Australian ace motor bike rider Casey Stoner celebrated in fine style his second world MotoGP crown with a commanding pole-to-flag victory at the Australian Grand Prix last Sunday.
Riding for the Honda brand for the first season after switching from Ducati, Stoner registered his fifth consecutive victory at the Phillip Island circuit before his adoring fans who cheered him lustily after having achieved the feat on his 26th birthday.

Stoner’s courage and brilliance sealed his second career world championship title with two races to spare after defending champion Jorge Lorenzo, his closest challenger, crashed during the warm-up lap and was forced to miss the actual race.
Stoner stamped his class and authority with a big lead on the first lap which he held on to until the final three laps when rain began to fall and made the conditions treacherous. He slowed down to navigate his way through the rain and slippery conditions for a two-second victory over Italian pair Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso, both on Honda bikes. Dani Pedrosa finished fourth to give Honda the top four positions and made it a very special day for the Japanese-based company.
Stoner and Spaniards Lorenzo and Pedrosa have proven that they are among the best riders of the twenty-first century. They have taken on the greatest modern bike rider Italian Valentino Rossi and beaten him so many times in the 800cc class in the last five years.
Rossi is the nine-time world champion in different classes (125cc, 250cc, 500cc, 990cc and 800 cc) while Stoner won the 800cc class in 2007, riding for Italian brand Ducati which recruited Rossi for the 2010 season.
Rossi, better known as “The Doctor” among the MotoGP family, is the all-time leader in the 500cc and above class of riders with 79 wins out of 196 starts.
He has won the 500cc world championship titles on seven occasions having registered the first in 2001 with a Honda bike.
Rossi dominated the MotoGP 800cc class in 2002 and retained the title in 2003 on a Honda. He switched to Yamaha in 2004 and won three consecutive crowns in 2004, 2005 and 2006 until Stoner halted his dominance with ten victories on the Ducati in the 2007 season.
Rossi resumed his dominance and superiority over his rivals following an unknown sickness to Stoner who was forced to miss part of the season and thereby forced to relinquish his hold on the most coveted motor bike racers’ title.
Riding for the Yamaha team, Rossi extended his world championships title records with wins in 2008 and 2009. His Yamaha Spaniard teammate Jorge Lorenzo took over the premier crown in 2010 ahead of Stoner and Rossi.
Rossi joined the Italian-based Ducati team ranks last year and soon there was keen rivalry with Stoner who subsequently switched to Honda for the 2011 season and a chance to revive his GP winning prowess and to prove his class among the best in the business.
And while Honda had previously struggled to overpower Ducati and Japanese rival Yamaha in the last ten years; they are currently in the driver’s seat to celebrate an historic double with Stoner winning his second world MotoGP championship crown and Honda poised to clinch the overall Constructors’ title.
Many see Stoner as the ultimate Australian record holder, a title that is currently held by the Aussie legend Mick Doohan, who finished his illustrious career as a five-time world champion with an overall 54 Grand Prix wins.
Comparatively, Stoner and his legendary countryman Doohan have travelled an almost similar path. Both registered 31 wins from 98 MotoGP starts but Doohan was 31 years old when he achieved that feat at the Dutch TT in 1996 while Stoner celebrated his 26th birthday yesterday.
But the most astonishing revelation for the 2011 season has been Stoner’s magnificent and somewhat surprisingly seamless transitional switch from Ducati to Honda. His racing exploits on the Honda has further enhanced his reputation as one of the best bike riders of the modern generation. He has already endeared himself to the Honda family and their fans having won nine races on the Honda bike this season.
While his motivation is not in winning championship, there was no denying he really enjoyed winning the 2011 crown at home before the thousands of sports loving Aussies who lionises their champions.
Doohan won five world championships titles from 1994 to 1998 and retired when he was 34 years old.
The overall MotoGP world record holder is Italian star Valentino Rossi with 79 wins. He is still racing among the current bunch of daredevils whose penchant for top speed around corners has been the thrilling spectacle for biking fans.
However, Rossi has been a major disappointment on the Ducati bike throughout the season. Surprisingly, he crashed out of the race yesterday on a track where Stoner had showed that the Ducati bike was superior to the others with four consecutive victories from 2007 to 2010.
As expected, Stoner turned on the pressure on his opponents and regained pride of place among the world’s greatest bike riders. He did everything in his powers to clinch his second world crown at home. It will be a great occasion to celebrate his return to the top.
When he won the 2007 MotoGP title in his second season among the big bike riders, Stoner had six pole positions when he dethroned American Ducati teammate Nicky Hayden by 160 points. He started impressively with three victories out of the four races and finished the season with ten wins overall.
For the 2011 season, the brave Aussie who was born on October 16, 1985 in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales; has claimed eleven pole positions and his 32 overall victories puts him in fourth spot in the all-time list of MotoGP winners.
His immense confidence and awesome form will help him realize his goals and strengthen his reputation as one of the greatest bike riders of all-time.
For the records, the greatest bike rider is the legendary Italian Giancomo Agostini who was a multiple world champion with 15 world crowns and the overall record race winner with 122 Grand Prix victories compared to Rossi who joined the elite “Centurion Club” last year. Rossi currently has an overall tally of 105 wins from the 125cc to 900cc class.
Agostini also holds most of the world records in terms of podium finishes and fastest lap times with 159 and 117 respectively. He won eight world titles among the 500cc class in 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1975 and chalked up 68 wins in that category.
Fortunately for Agostini and his great rivals of the 1960s and 1970s, Mike Hailwood (Great Britain), Phil Read (Great Britain), Barry Sheene (Great Britain) and Kenny Roberts (USA), they were allowed to compete in the other classes on the same day. Those privileges allowed them to dominate the lower classes and register multiple world titles for a calendar year.
Agostini proved that he was the greatest of all-time and also won the 350cc world titles for seven consecutive years in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974 while he rule the rooster among the big guns in the 500cc, the premier class in those days.
Hailwood was also a popular champion and he dominated with world championship crowns among the 250cc, 350cc and 500cc riders. He won the world title in the 250cc in 1961, 1962 and 1967; the 350cc class in 1966 and 1967; the 500cc class in 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965. Agostini took the crown the following year (1966) and reigned supreme thereafter until his retirement.
Read was overshadowed by English compatriot Hailwood but became the first rider to win the world championship titles in three different classes. He won the 125cc crown in 1968, took the 250cc class honours in 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1971 and finished with world titles in the 500cc in 1973 and 1974.
The same great rivalry exists among the current riders who are restricted to the premier class where Rossi’s longevity and race to break Agostini’s overall winning legacy are hampered by the younger daredevils in Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa whose riding skills, dexterity, bravery, determination, focus and ingenuity makes them great adversaries on the much improved Grand Prix circuits that attracts thousands of aficionados regularly.

The remaining races at Malaysia and Valencia should be keenly contested with Stoner seeking to further enhance his growing reputation and overall MotoGP victories.