Immediately after Casey Stoner announced his retirement from MotoGP, speculation began regarding the Australian’s plans.
In statements, the two-time MotoGP Champion (2007, Ducati Team; 2011, Repsol Honda) reported he would spend time with his family and enjoy the outdoors, which includes his passion for fishing. Casey Stoner said, “I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP, and go forward in different things in my life.”
But many speculated that Stoner would join the Australian V8 Supercars championship, considering he was observed around the paddock at many 2012 races. And this week, this speculation became fact.
For 2013, the 27-year-old Stoner will join Red Bull Racing Australia, operating Craig Lowndes’ 2010 Bathurst-winning VE Commodore in the Dunlop Series (the development category) in all seven rounds.
Red Bull says: “Stoner will have a further two test days in his Red Bull Racing Australia Pirtek Holden before taking part in his first ever sanctioned race on four wheels in the curtain-raiser to Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 next month. Stoner first met the Triple Eight Race Engineering team in 2011 and went on to complete his first test in a V8 Supercar the same year.”
For 2013, Stoner will race under the number he used in MotoGP, 27.
During his last championship-winning year (2011), Stoner finished on the podium 16 times, including 10 wins. In his final year of MotoGP, Stoner took five wins, and finished the championship in third behind Dani Pedrosa (Respol Honda) and the 2012 MotoGP Champion, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing).