2007 MotoGP World Championship: Casey Stoner - Unlikely Hero

"I dreamt it since I was little," Stoner said of his storybook season. "We always believed, my parents especially, when I was little [that] I had, I suppose, a gift with the bike. I guess it's true if you believe in it enough and you put in the effort, you can do it. Every sort of competition we entered, we either won it convincingly or did quite well considering we hadn't been in it very long. My parents have always had a lot of faith in me and my abilities. I suppose the last few years I've kind of struggled with my belief in myself. I've never given up, but I gave up on the dream I suppose.

"I never gave up during races and practices knowing I always try my best, but I started to believe that [MotoGP] is really hard to do. I thought just making it in this class was going to be enough for me then. And [now] second year in it, we're leading the championship by 44 points. It's looking good for the season, but we'll just have to see how we go."

Stoner began racing dirttrack in his native Australia, and when his family thought he needed to make the next step, they packed up and left Kurri-Kurri for the U.K. when he was 14 years old. He raced in both English and Spanish national 125cc series before moving to 250cc World Championship in '02. The next year, he went back to the 125cc class and stayed there through '04, riding for the Red Bull KTM team and garnering its first GP win. He switched back to the 250s in '05, riding a factory Aprilia for former 125 GP racer Cecchinello's team, and became Dani Pedrosa's chief rival for the title. Last year, Cecchinello made the move to the MotoGP class and took Stoner with him to form a single-rider team, equipping him with a satellite Honda RC211V.

The season wasn't without its struggles. Stoner crashed repeatedly-14 times in all-a subject that brings out his combative side. The crashes "always happened in the same stage in the race, in the middle of the race," explained the young Aussie. "I'd lose the front on the exit of the corner. How the heck do you lose the front on the exit? As I was getting on the gas, the front would [tuck]. Even when I started to pick up the bike, the front would [tuck]. And all during the practice sessions, all the equipment we were using was exactly the same. We'd get to the race and the bike felt completely different, or the handling felt completely different. Everything was good; the mechanics didn't change a thing on it. It was just the equipment that you have to use for the race, but we weren't getting the same stuff that we were the rest of the weekend."

Since the mechanics didn't change anything on the bike, it's clear the 21-year-old is speaking about tires. All tire companies have a pecking order, and Michelin is no different. A rookie privateer is not going to get the same rubber as a seven-time world champion.

With the crashes happening later in the race, some attributed it to a lack of fitness.

"Come on," Suppo said in exasperation. "They don't need to be fit to be fast. They need raw talent. It doesn't look to me like Casey lost concentration. The riders are a big investment, and we try to get the best from [both rider and] machine. We try to help the riders in good shape." Ducati has its riders undergo physiological tests at the beginning of the year and makes recommendations on training. Stoner passed his fitness test, even though he hadn't trained for a while. "There was no problem with my fitness, and last year, definitely no problem with it. Everybody can make up every excuse they want under the sun, but until they actually know what happened and what it was like, then I think they can keep their opinions to themselves."

Stoner has a personality that sometimes recalls Mick Doohan, a fellow Australian with a spiky, confrontational side. The difference is that it was Doohan's more dominant trait, where with Stoner it has to be brought out. But he has no trouble revealing his feelings, which is refreshing in a world often dominated by polite phoniness. And don't get him started on the decided top-speed advantage of the Ducati over the Yamaha. In Qatar, he passed Rossi at will down the front straight. In Shanghai, the gap was slightly less alarming, but still evident. Stoner doesn't want to hear it.

"I think everybody's surprised that it's not the big advantage [they thought it would be]," he said. And it wasn't, at least not over the Ducati of Alex Hofmann or the Honda RC212V of Dani Pedrosa. But the average gap to Rossi's Yamaha was more than five mph. "I think people should stop talking about the speed of the Ducati, and [talk about] the fact that it does go around the corners as well." Rossi and Hayden give him full marks for riding; after losing to Stoner at Catalunya, Rossi said, "Stoner is no longer a surprise for me, and when I see him ahead of me, I always think I'll have to fight to the finish."

Stoner is quite clear about the difference between riding for a motorcycle manufacturer and a tire company that wants to please and a satellite team on second-tier tires. "This is the first season I've ever been on a competitive factory machine and with a tire company that really works hard for me," he said. "They listen to what I say, and we make the adjustments from there. I'm not having to [spend time getting] my point across. Basically, they just do exactly what I say, and we make the adjustments from there. It's just having faith in the team behind me and a team that believes in what I can do...that's what the difference is. I just feel that this year the team is completely behind me, and I have no pressure or stress for results."