Fresh from his magnificent victory in Barcelona, Australian Casey Stoner returns to Donington Park next week where he rode a road racing motorcycle for the very first time seven years ago. Stoner and Valentino Rossi produced one of the finest MotoGP races of the decade in Barcelona on Sunday with Stoner and his Ducati coming out on top for the fourth time this season. Their next mighty confrontation is at Donington Park on June 24th at round eight of the MotoGP World Championship, the Nickel and Dime British Grand Prix. For Stoner it will be almost a trip home.
Just after Stoner’s 14th birthday his parents Colin and Bronwyn sold up in Australia and moved to England to enable their son to start road racing after an amazing dirt track racing career in which he won 41 Australian Dirt and Long Track titles and over 70 State titles.
“The trouble was that Casey was too young to start road racing in Australia and so we sold up and moved to England where he could start,” explained father Colin.” His first ever ride on a road racing machine was at a test day at Donington in 2000 and his first race was just up the road at Mallory Park. He won the Aprilia Superteens Championship that first year and in 2001 he rode in both the Spanish and British 125 cc Championships.”
In 2001 the Donington Park connection continued for the Australian when he made his first grand prix appearance as wild card entry for the British Grand Prix before embarking on a full time grand prix career a year later.
It was a far cry from the Monaco lifestyle that Stoner enjoys now with the family first living in a caravan near Southport before moving to a flat in Penrith, Cumbria and traveling round Europe in a Motorhome. However, the sacrifices paid off as Stoner started to make real progress in the 125 and 250cc World Championships. He won his first 125 cc grand at Valencia in Spain in 2003 and joined the Ducati team MotoGP team at the start of this season
The 21 year old Australian from Kurri-Kurri has had a truly remarkable short career with the Italian factory team He has won four of the opening seven races and leads seven times World Champion Valentino Rossi by 14 points in the Championship. His performance in the Grand Prix of Catalunya on Sunday where he fought of everything that Rossi could throw at him to win by 0.069 of one second was that of a potential World Champion.
The battle continues at Donington and Stoner can’t wait.
“I always enjoy going back to England because that’s where it all started and I have many friends and some great memories,” explained the MotoGP Championship leader.” The season has been fantastic and just could not have been better. Of course it will be tough at Donington but the Ducati should be great there. I’ve never done that well at Donington previously and there would be no better time to put that right.”
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