Vitals

Birth	16th October 1985 in Southport, NSW, Australia
Residence	Monaco and Australia
Height	5'7" (167cm)
Weight	125lbs (57kg)
Parents	Colin (father), Bronwyn (mother)
Marital Status	Married Adriana Tuchyna in Adelaide, 6th January 2007

The Early Years (1985-1999)

Casey's interest and ability in riding bikes started at a very early age, taking his first ride at the age of three on a 50cc Peewee in his garden. This may seem extraordinary for a normal family but the Stoner family had always carried an interest and passion with motorcycles, including his father, mother and sister. His first proper race entrance was at the amazingly young age of four, in an under nine's dirt-track racing event at Hatchers on the Gold Coast. Two years later, when Casey had reached the age of six, he had already won the first of many titles to follow.

In the years that followed, the Stoner family had covered most of Australia, travelling from race meeting to race meeting and entering many events in a variety of classes. During this period, Casey managed to achieve an incredible feat: At the age of twelve, the developing talents made themselves very clear to all those around him when, in a single weekend, he raced in five different categories and in all seven rounds of each capacity - a total of thirty-five races - and, incredibly, won thirty-two of them. With five Australian titles up for grabs that weekend, the 12-year old Casey Stoner walked away with every single one of them.

Between the years 1991 to 1999, Casey accumulated a massive seventy state titles and forty-one national titles in dirt track and long track racing categories. I imagine the trophy cabinet took some cleaning at weekends.

The Big Move (2000-2001)

It was very clear by this point that Casey held and controlled a tremendous amount of talent when it came to two wheels. Unfortunately, due to Australian restrictions, Casey was unable to start his road racing career in his home country. The Stoner family believed strongly in Casey and his ability, so packed up and moved to the United Kingdom where you can start road racing from the age of fourteen.

In the year 2000, at the age of fourteen, Casey made his racing début in the Aprilia RS125 Challenge series - which he won. He also raced in the British 125cc Championship on a Honda and managed an overall finish of equal twelfth, ending up on the second step of the podium no less than three times. It was during a race at Albacete in the Spanish 125cc Championship that his talent was noticed by the renowned Alberto Puig; mentor to many modern day GP riders including Tony Elias and Dani Pedrosa amongst others.

In 2001, Casey was again racing in the British 125cc Championship, bearing the number '48' on his Honda. He managed seven wins during the season but due to clashing dates with the Spanish 125cc Championship, missed several rounds. This wasn't too bad as Casey managed to take 2nd place in both the British and Spanish championships.

Importantly, in 2001, Casey was entered as a wildcard in the British and Australian rounds of 125cc GP. It was because of the 18th and 12th place finishes in these rounds that got him his place alongside Lucio Cecchinello in 2002.

Number Twenty-Seven (2002-2003)

The first time the now famous '27' was seen on a bike was in 2002, plastered on the front of his 250cc GP Aprilia machine with Safilo Oxydo LCR with Lucio Cecchinello. This first year in the 250cc class showed a slight dip in form but nevertheless managed his best result at Brno with a fifth place finish. That result combined with three sixth place finishes meant the up-and-coming Stoner finished the championship with 68 points overall and twelfth in the championship.

TThe year 2003 saw a stronger performance from the able Stoner after switching to the 125cc class but remaining with Safilo Oxydo LCR and Lucio Cecchinello. His first podium in GP came in 2003 with a 2nd place finish in the ninth round at Germany. A couple more 2nd place positions were achieved before the inevitable happened; taking the top step of the podium at Valencia. A solid 125 points in this season saw Casey finish the championship in 8th place.

The 2002 and 2003 years were a fantastic help to Casey and despite a few of DNFs, it was very clear to see that he was capable of hustling a bike around a circuit exceptionally quickly, displaying concentration and a desire to win that set him apart from many of his peers at the time. It is commonly felt that it is much easier to make a 'crashy' rider stop crashing than it is to make a slow rider fast. We'll come back to this point when I start to cover the now legendary 2007 season of Casey's career!

