Stoner reveals his secret at turn 3 of Phillip Island: it’s named after him and it’s no accident

Casey Stoner, MotoGP world champion with Ducati (2007) and Honda (2011), retired in 2012. At that time, the owners of the Phillip Island circuit (Australia) honored the Southport circuit by christening turn three of the track with its name.

In six victories, Stoner is, along with Valentino Rossi, the rider with the most wins in a premier class race (500cc and MotoGP) at Phillip Island. One thing that helped him achieve such success was his passing to the third, because so far no one has been able to trace that area with as much technique and speed as ’27’ did.

In the year 2022, and in remarks on the ‘Gypsy Tales’ podcast, Stoner reveals his secret to getting through the third corner of the Australian circuit: “My desire to win is always greater than my fears. If I had let fear control me, I would never have been as fast as I did.. I understood how to be fast without the same risk and take away some of the fear. For example, in turn 3 at Phillip Island or turn 3 at Valencia. The way I do those curves is not easy to assimilate, the way I have to open the throttle at that speed… at Phillip Island, for example, you corner in fifth gear at 265 km/h; You have a descent, the wind coming in from the ocean is always pushing you and, a lot of times, when you go in, the front of the bike closes. At that time, I said I don’t like the feeling of the front wheel compared to other drivers, I don’t have confidence.”

One from Southport, then, added that “once the front starts to move away, you won’t fall. Think about it. Once the front starts to go a little bit, it’s like on the dirt track, you can’t lose the front wheel, so what I did, basically, was start skidding before even entering the curve. That’s what people don’t really realize.; first of all the difficulty, overcoming your fears and then why that works.

Stoner’s defense in his explanation that “when you get into the corner, the front dictates everything and You don’t start skidding until you exit the curve.. That, simply, is skidding; It is not complicated, because these motorcycles have a lot of power and it is not difficult at all to drift on them. I started to slide before entering the curve, I threw the bike to put some weight on the front and, soon enough, I gave a big burst of gas to ‘break’ the rear of the bike.. That caused the front of the bike to close a little and, from then on, I couldn’t lose it, I was able to control it and I went straight as soon as possible, so I could go straight into the next corner and brake straight into the ‘Honda’ corner, which was a very difficult corner.. I would skid until the curve, I would stay to the left and that’s how I would lift the bike and go straight.”

I have never been to Phillip Island.

During the conversation, the former pilot pointed that out “I had never ridden at Phillip Island before coming to the Motorcycle World Championship. Everyone thought: ‘You were born in Australia and you grew up racing here.’ I told them that I’ve never raced in Australia with speed bikes, I’ve only raced here with karts before going overseas. Everyone thought I grew up knowing those secrets; but no, I learned them as time went by.