Casey Stoner |
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Topics: Casey Stoner
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Marvyn H.
June 14, 2007
Date of Birth: 16th October 1985
Country: Australia
Team: Ducati
We've all heard the phrase "Racing's in his blood"... A true testament to that fact is the Moto GP rider Casey Stoner. If you take a look at his date of birth, you can see that he's currently only 21, and he's already been in the Moto GP class for a full year. He just won the Catalunya Moto Grand Prix, in a dog fight with Valentino Rossi he proved to all and sundry he can mix it up with the best. Let's take a look at how he got to where he is:
His first race was when he was four years old, in an under nine years old race at the Hatcher's dirt racing track on the Gold Coast of Australia - he'd already been riding bikes since the age of four. Between his very first race win at the age of nine and the age of fourteen, young Master Stoner won 41 dirt and long track titles and 70 state titles. One feat he achieved that illustrates his passion and "need" for racing was done at age twelve. Over one weekend he raced in 5 different categories in all 7 rounds of each capacity. A mild restful weekend only consisting of 35 different races... Not much for a twelve year old. Not only did he compete in all these categories and different capacities, the young Casey Stoner went on to win 32 out of the 35 races. Yes, you read write. There were five Australian titles to be won that weekend, Casey won all 5!
The legal age to enter into road races in Oz is 16, at 14 years old Casey Stoner and his parents agreed he was ready to move up onto road racing so they packed up the family and moved to England- reason being that the legal age for road racing in that country is 14.
In his first year of road racing, 2000, Casey won the aprilia 125cc championship, his achievement led him to be noticed by many people and the interested parties happened to include on Alberto Puig - the GP racing great. Alberto asked Casey to come on over across the channel to take part in the Spanish Championship riding for the Telefonica Movistar team. He obliged, of course. As usual young Stoner wanted to take on as much riding as he possibly could so he raced in both the English and Spanish championships - despite not being able to race in all the races due to conflicting race meet dates Casey still finished second in both championships in 2001.
At only 16 years old 2002 Casey got a seat with Safilo Oxydo LCR in the GP, and no not in the 12cc category but rather straight onto a 250cc bike. The following year he rode in the 125cc category for both Lucio and Safilo Oxydo LCR and at the end of the year at Valencia he took his frist race win. From there he raced for first KTM, helping the team develop a bike that could finish on the podium and also giving them their first win ever. The next season he went to race for Lucio Cecchinello's team again, this time on a aprilia 250cc. He battled with Dani Pedrosa taking various podiums and wins in the season. In 2006 hi finally realized his dream of racing in the Moto GP, only 20 years old, he finished eighth in the champioship as a rookie.
2007 has seen him take his first win already, so there's obviously much more to come. It's going to be a great season to watch, and it's also going to be great watching the youngster Casey Stoner challenge for the championship. So when's the next race then?