Published on: http://www.ontherecord-unisa.com.au/?p=3080

Current World MotoGP champion Casey Stoner recently announced that he will retire from the MotoGP category at the end of the 2012 season, after a long family decision.

The Australian is only 26 years old, with his decision to retire shocking the motorsport world. Although the rider is still young, Stoner believes the sport is changing and he doesn’t have the passion to race in MotoGP anymore.

“After so many years of doing this sport which I love, and which myself and my family made so many sacrifices for, after so many years of trying to get to where we have gotten to at this point, this sport has changed a lot and it has changed to the point where I am not enjoying it,” he said in a press release.

“I don’t have the passion for it and so at this time it’s better if I retire now.

“There are a lot of things that have disappointed me, and also a lot of things I have loved about this sport, but unfortunately the balance has gone in the wrong direction. And so, basically, we won’t be continuing any more.

“It would be nice if I could say I would stay one more year, but then where does it stop? So we decided to finish everything as we are now.”

With the two time world champion still young, it is believed that Stoner has his sights set on racing in the Australian V8 Supercar category within the near future, similar to what other Australian MotoGP World Champion Wayne Gardner did, who retired from the MotoGP category and raced in V8 Supercars.

Over the 2011 V8 Supercars season, Casey Stoner was seen at Bathurst and the Sydney Telstra 500 supporting Team Vodafone’s Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

It was believed then that Stoner was looking into racing in the Australian series, alongside the Triple 8 Engineering race team.

Since the Sydney Telstra 500 last year, Stoner has test driven one of Triple 8 Engineering’s VE Holden V8 Supercars, and seemed he was on the pace and could be ready to race within the near future.

“It is something I am definitely interested to do in the future, but whether I will be fast enough or not is another thing,” said Stoner at the press conference.

For now, Casey Stoner will continue racing MotoGP for the 2012 season and currently sits in second place in the MotoGP World Championship to Jorge Lorenzo.