The Phillip Island circuit is to name Turn 3 after Casey Stoner. A ceremony is to be held on Thursday at 11:45am local time to name the corner in honor of the 2007 and 2011 World Champion.
Stoner joins Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner, Australia’s other two premier class World Champions, in having a part of the iconic Australian circuit named after him. Doohan has the first corner named after him, and the front straight running past the pits and into Doohan corner is named after Gardner.
It is fitting that Stoner should have Turn 3 named after him. The Australian has consistently named that corner as one of his favorite corners on the MotoGP calendar. It has everything which Stoner believes are the ingredients of an exciting turn: it is very fast, long, and the more courage you use in attacking the corner, the faster you go through there.
It is a corner where Stoner slides the rear to help turn the bike, a skill at which he excels.
The 2012 Australian round of MotoGP will be Stoner’s last visit to the circuit as a professional MotoGP rider. The Australian has announced that he will retire from professional motorcycle racing at the end of this season.
Speculation is rife that Stoner will make a switch to racing V8 Supercars in the future, and so Stoner could return to race at the circuit with a corner that bears his name.
He will likely ride the track on a motorcycle again too: Stoner has made no secret of his desire to keep riding motorcycles on track days, but has categorically excluded any possibility of a return to Grand Prix racing.
Photo: © 2012 Scott Jones / Scott Jones Photography – All Rights Reserved
This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.
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