Get to know the grid:MotoGP Casey Stoner-Ducati Marlboro Team

Today and in the next few weeks I will post every day about 2 riders, one from MotoGP and one from WSBK.

About each rider I will go over his raiding career, successes and failures, facts and rumors, to help you all to get to know the grid better.

I will go by teams

And the first team is Ducati

Casey Stoner

Personal opinion- A very strong candidate for the championship, obviously figured out how to get the Ducati Desmosedici GP9 to go fast- really fast. Last year had 9 pole position starts, 2 2nd and 2 3rd place starts out of 18 races. 11 podiums- out of them 6 for 1st place 3 2nds and 2 3rds. He still needs to learn how to be comfortable in front of the cameras, maybe Nicky Hayden- his new team meat can teach him how to do it, and he can teach Nicky how to ride the red beast.

PERSONAL STATS Born: 16 October 1985 in Southport (Australia) Lives: Switzerland Marital Status: Married with Adriana Height: 1.70 m Weight: 58 kg CAREER STATS 2009: Ducati Marlboro Team rider – MotoGP World Championship Machine: Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP9 2008: 2nd MotoGP World Championship (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP8) 2007: MotoGP World Champion (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici GP7) 2006: 8th - MotoGP World Championship (Honda) 2005: 2nd - 250 World Championship (Aprilia) 2004: 5th - 125 World Championship (KTM) 2003: 8th - 125 World Championship (Aprilia) 2002: 12th - 250 World Championship (Aprilia) 2001: 2nd - 125 UK Championship (Honda) 2nd - 125 Spanish Championship (Honda) 2000: Aprilia Challenge UK Champion (Aprilia) 1989-99: winner of 41 titles of dirt track and long track in Australia Casey Stoner's Bio from: Casy Stoner official web site: http://www.caseystoner.com.au As a toddler Casey displayed a passion and talent for motorbike riding that was extraordinary, even by the standards of his bike-mad family. By the age of three he'd already graduated from pushing his older sister's 50cc Peewee around the yard to taking his first ride on his own. At four years of age Casey competed in his first race in the under 9s category at the Hatchers dirt racing track on the Gold Coast. By the age of six he had won his first Australia title. Many, many hours of riding, travelling and long nights working on bikes followed. Between the ages of 6 and 14 Casey raced all over Australia, travelling with his father, mother and sister. In that time Casey won 41 Australian dirt and long track titles and over 70 State titles, riding up to 5 bikes at a meeting in different capacity categories. When he was twelve Casey raced the Australian Long Track Titles on the NSW Central Coast in 5 different categories with seven rounds in each capacity; a total of 35 races over the one weekend! He won 32 out of those 35 races and took five out of five Australian titles in the one meet. Just after his 14th birthday Casey and his parents decided to make the move overseas and packed up and headed to England to start his road racing career. Casey could not legally road race in Australia until he was 16, but had decided he was ready for the challenge. So the decision was made to move to England where Casey was already of legal age to race. A big risk to take, but it paid off. Casey was lucky enough and talented enough to attract immediate sponsorship after just one race in England. He went on to take out the English 125cc Aprilia Championship in 2000, in his first year of road racing. In that year he also raced two rounds of the Spanish 125cc Championship. It was there he was noticed by GP great Alberto Puig. Alberto was impressed by Casey's determination and skill and invited him to race for the Telefonica Movistar Team in the 125cc Spanish Championships the next year. In 2001 Casey raced in both the English and Spanish championships in the same year. Despite missing some English races due to clashes with Spanish rounds, he still managed to come second in both championships. In that same year he was also granted wildcard entries into the MotoGP 125cc world series, in both England and Australia. He placed 18th and 12th respectively and as a result was offered a ride in the Grand Prix world series the next year for the Safilo Oxydo LCR team. Straight onto a 250cc machine in his rookie year, and at only 16 years of age, Casey demonstrated his ability and speed with results. His best result for the year was a 5th at Brno as well as several 6th place finishes. In 2003 he went on to ride for Lucio and Safilo Oxydo LCR in the 125cc GP series and took four podium finishes and his first race win, in Valencia, at the end of the season. His first win in a GP race was a huge turning point for Casey and his career. In 2004, at 18 years of age, Casey moved to KTM for a season where he helped to develop the team's 125cc bike into a winning machine. That year he made it to the podium six times and took KTM's first ever win in a GP class. 2005 saw Casey once again come back under the welcoming umbrella of Lucio Cecchinello's team, this time riding an official 250cc Aprilia. He spent 2005 battling it out with Dani Pedrosa for the championship, visiting the podium ten times in the process and taking wins in Portugal, Shanghai, Qatar, Sepang, and Istanbul. Finally in 2006, at twenty years of age, Casey accomplished his long held ambition of racing in MotoGP, the fastest and most prestigious of the classes. He set pole position in his second MotoGP race in Qatar and battled for the win until the final corner in the GP of Turkey, finishing runner-up just a fraction behind winner Melandri. Too many errors conditioned the second part of the year, but Casey, in finishing eighth overall in his rookie MotoGP season, demonstrated that he was in amongst the elite group, of which he is the youngest rider. In 2007 Casey Stoner has joined the Ducati MotoGP Team alongside Loris Capirossi, with whom he has struck up a good friendship. In winter testing he has often been amongst the pacesetters and has proved to have rapidly adapted to the Desmosedici GP7 and Bridgestone tyres. On March 10, 2007, at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, Stoner won the first grand prix of the season, the first ever 800cc grand prix, and had his first win in the MotoGP class. After that the young Australian took other nine wins, four further podium finished and scored five pole positions. On September 23rd, in Japan, Stoner secured Ducati’s first MotoGP World Championship becoming the first rider in over 30 years to win the MotoGP title on a European made bike and the second youngest premier-class World Champion, after American legend Freddie Spencer who won his title in 1983, and at the time was 84 days younger than the 21 year old Stoner. BIOGRAPHY Your favourite virtue: Patience Your favourite qualities in people: Honesty Your main fault: Unfortunately I get frustrated quickly Your favourite occupation: My job ! Your idea of happiness: Being at the farm surrounded by family and friends Your idea of misery. Being confined in small places Your favourite colour and flower: Red. Tulips (Adri’s favourites) Your favourite Music: Any but hard rock Your favorite bird: WedgeTail Eagle Your favourite heroes in fiction: Spider man Your favourite heroines in fiction: Catwoman Your favourite “other” sport: archery, cycling, diving Your favourite hobby: videogames, fishing Your favourite heroes in real life: Mick Doohan Your favourite heroines in real life: Lisa Kurry Kenny Your favourite moment of the day: sunrise Your favourite place in the world: anywhere with my wife (how sweet...:/) Your favourite food and drink: tacos and ginger beer Your favourite names: Rachel What you hate the most: Heavy traffic For what fault have you most toleration? Everybody makes mistake it’s how we deal with them that count Your favourite motto: never ever give up