The next Stoner age…
MotoGP rider Casey Stoner confirms bloodline will continue with first child on the way, and softens stance on riding in JapanTalking to the media in the Czech Republic ahead of the 2011 Brno GP, 25-year-old Casey Stoner has confirmed that his wife, Adriana, is pregnant with their first child.
Leading the MotoGP championship by 20 points ahead of reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner said that the arrival of his first child influenced his decision on whether to visit the Motegi race track in Japan.
The race track is located roughly 100km from the Fukushima nuclear power plant that has began leaking radiation since the tsunami and earthquake disasters in March 2011, and has resulted in almost all riders publicly announcing their reluctance to race there.
Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo have previously stated they would not go to Motegi, but Stoner appears to have changed his outlook every so slightly, much to the pleasure of his Japanese employer Honda.
"There was a period after Silverstone that I felt very strongly that I wasn't going to go there [to Japan] after things I'd seen and heard. But that came from a very strong emotion after we found out that Adriana was pregnant.
"We've discussed it a lot since then and that's a huge thing that's happened in my life and now the most important. I felt that the best thing I could do at that time was to make my mind up. There was no way I was going to risk my wife or my family and it was very tough," explained Stoner, who rides for Repsol Honda.
"But in these weeks I've taken a lot of data from Australia, people we feel we can trust on the matter, and I'm now slightly more open to it than I was before. I think people can understand I was taken a little bit with my safety and that of my family in this matter.
"We'll see in these next weeks, we'll continue talking and try and find out as much information as we can. I'm not saying that I am going, but I'm not saying that I'm not now. So we'll just have to see what happens in the near future," stated Stoner.
The Japanese GP is slated for October 2 after having been given the green light by Dorna, the promoter and rights-holder of MotoGP racing.
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