Casey Stoner Set To Test Honda RC213V
Cycle News Staff | July 23, 2013
Retired two-time World Champion Casey Stoner will test a Honda RC213V in Japan over the course of the next few months, fueling speculation that he will return to racing. But it’s more likely that we should take the Australian on his word: That he just misses riding a MotoGP bike and wants to throw his leg over one a few more times.
Stoner will do four tests at Motegi in Japan with Honda’s R&D team, riding both the evolution of the RC213V and the new production racer that HRC will sell to selected teams next year to race in MotoGP.
“It’s been almost seven months now since Valencia and I’m still happy and comfortable with the decision I made to stop racing,” Stoner said. “Sometimes I miss riding my RCV, so I am happy that HRC asked me to do some tests in Motegi this year. This will allow me to enjoy what I miss: riding a MotoGP bike. I’m looking forward to getting on the bike and see how it has changed from last year and I’d like to thank Honda for this opportunity”
HRC boss Shuhei Nakamoto is happy to have the chance to use someone of Stoner’s speed to test both bikes,
“We are very pleased to have Casey back on a Honda,” Nakamoto said. “He knows this machine very well and I’m sure he can help our engineers and technicians with the development of the RC213V. We will also ask him to test the new production racer and give us his initial feedback to assist us in producing the best machine possible.”
