My silly question is : What if Casey Stoner had raced a 500cc two-stroke in his prime?
At Goodwood 2023, Stoner finally got the chance to ride one… and his reaction says everything : “THIS IS REAL.”
At Goodwood Festival of Speed, Stoner got to sample two absolute legends: Kenny Roberts Jr’s 1993 title-winning Suzuki & Kevin Schwantz’s iconic 1989 Pepsi Suzuki
Dreams really do come true. Stoner told The Race on interview : “I’d say that this is definitely one of my best days in motorsport. Not only did I get to ride a 500, I rode Kenny’s and Kevin’s! I was four years old when Kevin was riding his!”
“I never got the chance to ride a two-stroke even though my whole life was built up around going to 500s… I missed out by that much.”
“Just to feel it — the raw power, how light they are… there’s no way to explain the difference between current MotoGP and those.”
“I was blown away by how light and precise it is… It’s beautiful to ride.”
Then came the line that hits hard: “This is real. This is an art form. This is danger. This will bite you in the ass real quick… and nobody can possibly understand that until you ride that — and possibly until you get launched to the moon.”
“You can’t describe it until you feel it. If the riders on the bikes now could feel that, they would understand what we do isn’t so bad.”
Stoner also highlighted the explosive power delivery of the two-stroke vs the predictable four-stroke.
For me, that's my biggest 'what if' in history of racing. Beast rider + brutal bike, what could happened?
What's your biggest 'what if'?
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