“You can’t afford to turn up and be average”
En bref
- There’s been a sudden rush of young talent into the motorcycle category. Edgar Canet and Tobias Ebster were quickly snapped up by KTM and Hero respectively and it could well be that Martim Ventura, spotted by Honda HRC manager Ruben Faria, could be the next big thing.
- Like them, Martim started riding moto-x young at the age of 10 but what he really wanted to do was race off-road Baja. He made the switch as soon as he could, riding 125 2-strokes at 16 in the Portuguese national Baja championship.
- Despite his 2-stroke’s inherent fragility, good mechanics and lots of new pistons saw him win his class at just 17 against more robust 4-stroke 250s.
- He won his class again the following year again on a 250, before winning yet another championship in 2020.
- In 2021 he was at last able to move up to the 450 class but the following year was a tough one for Martim with him losing two of the most important people in his life, his father and his mechanic, both to heart attacks. He went on to finish second on the Baja Portalegre just 0.1 second behind Antonio Maio!
- All this happened while Martim was studying to be an electrical engineer. It was a deal he made with his parents in return for them supporting his racing. He tried to run his dad’s business in parallel with everything else but it was too much and 7 months later he sold it on.
- 2023 was a write off with injury and then in 2024 it all came together with Martim winning both the Portalegre and the national championship overall. He also made his rally-raid debut, crashing out of the Rally Raid Portugal.
- In 2025 he finished 12th on the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge before going on to win the Carta Rally. On the 2025 Rally Raid Portugal he gave Honda their first win in Rally2. Back in Morocco for the Rallye du Maroc Martim finished regularly on the Rally2 podium, though a melted mousse on day 2 ruined any chances of featuring well in the overall results.
- Martim’s girlfriend shares his love of bikes and rides herself. Martim’s mother and sister aren’t so enthusiastic!
Ambition
“It is really hard to make an impact in rally raid. You can’t afford to turn up and put in an average performance if you want to get noticed. That’s why I’ve done a lot of training in Morocco, so as to be as competitive as possible from the start. Racing the Rally Raid Portugal and the Desert Challenge was a tough debut so it was good to go to the Carta Rally, have a bit less pressure and be able to open and win from the front. Being taken on by Honda for the Rallye du Maroc and the Dakar is a really good break for me. To be in that environment with the best riders, the best managers and mechanics is a dream come true and I’m sure I will learn a lot. Hopefully I can reward them for the faith they have shown me.”
