Casey Stoner to Ride at Phillip Island – But Only for a Lap of Honor
Casey Stoner is returning to MotoGP at Phillip Island. Unfortunately, he won’t be there to race as a wild card in the Australian Grand Prix as some of his fans hope. No, instead the recently retired two-time MotoGP Champion will be riding a lap of honor alongside fellow Australian champions Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan on Oct. 20 before the MotoGP race.
All three riders have had the honor of having a section of the Phillip Island track named for them. The start/finish stretch is known as the Gardner Straight while the first turn is known as the Doohan Corner. At last year’s Australian Grand Prix, the circuit officially named Turn 3 as Stoner Corner.
Stoner retired at the end of the 2012 season at the age of 27 with two world championships and 38 wins in 115 MotoGP races. Six of those victories came at Phillip Island, including the 2012 race, the last win of Stoner’s career.
“The 2012 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was a fairytale ending to my MotoGP career,” Stoner tells MotoGP.com. “It will be nice to take to the track with Mick and Wayne this year without the pressure of competing. I look forward to enjoying it and mixing with the fans that have supported me throughout my career.”
[Source: MotoGP.com, photo by GEPA Pictures]
Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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