Casey Stoner: Map

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Casey Stoner (born 16 October 1985) is an Australian motorcycle racer. Born and raised in Southport

, Queensland, Stoner raced from a young age and moved to the United Kingdom to pursue a racing career. After first competing internationally in 2002, he won the title of 2007 MotoGP World Champion when he succeeded American Nicky Hayden. He currently competes in the MotoGP class for the Ducati Marlboro Team.

In 2008, Stoner was named Young Australian of the Year

as well as Nickelodeon´s Australian Kids Choice Awards.

Career

Early years

He competed in his first race was when he was four years old, in an under-nine years old race at the Mike Hatcher's dirt racing track on the Gold Coast of Australia. Between his very first race win at the age of nine and the age of fourteen, 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 at age twelve. Over one weekend he raced in 5 different categories in all 7 rounds of each capacity. A weekend consisting of 35 different races... Not only did he compete in all these categories and different engine capacities, the young Casey Stoner went on to win 32 out of the 35 races. There were five Australian titles to be won that weekend, Stoner won all 5.

The legal age to enter into road races in Australia is 16. At the age of 14 years, Stoner and his parents agreed he was ready to move up onto road racing so they packed up and moved to England - where the legal age for road racing is 14.

From 2000 to 2002, he contested the national 125cc GP championships in Britain

and Spain, winning the English 125cc Aprilia Championship in 2000, before moving fulltime to the 250cc GP World Championships in 2002. His season on an Aprilia under the guidance of Lucio Cecchinello was turbulent, with no podium places from 15 race starts.

125cc

In 2003 Stoner moved to the 125cc GP category. Here, working again with Cecchinello and Aprilia, he met with considerable success, scoring his first GP race win and three second places, finishing 8th overall at the season's end.

In 2004 Stoner joined the Red Bull KTM factory team in 125cc class and continued to improve, with another race win, two second places, three thirds, and a final championship position of fifth.

250cc

In 2005 he rejoined the 250cc world championship class, racing once again for Lucio Cecchinello' team on an Aprilia. Onboard a factory Aprilia, Stoner emerged toward the season's end as a serious threat to championship leader Dani Pedrosa; a threat that only dissipated with a crash at Stoner's home Grand Prix of Phillip Island

, allowing Pedrosa to establish an insurmountable points lead. Stoner went on to claim a solid second place in the overall championship standings, with an impressive five race victories for the season.

MotoGP

Stoner was in advanced negotiations with Yamaha, but after they dropped them he settled on an alliance once more with team manager Lucio Cecchinello on a Honda RC211V, on a one-bike team new to the series for the 2006 Season, Team LCR. He took pole in just his second race MotoGP, but crashed several times during the season. He finished in 8th position with his best result being a 2nd place at the Turkish GP, where he was leading until overtaken on the final corner by Marco Melandri.

Stoner secured a ride with the factory Ducati team for the 2007 season, joining Loris Capirossi on the new 800cc Ducati Desmosedici GP7. 6 poles and 10 race wins (including three of the first four), took him to his first GP title, by a margin of 125 points (equivalent to five victories) over Dani Pedrosa, which he built during the second half of the season. His worst finish was a 6th place at Motegi

, which was all he needed to clinch the title that day.

Stoner opened the 2008 season with a victory at Qatar

, before a run of two races without a podium. He returned to the podium with a second place at Mugello

, before starting a run of seven successive pole positions. He turned three of them into successive victories - a lights-to-flag win at Donington, leading every lap at Assen

six days later, and recovering from a huge Friday crash at Sachsenring

to win in the wet after Dani Pedrosa crashed, moving to within 20 points of the championship lead. However, successive crashes while fighting for the lead at Laguna Seca

(where he remounted to finish second to Valentino Rossi), Brno

and Misano ensured that he could not defend the title successfully. Stoner finished the 2008 season as runner-up to Rossi with 280 points, the highest amount of points ever gained without taking the title.

Stoner remained with Ducati for the 2009 season with new team mate Nicky Hayden, with a further option for a 4th season in 2010. A strong start to the season left Stoner in a three way battle with the Fiat Yamaha duo of Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, before he was befallen by a mystery illness which caused him to feel tired long before the end of races, leaving him 16 points behind Rossi and 7 behind Lorenzo after the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on July 5.

