5th and 4th overall. We were there at the first publicly accessible race following COVID at Austria in 2021 - where Brad took one of the most sensational victories in MotoGP history - completing the race in pouring rain on slick tyres to take the victory!
Our take: Pole Position Travel has been a staunch supporter of Brad since he first appeared on the world stage at the Red Bull Rookies in 2009. We have been proud sponsors of Brad every year since 2009 and continue to back him. We are immensely proud of his rise to take the Moto3 World Championship in 2016, and expect even bigger thing in the future!
He is a regular speaker for us at MotoGP events, and our MotoGP Team and Pole Position Club guests routinely meet him in the paddock.
While winning is always great - and we certainly saw raw talent and determination even when we first met him at age 13! - it has been his charismatic personality and complete willingness to engage with our customers that has endeared him to us and many clients from around the world. Becoming a world champion has not changed this openness one bit. We look forward to welcoming Brad fans!
Since COVID (and his move to MotoGP) we have not been an official sponsor, but remain a strong supporter and welcome our brilliant South African fans to MotoGP events where we are confident we will see Brad on podiums in the future.