Although famously loath to speak to anyone with a media pass
throughout his MotoGP career, when prodded by journalists Casey Stoner was
reliably honest, at times subversive, and routinely inflammatory (or just
simply blunt, depending on where your allegiances lay). So it would be fair to suggest that Hachette
Australia, Pushing The Limit’s publisher, probably set aside a healthy budget
for fact checking in preparation of the book’s release.
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| Property Hachette Australia |
The first few chapters are standard sportsperson biography: the
early days where they discover a talent and a love for their craft, followed by
years of parents duly driving them around to compete against other youngsters
with similar dreams, and graduating through the ranks spurred on by continued
success.
The book really hits its stride though when Casey’s dad
Colin digs up the money he buried in their backyard (seriously), sells the
house and with wife Bronwyn takes Casey, aged 14, to Europe. Once there they live on baked beans and sleep
in a caravan, eking out a barren existence focused solely on making the most of
their son’s prodigious talent. The
stories of financial struggle (a hungry teenage Casey hanging outside his
mechanic’s house one frosty morning hoping to be invited inside for breakfast
comes to mind) are at once both at odds with the glamorous façade projected by
top-tier motorsport, and a testament to the sacrifices required of those who
will one day be World Champion.
Once Stoner gets to MotoGP however, the book takes on a very
different, altogether more incisive tone.
Intensely private, this may be the last we hear from him publicly, in
which case he’s going out with all guns blazing.
Stoner has never been shy about giving frank assessments of
those in the MotoGP paddock, which over the years made him a favourite target
for jingoistic supporters of his rivals – I doubt the politically correct Dani
Pedrosa has ever been spat on by Valentino Rossi fans, nor has Nicky Hayden
ever been booed at, of all places, a charity auction. However none of these slings nor arrows over
the years have tempered Stoner’s will to tell it like it is, and tell it like
it was he does.
In the book’s final stanza Stoner explains amongst other
things his very public disagreements with Dorna CEO and MotoGP head honcho Carmelo
Ezpeleta, why he was dissatisfied with the management services of Randy Mamola
and WMG, and his fall-out with Ducati’s top brass. It’s incendiary stuff, and I suppose that
Stoner plans to rely on the one solid defense to allegations of slander: that it’s
the truth.
Perhaps more provocatively, he indulgently revels in
schadenfreude as he recalls Rossi’s difficulties at Ducati after replacing
Stoner at the Bologna factory in 2011.
At the end of 2010 Rossi’s crew chief Jeremy Burgess declared publicly
that Stoner clearly wasn’t any good at bike development, and that he and Rossi
would ‘fix (Ducati’s Desmosedici) in 80 seconds’. In 2013 Rossi and Burgess schlepped back to
Yamaha with no wins and only 3 podium finishes during the two years they wore
red.
All of this would simply sound like Stoner taking time out
of his busy fishing schedule to take pot shots at the schoolyard bullies were
it not for the fact that he is equally quick to thank those who reciprocated
his loyalty throughout his career.
Alberto Vergani, CEO of helmet manufacturer Nolan, is noted for his
generosity at various stages of Stoner’s career, as is Lucio Cecchinello, owner
of LCR Honda, for helping Stoner to break into MotoGP despite a lack of
funding. Honda bosses Shuhei Nakamoto
and Livio Suppo also get the thumbs up, as do Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and
Andrea Dovisioso for their talent on and mutual respect off the track.
Most indicative though is Stoner’s evident fondness for
Alberto Puig, former 250cc Grand Prix racer and Stoner’s mentor during his
progression from the British and Spanish national championships into the lower
World Championship categories. Stoner
declines to reveal why they parted ways, preferring instead to remember how, as
he along with parents Colin and Bronwyn tried to make a go of it in Europe,
Alberto and his father invited the Stoners to live on Puig Sr.’s farm rent-free
when they weren’t racing so they could make the most of what little money they
had.
Ultimately, while Stoner’s criticisms of the less scrupulous
people lurking in the MotoGP paddock will no doubt grab the headlines, it’s his
appreciative praise of those without whom he wouldn’t have two World
Championships that really shines through.
This is essential reading for not only anyone even remotely
interested in motorcycle racing, but also those who harbour loftier than
average goals and might be in need of a little extra encouragement. Whether you love it or hate it will depend on
who you cheer for when the lights go out at 2 pm on Sunday afternoon.
