Re: Casey Stoner

tammerz · by tammerz on Thu Dec 25, 2008 12:11 pm

Paddock Press: Roberts on Stoner´s 2008 season
Thursday, 25 December 2008

Casey Stoner goes under the spotlight in the latest journalist review.

The Paddock Press series turns its focus to the runner-up in the 2008 season, as BBC pitlane reporter Matthew Roberts looks back over Casey Stoner´s title-defending year. Stoner may have come up short in his second season with Ducati, but British journalist Roberts believes that the season has been far from a write-off for the 2007 MotoGP World Champion.

`To get first and then second over two years in MotoGP is an outstanding achievement,´ he says in the accompanying video. `Far from being a disappointment this year losing the title, I think that it´s been a real success, and Casey will look back on it that way too.´

tammerz · by tammerz on Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:00 am

Casey Stoner ready for wrist assessment
By Matthew Birt

MotoGP

08 January 2009 10:07

Former world champion Casey Stoner will learn whether is on course for an early February comeback when he undergoes medical checks on his left wrist in Italy next week.

The Australian is due to fly back into Europe for Ducati’s 2009 MotoGP team launch at the Madonna di Campiglio ski resort next week.

But before kicking off his media duties, of far more pressing concern for the 2007 world champion will be to discover how his left wrist is recovering after pre-Christmas surgery.

Stoner underwent a bone graft operation on an old 2003 wrist in November, which had flared up during the latter stages of the ’08 premier class world championship.

He will visit surgeons next Monday (January 12) as he hopes to be fit for the resumption of winter testing in Sepang, Malaysia on February 5.

Ducati team boss Livio Suppo told MCN: “The last test we did before the Jerez test in late November was with an X-ray and that said everything was going in the right way.

"He has been using a machine to do some exercises to keep the wrist moving without him needing to put any effort in.

"Everyday he will get some more movement back and then he has been doing a lot of physio to get the movement he needs back on the bike, not only up and down but also left and right.”

Mrs James Toseland · by Mrs James Toseland on Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:22 pm

Casey Stoner
PERSONAL DETAILS
NAME: CASEY STONER
TEAM: DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM
NATIONALITY: AUSTRALIAN
DATE OF BIRTH: 16/10/1985
MARRIED: SINGLE. (Should this say he is married)

Casey Stoner stunned the MotoGP paddock by storming to victory, on his Ducati debut, at the 2007 Qatar season opener - and his rivals arguably never recovered.

By the end of only his second season in MotoGP, Stoner and his powerful Desmosedici had won 10 races, taken 14 podiums and lifted his and Ducati's first world title with a season's worst sixth place at the wet/dry Japanese Grand Prix, round 15 of 18.

The 22-year-old's faultless 2007 performances - when he finished every race - were in complete contrast to his rookie 2006 season, when he failed to finish seven GPs for the satellite Honda LCR team.

Stoner had hinted at his future stardom by finishing sixth in his first ever premier-class race - despite missing the final pre-season tests due to surgery - then took pole position next time out and a debut podium, just 0.2secs behind race winner Marco Melandri, in his third ever MotoGP race.

Unfortunately for Casey, that second place marked his first and last podium of the 2006 season, with accidents dropping him steadily down the championship standings to eighth by the season's end.

Despite his 'incidents', Lucio Cecchinello had hoped to retain Stoner for a second season, but Casey was chasing a factory ride and - while negotiations with Yamaha broke down early - his raw speed was enough to convince Ducati to take the considerable gamble of signing him over the experienced Sete Gibernau, a double MotoGP World Championship runner-up.

Stoner was thus partnered with Loris Capirossi for the first season of 800cc racing and the rest is history. With Ducati legend Capirossi completely overshadowed by the Australian, taking only one win, Loris will be replaced by fellow Italian Marco Melandri for 2008 - when Stoner will proudly ride with the #1 plate.

Casey and his family's commitment to achieving his goal of a world championship is hard to fault. After uprooting themselves from their native Kurri-Kurri on Australia's idyllic Gold Coast, they spent time in Britain establishing Stoner as a European name. After dominating Aussie dirt bike riding as a kid, they knew Europe was the place to be to further his career. It was a risk as well as a sacrifice - and the gamble paid off.

In 2001 Stoner finished second overall in two highly regarded championships, the Spanish and British 125cc series, and it from here that he continued to shine as a rider when the careers of many other hopefuls have stalled. Then Cecchinello stepped in to guide him, recruiting him to his Aprilia 250 squad for 2002 where he finished 12th overall in his first full GP season, took a debut win in his second season - after switching to the 125cc class - before taking another 125cc win the following year, for the factory KTM team.

A switch back to Cecchinello, Aprilia and 250cc for 2005 yielded five wins and second in the championship behind Dani Pedrosa - enough to convince Honda to hand him a satellite RC211V for 2006.

Career highlights:

1989 & 1999: 41 wins in Australian dirt bike Championships
2000: 1st British Aprilia RS 125 Challenge
2001: 2nd Spanish 125cc Championship, 2nd British 125cc Championship
2002: 12th 250cc World Championship Aprilia
2003: 8th 125cc World Championship Aprilia
2004: 5th 125cc World Championship KTM
2005: 2nd 250cc World Championship Aprilia
2006: 8th MotoGP World Championship Honda
2007: 1st MotoGP World Championship Ducati

tammerz · by tammerz on Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:03 am

Stoner `reasonably happy´ with wrist recuperation
Tuesday, 13 January 2009

The main focus for Casey Stoner early in 2009 is ensuring his left wrist is 100% ready for the start of the new MotoGP season.

