We’d already mentioned the Hall of Fame dinner in Valencia, where Rossi, Stoner, Agostini, Lorenzo, Pedrosa, and Spencer all sat at the same table. Valentino and Dani stole the show, talking about the past, but also about their present and the state of the MotoGP. however, they weren’t the only ones chatting freely between courses.
Casey and Jorge also talked about the days when they used to face off on the track. In a way, they were a bit like Yin and Yang: Lorenzo was methodical and precise, while Stoner was instinctive and imaginative.
The Spanish rider was the who acknowledged this."I wasn’t very good at improvising. I kept improving, while you were more instinctive. I was the opposite. You went fast, as soon as possible," Jorge said.
Casey agreed."Both approaches work. That's the beauty of it. There's more than one way to succeed. There were some riders I could learn from, but you were one of those whom I could learn almost nothing from, because I couldn't do what you did. I couldn't be that consistent, doing the same thing in the same spot every time."
Lorenzo was a machine, incredibly precise in his riding, while Stoner had the ability to go very fast, right from the start. It’s a shame that, at a certain point, the Australian rider called it quits, when he still had so much left to give.
Jorge asked him why he made that decision.
"I love riding, and I want to enjoy the feeling of controlling the bike as it glides. I was never afraid of getting hurt. I just stopped enjoying those bikes," Casey replied. "I never went into the MotoGP to get rich or famous, but just to enjoy what I was doing, and it wasn't like that anymore. You weren't in control of the bike anymore. There was just electronics everywhere. So I said, 'It's over with'."