Stoner was subsequently diagnosed with anemia and an inflammation of the stomach lining. Stoner later disputed the diagnosis however and, after continuing to struggle with the condition, he announced on August 10 2009 that he would miss rounds 11, 12 and 13 in Brno, Indianapolis and Misano respectively in an attempt to recover from the illness. Mika Kallio was chosen as Stoner's replacement for the three races. Stoner returned to racing late in the 2009 season, placing second in the Portuguese Grand Prix and an emphatic first in the Australian Grand Prix, which he led throughout. At interview following the Australian Grand Prix, Stoner said that he experienced none of the premature tiredness that had dogged him earlier in the 2009 season.

At the last round of 2009 at Valencia, Stoner dominated all practise and qualifying sessions to take pole, only to crash on cold tyres on the warm-up lap and miss the race. However at the test held immediately following the Valencia round, Stoner was once again fastest while testing the new 2010 version of the Desmosedici.

Stoner has showed signs of feeling underappreciated by the general public. He was angered by consistent suggestions that the bike and tyres had a bigger role in his success than he did, and unhappy at being booed at Donington in both 2007 and 2008.

In August 2008 he was criticised for his team's association with tobacco company Philip Morris.

Personal life

Stoner met Adriana Tuchyna from Adelaide

when she approached him at Phillip Island

in 2003 and asked him to sign her stomach. A relationship began in 2005 when she turned 16, and they were married in Adelaide

on 6 January 2007.

Career statistics

By season

Season	Class	Bike	Team	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2001	125cc	Honda RS125R		2	0	0	0	0	4	29th	-
2002	250cc	Aprilia RS250	Team LCR	15	0	0	0	0	68	12th	-
2003	125cc	Aprilia RS125	Team LCR	14	1	4	1	2	125	8th	-
2004	125cc	KTM 125 FPR	Red Bull KTM	14	1	6	1	1	145	5th	-
2005	250cc	Aprilia RSA250	Team LCR	16	5	10	2	1	254	2nd	-
2006	MotoGP	Honda RC211V	Team LCR	16	0	1	1	0	119	8th	-
2007	MotoGP	Ducati GP7	Ducati Corse	18	10	14	5	6	367	1st	1
2008	MotoGP	Ducati GP8	Ducati Corse	18	6	11	9	8	280	2nd	-
2009	MotoGP	Ducati GP9	Ducati Corse	13	4	6	2	2	220*	3rd*	-
Total				126	28	52	20	20	1542		1

* Season in progress.

By class

Class	Season	First Races	First Podium	First Win	Race	Wins	Podiums	Poles	FLaps	Pts	WChmps
125 cc	2001, 2003-2004	2001 Britain	2003 Germany	2003 Valencia	30	2	10	2	3	274	0
250 cc	2002, 2005	2002 Japan	2005 Portugal	2005 Portugal	31	5	10	2	1	322	0
MotoGP	2006-Present	2006 Spain	2006 Turkey	2007 Qatar	68	20	33	17	14	961	1
Total	2001-Present				129	27	53	21	18	1557	1

Races by year

() (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2001	125cc	Honda	JPN	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR 17	GER	CZE	POR	VAL	PAC	AUS 12	MAL	BRA			29th	4
2002	250 cc	Aprilia	JPN Ret	RSA 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	125 cc	Aprilia	JPN Ret	RSA 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	125 cc	KTM	RSA 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	250 cc	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	RSM 1	POR 3	JPN 6	AUS 1	MAL 1	VAL 2	1st	367
2008	MotoGP	Ducati	QAT 1	SPA 11	POR 6	CHN 3	FRA 16	ITA 2	CAT 3	GBR 1	NED 1	GER 1	USA 2	CZE Ret	RSM Ret	IND 4	JPN 2	AUS 1	MAL 6	VAL 1	2nd	280
2009	MotoGP	Ducati	QAT 1	JPN 4	SPA 3	FRA 5	ITA 1	CAT 3	NED 3	USA 4	GER 4	GBR 14	CZE DNS	IND DNS	SMR DNS	POR 2	AUS 1	MAL 1	VAL DNS		4th	220