Stoner had previously dismissed his retirement plans as rumours, however he has now publicly stated that he will not continue racing past the end of the 2012 season. He said: “After a long time thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife, this has been coming for a couple of years now but at the end of this 2012 season I will be not racing in the 2013 Championship. I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP, and go forward in different things in my life.

“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. 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.”


WOW!

 

WHAT!

 

Wow, very unexpected.

Do you think maybe hes trying to be rebelious and have things "balance the other way"?

Its odd to have someone quit like that when they are the very top.

 

and he's only 26

 

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-featur...518-1yv1i.html

 

http://www.motomatters.com/interview...ion_to_re.html

 

Then he can do other many things related to Moto/Auto industrious.

But sad to see him go, who will carry the excitement on motogp.

 

stoner wasnt really known to cause a lot of excitement in this sport, unless he was going head to head with rossi (i must say my butthole puckered a few times during the laguna seca race in 2008) as clearly stated in the link above.

but be that as it may, the sport is losing an icon that will be remembered forever