Casey Stoner
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Casey Stoner (born October 16, 1985 in Kurri Kurri, NSW, Australia) is a motorcycle racer competing for the Ducati Marlboro Team in the MotoGP class of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Stoner has etched his name alongside the likes of Australian motorcycle racing champions Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan after his first win in the MotoGP class via the 2007 Qatar motocycle Grand Prix before going on to bag the world championship that same season and being named as the 2008 Young Australian of the Year.
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Personal Life
Casey is the son of Colin (father) and Bronwyn (mother) Stoner. Like other members of his family, Casey has shown keen interest and displayed passion for two-wheelers even at a very young age. At three, Casey had tasted his first ride through his 50cc Peewee then went on to compete in his first race in the under 9s category at the Hatchers dirt racing track on the Gold Coast a year later.
The 5-foot-7, 125-pound Aussie married Adelaide native Adriana Tuchyna in her hometown on the 6th of January 2007. Casey and Adriana first met at Phillip Island in 2003 when she approached him and asked for his autograph. Their relationship began in 2005 when she was 16.
When he is not on the race track, Casey enjoys cycling, snorkelling, or playing videogames.
Early Career
At the age of six, Casey bagged his first Australian title. Since then, Casey's motorcycle racing career has taken off and along with his parents and sister, he would compete in races all over Australia and would achieve quite a feat at his age. Among his accomplishments include 41 Australian dirt and long track titles and over 70 State titles, all the while riding up to 5 bikes at a meeting in different capacity categories. Once when he was 12, he would compete in five different categories and in all seven rounds of each capacity in a single weekend at the NSW Central Coast, winning a total of 32 out of the 35 races. In addition, he took home all of the five Australian titles that were up for grabs during that weekend.
The fact that road racing was prohibited in Australia for riders below 16, his family decided to move to England where the legal age of road racing was 14. In his very first race outside "down under," he wasted no time by debuting with a win at the Aprilia RS125 Challenge series in 2000 before finishing 12th overall in the British 125cc Championship (with three podiums), soon drawing interest from sponsors with his talent. But it wasn't only the sponsors that showed interest in him as he also caught the attention of renowned Grand Prix personality Alberto Puig (mentor of GP riders Tony Elias and Dani Pedrosa) while racing at Albacete in the Spanish 125cc Championship.
In 2001, at the age of 16, Stoner competed in both the British and Spanish 125cc Championships, sporting the number '48' on his Honda. Unfortunately, he had to juggle his racing schedule as in some occassions, both championships' sked would coincide. He missed several rounds of the English races but still managed to win seven before going on to claim runner-up finishes in both the British and Spanish championships. That same year, he was granted with a wildcard entry in the British and Australian rounds of the MotoGP 125cc world series, placing 18th and 12th, respectively. His performance would eventually net him a slot at the Safilo Oxydo LCR team for the Grand Prix world series the following season.
2002-03
Sporting a number "27" at the front of his 250cc GP Aprilia bike, Stoner showed some flashes of brilliance with a fifth place finish at Brno and three other sixth place finishes, capping the season with 68 total points and a 12th overall finish in the World Championship. With a less desirable finish in the 250cc GP class, Stoner would move to the 125cc GP category in 2003, but still with Safilo Oxydo LCR and Lucio Cecchinello. He wound up with four podium finishes and a maiden victory at Valencia to end the 2003 season with 125 championship points and an 8th place finish overall.
2004
In 2004, at the age of 18, Stoner rode for the Red Bull KTM team and would help carry the torch for his squad so to speak, after placing in the top five a total of five times in the first seven rounds of the championship. Unfortunately, he was shelved by an injury for awhile but managed to return and give the KTM squad its first grand prix win at Malaysia. Apart from his win, he capped the season with two second places, three thirds, and a final championship position of fifth after scoring a total of 145 points.
2005
Stoner made his return to Lucio Cecchinello's team and rode an official 250cc Aprilia for the LCR unit in 2005. It was during this year that Stoner went toe-to-toe with talented Spanish driver Dani Pedrosa for the world championship with the Aussie coming away with ten podium finishes and several wins that include victories in Portugal, Shanghai, Qatar, Sepang, and Istanbul. But the Spaniard would not be denied after winning half of the total races for the season and outscoring Stoner 309 to 254. Nonetheless, as it was a convincing championship win for Pedrosa, it was also an overwhelming runner-up finish for Stoner who was 55 points better than third place finisher Andrea Dovizioso.
2006
His solid second place finish in the 250cc category signalled Stoner's eventual entry in the big leagues of grand prix motorcycle racing where the best and the finest riders and manufacturers compete---the MotoGP class. Stoner originally negotiated with Yamaha for a spot with their team but when a deal failed to materialize, team manager Lucio Cecchinello put him on a one-bike team aboard a Honda RC211V motorcycle. In his debut, the 20-year old Stoner became the youngest rider on the grid, going on to finish 6th in his first ever race on a 990cc machine in the Spanish MotoGP. Two races later, he would bag his best finish of the season, barely beaten by Marco Melandri in the Turkish MotoGP by 0.2s but nonetheless bagging his first podium in the premier class. His promising debut season however was hampered by too many errors and crashes most especially in the second half of the season, with commentators even betting on which lap Stoner would crash out. He would finish no better than fourth the rest of the way and 8th in the world championship race with 119 points.
