Anthony West (motorcycle racer)

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Anthony West
Anthony West in 2005
Nationality	Australian
Date of birth	July 17, 1981 (1981-07-17) (age 26)
Place of birth	Maryborough, Queensland
MotoGP Record
Current team	Kawasaki Motors Racing
Bike number	13
World Championships	0
Race starts	118
Race Wins	1
Podium finishes	5
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
Championship Points	664
2008 Championship position	18th (6 pts) - In Progress

Anthony "Ant" West (born July 17, 1981 in Maryborough) is an Australian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He has won one race, the 2003 Dutch TT in the 250cc class. He is known as "The Rain man" because of his ability to ride well in the extreme wet, which he attributes to a dirt track racing background.^[1]

Contents 1 500cc 2 250cc 3 2007 4 2008 5 Career statistics 5.1 By season 5.2 By class 5.3 Races by year 6 References 7 External links

[edit] 500cc

In 2001, he was a 500cc rider for the Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team, scoring minor points in 12 of the 16 races to place 18th overall.

In 2002, he had a year away from motorcycling as he could not gather enough sponsorship to secure a factory Aprilia ride.

[edit] 250cc

In the 2003 and 2004 seasons, West rode for the Italian Abruzzo Racing team, running a privateer Aprilia both years. 2003 was the more successful of the years, he won a race and achieved three additional podium places.

2005 was supposed to be his big break, but a factory deal with KTM saw him miss three quarters of the season due to a lack of development and several mechanical failures. However, West rode the KTM to a podium place on debut, placing second in the rain soaked British Grand Prix at Donington Park.

In 2006, West rode for the Kiefer Bos Racing team, again on a Privateer kit Aprilia due to a disagreement with KTM the year before, over the safety of the developmental 250cc bike.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 2007

Early in the 2007 season, he rode in the 250cc World Championship on a semi-factory, LE Aprilia run by Matteoni Racing. A disappointing start to the season saw West unable to match the times he set on the Kiefer Bos bike in 2006, with a best result of ninth after the fourth round of seventeen, leading him to quit the team.

However, West showed that he definitely has the ability to achieve great results when he has a competitive bike under him, after riding through the field from 18th to 3rd while standing in for injured compatriate Kevin Curtain on a Yamaha R6 at the Monza round of the 2007 World Supersport Championship in his very first visit to the track. Then, in the following World Supersport round at the historic Silverstone circuit, West took victory in the wet. He won again at Misano.^[2] These results left him 5th in the championship after 9 rounds, even from only doing 3 of them.

Following the retirement of Olivier Jacque in June 2007, he was offered the position to race with the Kawasaki Racing Team in MotoGP and will ride for the rest of the season aboard the Ninja ZX-RR, buying out his contract with Yamaha to do this.^[3] He made a good debut at the British Grand Prix, reaching 4th position, but then crashing and eventually finishing 11th.^[4] His first four races each saw him finish progressively higher, with 7th at Laguna Seca and 8th at the Sachsenring. ^[5]. He was 7th again in the wet at Motegi, but could have been even higher. Starting 6th, he jumped the start fractionally - by the time the ride-through penalty was handed out, he was leading the race. Team-mate Randy de Puniet came 2nd amidst an all-Bridgestone podium, emphasising the missed opportunity. In his home country's Grand Prix the Australian errors at the end caused him to finish 12th while hometown boy Casey Stoner won. At the following race in Malaysia, Sepang, West qualified an impressive 5th behind team-mate Randy de puniet but was yet again given a ride through penalty, this time for lining up incorrectly on the starting grid. West climbed his way back through the field to 15th capturing one championship point.

[edit] 2008

West remains with Kawasaki full-time for 2008, joined by John Hopkins. However, he is is not achieving great success, and is currently 18th and last in the rider's championship.

