FUTURE ON 4 WHEELS?

Report: P. Carruthers / Photos: A. Budd / VROOM MAGAZINE
 
Casey Stoner, Ducati World Champion, still has trouble with his wrist after the operation he had three months ago, something that is quite worrying for him and if it continues, the young 23 year old Australian driver may have to decide whether to continue or find an alternative, take up car racing.

It's from this propective that our correspondent in Australia has written an exclusive report for VROOM. Here we have the acrobat Casey Stoner driving a KART for improving his driving skill.

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ABOVE: Casey pictured here with Remo Luciani in the Herald Sun newspaper 2009 - testing the Monaco Kart and IAME X30 Engine


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Casey Stoner, 2007 MotoGP World Champion has completed a SECRET TEST in a KART in Australia completing a full day session in stifling 47 degree Celsius conditions at Australia's newest kart track MONARTO near Murray Bridge in South Australia on Thursday January 29. Pictured above with Remo.

the 23-year-old admitted that there is a possibility that in the future he would like to trade his handlebars for a steering wheel and maybe even try his hand in Australia's premier motorsport category, the V8 SUPERCARS.

"KARTING wise I'm planning to do some racing in the future to hone my skills on the four wheels and see how wer go," explained Casey. "In the future I'd really like to go to V8 SUPERCARS and KARTING is the way forward, I'm going to learn everything set-up wise, how to drive and be more comfortable in a kart,"

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If Stoner was able to make it into a four-wheel career it would see him follow in the footsteps of Australia's World Motorcycle Champions Mick Doohan (tarmac rallies), Wayne Gardiner (V8 TOURING CARS) and twice runner-up Gregg Hansford (TOURING CARS) who all turned to cars after successful motorcycle careers. In fact, Hansford's historical win in the 1993 Bathurst Tooheys 1000 alongside Larry Perkins gave him the unique distinction of winning a race at the famed MOUNT PANORAMA circuit in both motorcycle and car racing.

2008 MotoGP champ Valentino Rossi, Stoner's main rival in 2009 has also shown interest in racing on four wheels having already driven in a World Rally Championship round and track tested a Ferrari FORMULA 1 Car.

Stoner who hadn't driven a race kart since his younger years also spent a day in Tamworth at the track copleting about 250 laps in order to learn what is required to race a KART.

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" I did a handful of laps in a KART when I was about ten years old but since then I haven't been in a real racing KART until about a month ago in TAMWORTH, only some four stroke hire karts which ar a long way from the REAL DEAL."

The super-fit young Aussie adapted amazingly quick to the characteristics of the AUSTRALIAN-MADE MONACO KART, which was powered by a 125cc IAME X30 engine and by the end of the day was posting very respectable and extremely consisten times aroun the 1020-metre circuit with consecutive laps within .002/sec.

Stoner's drive to succeed in whatever he does was quite evident as with each session aboard the MONACO you could see him push the limits and challenging himself, trying something new almost every lap until the later part of the day where he proved he was really coming to grips with the kart.

"I've been really happy with the MONACO KART and IAME X30 engine package, I've driven it once befor and for me its a heck of a lot of fun, it's easy to drive and extremely reliable," said Stoner.

"We'd fill it up with fuel and it goes and goes and goes so then I'm able to concentrate on my driving rather than worrying about the tuning and all the other things."

Apart from the usual track and racing skills, Stoner believes racing a KART has some similarities to that of a bike and thinks the transition into a KART has been made easier by his knowledge of his race craft.

"My ability to understand what changes to do to each machine have been a big help, I can explain what I feel it is doing and we can make changes from that. If you can't feel what it is doing then there is no way you can go in the right direction so it is nice to know myself what each setting change does and then I can learn fro when I start racing."

The likable GP star was tutored throughout both days by Australian Karting icon and six-time Australian Champion REMO LUCIANI, who was suitably impressed by Stoner's ability to transfer his knowledge of his two-wheeled machines into a KART.

