The confinement imposed by the Coronavirus will have had one virtue: that of reminding everyone of the Casey Stoner case. A gifted man who retired at the age of 26 after two world titles in MotoGP with two different brands: Ducati and Honda. His very first employer Lucio Cecchinello, boss of the LCR team, remembers the Australian when he started in the premier category. With an edifying anecdote…
Casey Stoner is a meteorite that lit up the MotoGP sky. Before retiring at the age of 26, he won two MotoGP championship titles, collecting 45 victories, including 38 among the elite, 89 podiums, 43 poles, 33 fastest laps...
His eccentric personality and curious way of doing and approaching things was not as well known when the Australian was racing, but over the years, anecdotes from those who knew and lived with him show the peculiarity of this pure talent on the handlebars of a motorcycle.
Lucio Cecchinello, his first MotoGP boss, revealed a story of Stoner in 2006, his first year in the premier class with LCR Honda, which clearly shows why Casey was different. “ It was his second Grand Prix in MotoGP. He had asked us to arrive in Qatar on Thursday to spend as much time as possible with his girlfriend in Australia and we came to an agreement and arranged everything. But during the trip several things happened and he landed in Qatar on Friday at 9:35 a.m. » says the Italian.
Then he specifies: “ the first tests began at 10 a.m. I picked him up from the airport and took him to the track. While he was getting dressed, he had some coffee. He put on his helmet, entered the box and, without even looking at the mechanics, he got on the bike at 10:02 a.m. At 10:05 a.m. he was leading the standings. Casey was like that, extremely naturally gifted ". A revelation at “motorprint” which reminds us to what extent the Australian was a diamond in the rough.