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] By season

Seas	Class	Moto	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
1998	125cc	Honda RS125	1	0	0	0	0	0	-	-
1999	250cc	Honda TSR250	16	0	0	0	0	66	12th	-
2000	250cc	Honda RS250	16	0	0	0	0	146	6th	-
2001	500cc	Honda NSR500	14	0	0	0	0	27	18th	-
2003	250cc	Aprilia RS250	16	1	4	0	0	145	7th	-
2004	250cc	Aprilia RS250	14	0	0	0	0	88	11th	-
2005	250cc	Aprilia RS250	1	0	0	0	0	30	17th	-
		Honda RS250	1	0	0	0	0
		KTM 250 FRR	5	0	1	0	1
2006	250cc	Aprilia RS250	16	0	0	0	0	78	11th	-
2007	250cc	Aprilia RS250	7	0	0	0	0	25	18th	-
	MotoGP	Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR	11	0	0	0	0	59	15th	-
Total			118	1	5	0	1	664		0

[edit] By class

Class	Seas	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	WCh
125cc	1998	1998 Australia	N/A	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
250cc	1999-2000, 2003-2007	1999 Malaysia	2003 Catalunya	2003 Dutch	92	1	5	0	1	578	0
500cc	2001	2001 S. Africa	N/A	N/A	14	0	0	0	0	27	0
MotoGP	2007	2007 Britain	N/A	N/A	11	0	0	0	0	59	0
Total	1998-2001, 2003-2007				118	1	5	0	1	664	0

[edit] Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Yr	Class	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Final Pos	Pts
1998	125 cc	Honda	JPN	MAL	SPA	ITA	FRA	MAD	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	SMR	CAT	AUS Ret	ARG					-	-
1999	250 cc	TSR-Honda	MAL 14	JPN 10	SPA 17	FRA 9	ITA Ret	CAT Ret	NED 10	GBR 11	GER 6	CZE 15	SMR 15	VAL 9	AUS 10	SAF 9	BRA Ret	ARG 8			12th	66
2000	250 cc	Honda	SAF 5	MAL 6	JPN 6	SPA 5	FRA 5	ITA 7	CAT 9	NED 4	GBR Ret	GER 10	CZE 10	POR 4	VAL 7	BRA 5	PAC 6	AUS 7			6th	146
2001	500 cc	Honda	JPN	SAF 14	SPA 15	FRA Inj	ITA Ret	CAT Ret	NED 15	GBR 14	GER 15	CZE Ret	POR 12	VAL 13	PAC 14	AUS 12	MAL 12	BRA 13			18th	27
2003	250 cc	Aprilia	JPN Ret	SAF 6	SPA 5	FRA 7	ITA 9	CAT 3	NED 1	GBR 3	GER 6	CZE Ret	POR 10	BRA 8	PAC Ret	MAL 9	AUS 2	VAL Ret			7th	145
2004	250 cc	Aprilia	SAF 16	SPA 4	FRA 6	ITA 10	CAT 9	NED 6	BRA Ret	GER 7	GBR 6	CZE 4	POR 6	JPN Ret	QAT Ret	MAL Ret	AUS Inj	VAL Inj			11th	88
2005	250 cc	Aprilia	SPA	POR	CHN	FRA 18	ITA	CAT													17th	30
		Honda							NED Ret
		KTM								GBR 2	GER 10	CZE 12	JPN Ret	MAL Ret	QAT	AUS	TUR	VAL
2006	250 cc	Aprilia	SPA Ret	QAT Ret	TUR 9	CHN 9	FRA 11	ITA 8	CAT 9	NED 8	GBR 9	GER 7	CZE Ret	MAL 15	AUS 9	JPN 11	POR 9	VAL 19			11th	78
2007	250 cc	Aprilia	QAT 13	SPA 9	CHN Ret	TUR 13	FRA 10	ITA 10	CAT 21												19th	25
	MotoGP	Kawasaki								GBR 11	NED 9	GER 8	USA 7	CZE 12	SMR 8	POR 12	JPN 7	AUS 12	MAL 15	VAL 16	15th	59
2008	MotoGP	Kawasaki	QAT 16	SPA 13	POR 16	CHN 17	FRA 14	ITA 15	CAT 12	GBR -	NED -	GER -	USA -	CZE -	SMR -	IND -	JPN -	AUS -	MAL -	VAL -	-	-

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• AntWest13.com - Official site

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