"Even though today was a relaxed fun day for Casey he was amazingly methodical and thorough in his feedback regarding set-up changes and how the kart works," explained Luciani., who has also won 48 State championships during his 25-year karting career.

"There wasn't a session that he didn't ask for something to be altered so he could feel what affect the change made to the characteristics of the kart."

Likewise, CASEY STONER was equally impressed by the tutorage he received from the experienced REMO LUCIANI.

"It is very nice to go around with REMO and set the kart up and learn everything these karts can do. REMO has been the greatest help imaginable, he has been willing to travel hours to come and spend the day setting this kart up for me and help me out to test and really introduced me to this scene that I've been wanting to get involved in for a while." explained CASEY.

"Remo's definately been the guy to keep me interested and has taught me everything that I know at the moment (about karting)." Said CASEY


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Pictured above right:
CASEY STONER in action on his Ducati as MotoGP World Champion during the 2008 season and on a kart during the winter break in January 2009. In both cases STONER is very fast...



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Pictured above: Other significant pictures documenting the interest and keenness with which CASEY STONER has carried out his test on the Australian track MONARTO, in South Australia, together with the many times over champion REMO LUCIANI.

STONER also recently beat FILIPE MASSA to victory in the ice karting race that closed ducati and Ferrari's traditional pre-season Madonna di Campiglio Ski event in ITALY recently passing the F1 ACE on the penultimate lap to greet the chequered flag first. the ducati factory MotoGP rider also led home NICKY HAYDEN, plus test rider VITTORIANO GUARESCHI and Ferrari's test driver LUCA BADOER.

"That was a heck of a lot of fun, you know driving on the ice was really nice, the race was a bit of a mess up as everybody sort of spun or made mistakes but it was still a heck of a lot of fun and I'll do it again anytime," said STONER.

Drive and desire to succeed is something that STONER proved at a young age when he had his first race aged just four in class for under nine-year-olds on the Gold coast of Australia. Between the ages of nine and fourteen, he went on to win 41 DIRT and long track titles and 70 STATE TITLES. A further feat that illustrates his passion and need to succeed in racing was at age twelve when over one weekend at the Australian Long Track Titles on the New South Wales coast he completed in five different categories, in all seven rounds of each capacity. A weekend consisting of thirty-five individual races of which CASEY went on to win 32 and claim ALL FIVE AUSTRALIAN TITLES on offer.

With the legal age to enter in road racing in Australia at the time set at 16, Stoner and his parents decided he was ready at 14 years so they packed up and moved to ENGLAND (where the lega age to start road racing was 14) and from there the rest is history as they say.

With the opening round of the 2009 MotoGP World Championships set for Qatar on April 12, STONER who looks in peak fitness left Australia on Tuesday February 3 2009 for Sepang in MALAYSIA to begin pre-season testing and focus his attention towards regaining the World MotoGP Championship with DUCATI.

"I've been traingin very hard and people don't realise you really do need to put in a heck of a lot of effort into fitness for all forms of racing, it is certainly very tough on the world series and you have always got to be on top of your game," concluded STONER.

At the test STONER and his DUCATI were fast from the onset setting times close to the top in every session and after the trhee days walked away with the fastest time overall heading arch rival ROSSI and Suzuki's LORIS CAPIROSSI.

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Despite all the fitness training, there was northing STONER could do to prepare his left wrist for the kind of physical work that replicates controling Ducati's carbon fibre chassis GP9 machine.

CASEY shrugged off the constand pain of his recovering left wrist throughout every day of the test. The impressive AUSSIE, sitll seriously hampered by a bove graft operation he needed last November to repair an old scaphoid injury could only manage a handful of laps at a time due to the pain, however doctors expect it to get a lot better before the season opener.

The last time STONER was on a bike prior to this was at the rain-soaked Valencia test in October where he also posted the fastest times, which stands him in good stead to regain the champoinship.