Newly crowned MotoGP champion Casey Stoner says he would like to race V8 Supercars after he retires from motorcycle racing, reports PETER McKAY.
V8 bound? Stoner. Picture: Getty Images
The 21-year-old Stoner has no intention of becoming one of those pensionable riders who go around in MotoGP well into their 30s.
He believes another eight or nine years of the blowtorch racing of the world championship will see him out - but then he may swap two wheels for four and tackle the big V8s at Mount Panorama.
"I'm planning to [race cars] after I retire [from motorcycle racing]," he told FHM.
"I'd like to see how I went in a V8 supercar and I'd really enjoy Bathurst each year, if I'm fast enough."
If Stoner moved to car racing, he would join several bike stars who also made the switch, among them Mike Hailwood, Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson, Gregg Hansford and the most successful of all, John Surtees, who won world championships on two wheels and four.
Stoner also indicated that when he retired from bike racing he wants to help young Australian riders crack the international scene so that they might avoid going to Europe and "watching their pockets empty".
Stoner struggled when he and his parents moved to Europe, living a hand-to-mouth existence in a caravan.
