2006 MotoGP Championship - Round 15 - Motegi, Japan - September 22/23/24

LCR Preview

The Honda LCR team and Casey Stoner have arrived in Japan to prepare for their third race in just two weeks -- the home event for Honda at Motegi. The Japanese GP is the final race of a busy flyaway schedule, following visits to Malaysia and Australia. After finishing sixth, just 0.8s off the podium, in his home race at Phillip Island, Stoner took a day-off to go trout fishing in the mountains near Phillip Island before flying to Japan. It was an opportunity not to be missed by Stoner, who is a keen fisherman.

Stoner is now looking to the unusual challenge of the 4.8 km Motegi track -- which features a sequence of tight, slow-speed corners and drag-strip straights. The emphasis is on hard braking and strong acceleration off the turns, a strong point of the Honda RC211V. There are now just three races remaining in the world championship - Japan, Portugal, Valencia - with Stoner out to consolidate sixth place in the MotoGP standings in his impressive rookie season.

CASEY: “It was a relaxing break to get away fishing, even if it was only for one day, after such a busy weekend at my home race. I’m looking forward to Motegi, and if we can find a competitive set-up early, perhaps with some more front-end side grip, then I think it’s a track where I can have a strong race. As always, a lot depends on tyres so it will be interesting to see what Michelin have available for this track -- I’m sure they want to win this race as much as Honda. I was happy with the way I rode at the Island last Sunday, with the traction I had on wet tyres that was the best I could do and maybe if the race had been 27 laps -- not one lap shorter than normal -- the finish may have been different.”