Having undergone surgery at the end of a challenging 2008 season to rectify a nagging scaphoid problem in his left wrist, Casey Stoner is confident that the operation has put right an old injury which resurfaced midway through last year´s campaign.

Stoner was hampered by the wrist during the latter stages of his ultimately fruitless title defense as he saw the rampant Valentino Rossi run away with his MotoGP crown – and the Australian is determined to win the title back from the Italian in 2009.

Talking to the press at Ducati´s official team presentation at the Madonna di Campiglio ski resort in Italy on Tuesday, Stoner said of his wrist, `I´m reasonably happy. I would like to have a little more movement but the check-up went well yesterday, the bone graft has healed well and that is very positive. It means I can start to work my hand and arm a little harder now and start to recover some muscle mass and get in the best possible shape for the next test.´

On the latest development the Ducati 800cc Desmosedici, Stoner commented, `So far I´ve only ridden the GP9 twice, at Barcelona during the season and for a day at Valencia in November. It wasn´t much but it was enough to understand that we´re not a long way off and that the new chassis is an improvement. We need to work on improving the set-up and refining a couple of areas on the bike.´

Reflecting on what went wrong last time around Stoner added, `Last year we were perhaps a little too confident and overlooked some of the work we needed to do, leading to a few highs and lows at the start of the season that end up costing us dear. In any case, despite a breakdown and two crashes we still won six races and finished second in the championship, which means we can look forward to this year really positively.´

Meanwhile, on Ducati signing his close acquaintance Nicky Hayden for the ´09 campaign Stoner only had positive things to say about the American, revealing, `I´m really happy with the addition of Nicky to the team. He has always been kind to me, even when I was racing in the smaller classes, and I think we can work well together. The communication between us is great and I think we can work together on fixing certain situations and getting the most out of the GP9 so that we can both be competitive.´

Perhaps ominously for his rivals, Stoner concluded, `From my side I also plan to be a little more aggressive this season and maybe be a bit more decisive in races where nobody seems to want to take the initiative.´

tammerz · by tammerz on Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:04 pm

Casey Stoner doubts MotoGP salary cap
By Matthew Birt

MotoGP

19 January 2009 10:32

Former world champion Casey Stoner has doubted whether a salary cap could ever be policed to help cut costs in MotoGP.

Capping rider wages has been just one of several ideas floated around during talks to significantly reduce costs in the current economic crisis.

Most have dismissed the salary cap idea as unmanageable, and Australian factory Ducati rider Stoner said: “Personally I don’t think it’s me who needs to give a hand out.

"I’m not sucking the sport of its money. Basically every contract I’ve ever made I never negotiated with money, I’ve always been happy with what I’ve been offered.

"This is not why I’m in the sport. Kawasaki leaving, I don’t think is a huge reason for everybody to start panicking. Maybe there are more reason than financial as why they pulled out.

"I’m happy we’re I am and the situation I’m in at Marlboro and Ducati so it’s not something for us to say anything about. I don’t think it (salary cap) will happen anyway.”

tammerz · by tammerz on Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:33 pm

Season in 'serious doubt' for injured Stoner
18/02/2009 8:38:00 AM.

Casey Stoner has admitted his MotoGP season is in serious doubt due to continual pain in his wrist.

The 2007 world champion says that unless the wrist improves over the next fortnight his ability to contest the series will be under a cloud.

Stoner underwent an operation on his wrist last November to repair an old injury but he says his movement is still severely hampered.

Remarkably he set the fastest lap times in the first official test series at Sepang in Malaysia recently.

But it was done under duress and Stoner said that if the problem had not improved by the time of next month's test in Qatar there would be a question mark over his year.

Last year's surgery was supposed to have resolved an ongoing schapoid problem.

Stoner is pessimistic that his condition will improve before testing resumes on March 1.

"Three months have gone by and my wrist has little mobility and hurts badly," Stoner told Motosprint. "I don't like the way this story is going at all.

"I'll try not to think about it until the test in Qatar, then we'll see. If the situation in Qatar hasn't improved radically, then it means there will be plenty to worry about.

"I just think that three months have gone by and in my opinion the situation isn't good at all.

"I say that I shouldn't be in this situation, because the bone has healed, yet it hurts me badly. That's what I can't explain.

"It's been really disappointing finding out that after three months the wrist is a lot worse than I expected."

Stoner was unable to complete long runs at Sepang and was limited in his movement through some corners.

"I try to adapt, to change the way I sit on the bike," he said.

"I make some movements to make up for the fact that the wrist barely moves and most of all it hurts me a lot under braking.

"It feels almost unreal to me that I manage to be so quick. The situation is worse than I expected.

"I say it's not normal. I didn't expect to feel great, but not this bad either."

valegirl46 · by valegirl46 on Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:07 am

As much as I dislike Stoner and think that he is a whining tosspot, I really hope that he does race this season. We've already lost Marco and Hopper and are down to a 17 man grid we can't afford for the grid to be any lower. And if stoner didnt race who would we have to give out about, I love the rivalry between him and Vale, it makes the racing all more interesting and it makes the victories all the more sweeter when Vale kicks Caseys ass!!!!

tassiedevil · by tassiedevil on Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:42 pm

I want Nicky to kick his arse Luv love

tammerz · by tammerz on Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:54 pm

i would love it for Randy to kick his ass

of course i am delusional

iftiyati · by iftiyati on Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:22 pm

I'd love to see Nicky kick Casey's arse too and if Randy managed it aswell it would be great but if Randy can stay on his bike all season that would be even greater!