A Quick Stint In Orange (2004)

In a break from LCR, Casey competed with KTM for the 2004 125cc season with his now famous 27 now adorning the black and orange bike of the Red Bull KTM team. Staying true to form, the 2004 season saw Casey grow ever stronger and provide improved results. This was the second year of GP for KTM and they can't have been disappointed with the results Stoner gave them, managing five top-five finishes in the first seven rounds of the championship. Unfortunately, a riding injury put a dent in what could've been an amazing season but sure enough, Stoner returned on good form and rewarded KTM with their first grand prix win at Malaysia. A further mix of results left Casey with 145 points by the end of the season which was good enough to finish the championship in 5th place. With improvement year upon year, interest in the 18-year old's ability was growing.

Would 2005 be the year that led to another improvement? An improvement significant enough to claim his first GP title? At this moment in time it certainly seemed so. What team could provide Casey with support, familiarity and suitable equipment to do the job? It was time for the return...

Return to LCR (2005)

So back to LCR with good friend Lucio Cecchinello again. This would be a good year. It would also be a year that Casey crossed swords with the ultra-talented Spaniard; Dani Pedrosa. It was a very successful year for Casey and LCR, taking the top step of the podium on no less than five occasions at Qatar, Shanghai, Istanbul, Estoril and Sepang.

Unfortunately there was a little 'fly in the ointment'. The fly was Dani Pedrosa who managed to take an impressive eight victories of the sixteen races of the 2005 season. Eventually, the championship finished with Dani as the winner with 309 points and Casey following in 2nd place with 254 points. It is also of note that Andrea Dovizioso finished in 3rd place with 189 points - so although there were 55 points between Dani and Casey, there were 65 points between Casey and Andrea - it was a season of big margins. It also showed yet another year of improvement for Casey which everyone knew would eventually lead to the premier class...

Welcome to MotoGP (2006)

The premier class for motorcycle racing where the best riders wrestle with the best machinery, on the best tyres, at the best tracks: it was inevitable that the number '27' would one day sit on one of these bikes and 2006 saw it happen. The '27' happened to sit on the 990cc Honda RC211V of the LCR Honda team, again with Lucio Cecchinello.

The 2006 MotoGP season got off to a great start for Casey, the youngest rider on the grid at the age of 20. Finishing 6th in his first ever race on a 990cc machine and getting his first podium at the third race in Turkey, only just missing out on the win by 0.2s after Italian Marco Melandri passed him on the final corner of the final lap.

Although Casey took one 2nd place, three 4th places, one 5th, three 6th and one 7th place finish, his most frequent race result was the dreaded DNF. Suffering from a huge highside at Mugello saw the first of six crashes in the season, certain commentators often placing bets on which lap Stoner would crash out. Still, by the end of the season, despite seven rounds of no point scoring, Casey finished 8th in the championship and the 2nd highest satellite rider - not a bad result for a first season in the premier class. Things would probably be better next year, wouldn't they?

Seeing Red... Frequently (2007)

Stoner knew he could get better results. He knew he could be world champion. He just needed the right team with the right equipment on the right tyres. This had to be a factory team. There were initially talks with Yamaha but this didn't transpire. Luckily, Sete Gibernau's retirement from MotoGP left an opening at Ducati and although Stoner was only Ducati's 3rd choice, he got the job.

I'm fairly confident that Ducati are thankful they took the risk on that crashy rookie from 2006 now. The ultra-dominant Stoner has rewarded Ducati with, at the time of writing, eight victories from thirteen races, a brace of pole positions, a clutch of fastest laps and, more importantly, a distinct lack of DNFs.

The 2007 officially ended at Valencia but, for Stoner at least, the job was finished at the Motegi circuit after his worst placing of the season netted him enough point to win the championship. It was a fantastic achievement and Casey Stoner became the second youngest world champion in history, only just pipped by Freddie Spencer. It would now be a tough job in 2008 to hold on to the title.