Better Weather For Casey Stoner In MotoGP Test

Cycle News Staff | August 7, 2013

While yesterday’s first day of testing for Casey Stoner at Motegi proved to be less than fulfilling because of inclement weather, today’s test for the retired two-time World Champion was productive with the Australian doing some 47 laps. At the end of it, however, Stoner reiterated that he has no plans to compete as a wild card in any of the remaining races.

“Thankfully today the weather improved a lot, in fact it was pretty hot, and we were able to get some good track time and work on our test program,” Stoner said in a Honda release. “We had a productive day in general and thankfully the test plan wasn’t too hectic, so we were able to get most of it done today, after yesterday’s washout. It was great to see the team, even if there were only a few people here, and I thank Honda for all their support as ever. It felt really good to get back on the bike after nine months and I’m happy with how the test went, but it doesn’t change my mind about the wild cards – this is not something I am planning to do.”

Stoner tested a few things on the 2013 RC213V before switching to the 2014 bike the same as Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez tested in Aragon.

“Over the course of Casey’s two-day test, we’ve been able to gather a vast amount of data and ideas for development,” said HRC executive vice president Shuhei Nakamoto. “Consequently, we aim to increase our pace of development and hope that this, in turn, will lead to us winning this year’s championship. We focused exclusively on the RC213V, but in future tests, we’ll get Casey to test ride the tentatively named MotoGP Production Racer and assist in raising its level of performance even further.”