Sydney: Two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner has confirmed he will switch to four wheels by driving a V8 Supercar when the Dunlop Series gets under way in February.
The Australian, who announced his departure from MotoGP in May 2012, has signed a one-year deal to drive for Red Bull Racing Australia, competing in a car that won the Bathurst motor race in 2010.
The 27-year-old said despite racing on two wheels in MotoGP, where he was crowned the world champion in 2007 and 2011, he had always wanted to drive a V8.
He said to the Australian Daily Telegraph: “I have been interested in V8s for a long time. I was about 14 or 15 when I decided I wanted to have a crack. I had the intention to do it then and I forgot about it because I was so wrapped up in my career.”
“Once I decided to retire from bikes, there was no thought to go racing again. I wanted to have a full year off and maybe even see the world a bit. I wanted to slow down. But as the year went on I started considering the V8 development series. We had discussions from there and eventually got a deal done,” added Stoner, who raced for seven seasons at MotoGP between 2006 and 2012.
Stoner, who won the 2008 MotoGP meeting in Qatar at Losail International Circuit, which is the only night race in the MotoGP calendar, said the short-term deal is a trial.
He said: “It is a trial year to see how I go and how I like the sport. We are definitely making a commitment to it, but at the same time we don’t want to go too deep in case it is not for us.”
He added: “I was going to do 75 percent of the races, but I have decided to do them all. I want to get as much time in the seat as I can and try to understand what it is like to drive a V8.”
Stoner, who finished third in the 2012 MotoGP season, behind Spanish duo Dani Pedrosa and championship winner Jorge Lorenzo, said his reason to quit MotoGP was that ‘he fell out of love with the sport’.
“I just fell out of love with the sport. We had a lack of respect from a lot of people around the sport and I didn’t like the direction it was taking,” said Stoner, who moved to England when he was 14 to pursue a racing career.
He added: “We got spat (by fans), they tried to knock us off scooters going from the motor homes to the pits, everything like that.”
The Australian also criticised the nature of the sport following the death of Italy’s Marco Simoncelli at the Malaysian MotoGP in 2011.
He said: “We lost a rider a couple of years ago and withing a month it was like it never happened.”
“They want to see biff and barge and they don’t realise our lives are on the line. We became puppets in that world and it had nothing to do with racing,” added Stoner, who will wear his famous No. 27 when the new season starts.
The Australian has already undertaken practice on a private track as well spending time on simulators ahead of the new season.
He said: “I started on two wheels and have done little to nothing on four. I have so much to learn. I spent my whole life on bikes and my one goal was to be MotoGP champion.”
“We haven’t had much time in a car. I have done a few laps in Paul Morris’ ride-day cars to get a bit more feeling. But those cars are so different to the race car,” he added.
“I am trying to get on the simulator to learn the tracks, and that is as much as I can do really. I have had one proper test in the car. I went well, but it doesn’t mean anything,” he said.
Stoner’s last MotoGP race in Australia ended on a winning note, finishing first at Philip Island in November, in a season that saw his title dreams dashed following a crash in May.
Stoner will open his season on February 28 at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, Australia. THE PENINSULA
