Determined Stoner Travels To Sepang

[Posted 17.10.07]

Having celebrated his 22nd birthday and taken victory at his home Grand Prix in the last few days, new World Champion Casey Stoner heads to Malaysia for the penultimate round of the season brimming with confidence.

Having secured the riders title in his debut campaign with Ducati Marlboro at Japan, his brilliant win in front of the home fans at Phillip Island also handed Ducati the Constructors' and Teams' World titles for the first time.

Stoner now travels to Sepang, the only circuit at which he already had two victories to his name prior to the start of the season, having won there on a 125cc bike in 2004 and on 250cc machinery in 2005.

The champion himself states: "I'm still trying just as hard to win races now that we've got the title, because every race is as important as the others to me. Being champion does make it different, it makes the racing more enjoyable because I can relax a bit more. I'm looking forward to Sepang - it's always been a pretty good circuit for me."

There is one blot on his copybook at the Malaysian circuit however, which he intends to erase this weekend, commenting: "I think last year was my worst race there, so I'm looking forward to getting back to having a nice, strong event there. The circuit has got a bit of everything, there's some really good, nice flowing corners and there's some tight, dicky ones."

"There's a lot of long corners, so you spend a lot of time on the brakes and on the side of the tyres, so you need to be very confident in the front to push it into the corners. At the same time you also need that drive on the rear. But now with the recent resurfacing work we don't know what the track's going to hold."

The young Australian has plenty of motivation as he faces the remaining two rounds, with further milestones in his sights in this incredible season. If he can simply finish in the top fifteen in one of the last two races of the year, he will equal the record for the most point scoring finishes in a single campaign set by Colin Edwards in 2005.

Stoner's win at Phillip Island was the ninth time this year that he has stood on the top step of the podium, ranking him alongside some of the all-time greats of Grand Prix racing in the list of riders who have had most wins in a single season in the premier-class. With further wins in Malaysia and Valencia Stoner could rise even higher on the illustrious list.

The other three riders who appear on the list are all multi World Champions; Mick Doohan, Glacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi, with their achievements listed as follows:

Number Of Wins In The Premier-Class In A Single Season
12 - Mick Doohan (1997)
11 - Glacomo Agostini (1972), Valentino Rossi (2001,2002,2005)
10 - Glacomo Agostini (1968, 1969, 1970)
9 - Mick Doohan (1994), Valentino Rossi (2003, 2004), Casey Stoner (2007)