2007
Stoner had initial talks with Yamaha in 2007 but the 21-year old ended up with a ride at Ducati instead alongside Loris Capirossi after Sete Gibernau retired from MotoGP competition. Ducati's decision to take the crash-prone sophomore under their umbrella seemed to be the right one as Stoner became a pacesetter in winter testing aboard the Desmosedici GP7. His success even spilled throughout the year when, after winning the season opener at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar (the first ever 800cc grand prix and his first ever win in the MotoGP class), he would go on and claim nine more wins, bag four podiums, and score five pole positions before eventually securing his and his team's first MotoGP World Championship. The 2007 championship was historic as it was memorable as the victory made Stoner the first rider in over 30 years to win the MotoGP title on a European made bike and the second youngest premier-class World Champion after American legend Freddie Spencer. Spencer won the crown in 1983 at the same age as Stoner, only 84 days younger.
2008
His success in 2007 netted him a two-year contract extension from Ducati with an option to stay with the team for 2010. He began his title defense with a victory at the 2008 Quatar MotoGP aboard the Ducati Desmosedici GP8. In the second race of the year at Jerez, Stoner escaped injury-free on a big crash on day one, then managed only 11th in the Spanish GP, his worst finish since 2006.
Career Stats
| Season | Class | Motorcycle | Race | Win | Podium | Pole | FLap | Pts | Plcd | WCh |
| 2001 | 125cc | Honda RS125R | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 29th | - |
| 2002 | 250cc | Aprilia RS250 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68 | 12th | - |
| 2003 | 125cc | Aprilia RS125 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 125 | 8th | - |
| 2004 | 125cc | KTM 125 FPR | 14 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 145 | 5th | - |
| 2005 | 250cc | Aprilia RS250 | 16 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 254 | 2nd | - |
| 2006 | MotoGP | Honda RC211V | 16 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 119 | 8th | - |
| 2007 | MotoGP | Ducati GP7 | 18 | 10 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 367 | 1st | 1 |
| Total | 95 | 17 | 35 | 10 | 10 | 1082 | 1 |
| Class | Season | 1st GP | 1st Pod | 1st Win | Race | Win | Podiums | Pole | FLap | Pts | WCh |
| 125cc | 2001,2003-04 | 2001 Britain | 2003 Germany | 2003 Valencia | 30 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 274 | 0 |
| 250cc | 2002,2005 | 2002 Japan | 2005 Portugal | 2005 Portugal | 31 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 322 | 0 |
| MotoGP | 2006-2007 | 2006 Spain | 2006 Turkey | 2007 Qatar | 36 | 11 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 511 | 1 |
| Total | 2001-2007 | 97 | 18 | 35 | 10 | 11 | 1107 | 1 |
| Yr | Class | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Final Pos | Pts |
| 2001 | 125cc | Honda | JPN | SAF | SPA | FRA | ITA | CAT | NED | GBR 17 | GER | CZE | POR | VAL | PAC | AUS 12 | MAL | BRA | 29th | 4 | ||
| 2002 | 250cc | Aprilia | JPN Ret | SAF Ret | SPA 6 | FRA Ret | ITA Inj | CAT 6 | NED 8 | GBR 11 | GER Ret | CZE 5 | POR Ret | BRA 6 | PAC 17 | MAL 11 | AUS 10 | VAL 13 | 12th | 68 | ||
| 2003 | 125cc | Aprilia | JPN Ret | SAF 10 | SPA 6 | FRA 4 | ITA 18 | CAT Ret | NED Ret | GBR 5 | GER 2 | CZE Inj | POR Inj | BRA 2 | PAC 2 | MAL Ret | AUS Ret | VAL 1 | 8th | 125 | ||
| 2004 | 125cc | KTM | SAF 3 | SPA 5 | FRA 8 | ITA 2 | CAT 4 | NED 3 | BRA 2 | GER Inj | GBR Inj | CZE Ret | POR Ret | JPN Ret | QAT Ret | MAL 1 | AUS 3 | VAL Ret | 5th | 145 | ||
| 2005 | 250cc | Aprilia | SPA Ret | POR 1 | CHN 1 | FRA 4 | ITA 4 | CAT 2 | NED 6 | GBR 3 | GER 7 | CZE 3 | JPN 3 | MAL 1 | QAT 1 | AUS Ret | TUR 1 | VAL 3 | 2nd | 254 | ||
| 2006 | MotoGP | Honda | SPA 6 | QAT 5 | TUR 2 | CHN 5 | FRA 4 | ITA Ret | CAT Ret | NED 4 | GBR 4 | GER DNS | USA Ret | CZE 6 | MAL 8 | AUS 6 | JPN Ret | POR Ret | VAL Ret | 8th | 119 | |
| 2007 | MotoGP | Ducati | QAT 1 | SPA 5 | TUR 1 | CHN 1 | FRA 3 | ITA 4 | CAT 1 | GBR 1 | NED 2 | GER 5 | USA 1 | CZE 1 | SMR 1 | POR 3 | JPN 6 | AUS 1 | MAL 1 | VAL 2 | 1st | 367 |
| 2008 | MotoGP | Ducati | QAT 1 | SPA 11 | POR - | CHN - | FRA - | ITA - | CAT - | GBR - | NED - | GER - | USA - | CZE - | SMR - | IND - | JPN - | AUS - | MAL - | VAL - | - | - |
Highlights
| The 2008 Qatar GP won by Casey Stoner. |
