Was just listening to a podcast with Greg Rust (a well-known Aussie motorsport commentator) talking with one of my idols, the king of Phillip Island and still the only MotoGP champion for Ducati - Casey Stoner. Near the end from part 2 of the podcast though, was guttered to hear he can barely ride a motorbike at the moment due to chronic fatigue, as well as being unable to run due to his weakened ankles in 2012 and 2015.
Its strange, he was once on top of the world in an extremely physical sport such as MotoGP. Now he’s couch ridden a week at a time, if he exerts himself too much, plus is unable to run.
Apparently the last time he rode a bike was on his birthday in the US at an Alpinestars event, wasn’t pushing the bike at all and was still tired... I actually remembered seeing his Facebook post of the event, he looked so happy there but little did we know.
Some highlights of the podcast:
- At 30:35 in part 1 of the podcast, Stoner mentions his 800cc ‘07 Ducati was worse than his ‘06 satellite Honda in pre-season testing. Apparently gearbox was utter crap, couldn’t turn at all and still didn’t by end of season. But engine made loads of power and could rev to 21000rpm in pre-season tests, though revs were limited for reliability reasons once racing.
- At 29:50 in part 1, he says that the 250cc 2 stroke Aprilia he rode in ‘05, was harder to ride than the 990cc 4 stroke ‘06 Honda satellite MotoGP bike he rode.
- At 4:52 in part 2 of the podcast, he talks about the best MotoGP he rode was the ‘12 Honda on tyres from the first tests. But with changed tyres from the start of the season, he reckons it would chatter all over the track, jumping 3-4 inches off the ground causing the electronics to go haywire.
- At 6:58 in part 2 of the podcast, Stoner talks about hating the pressure of racing at Phillip Island in MotoGP, he only liking it because of it’s high speed corners. He makes a point that he liked sliding the rear at the fast corners so as to not lose the front end. But specifically at 8:38, Stoner mentions at turn 3 of Phillip Island (Stoner Corner), he reckons he was sliding the rear before the corner, and did it at his fastest sliding at 265kph in 2011 qualifying/250kph in race, all to simply setup for a straight line braking and thus not brake while leaning for the upcoming hairpin. Awesome!
https://www.podcastoneaustralia.com.au/podcasts/rustys-garage/casey-stoner-part-2
https://www.podcastoneaustralia.com.au/podcasts/rustys-garage/casey-stoner-part-1