Anthony West (motorcycle racer)

Anthony West
Anthony West in 2005
Nationality	Australian
Current team	X50Green Tea
Bike number	13
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2001, 2007–2008, 2015 Manufacturers Honda, Kawasaki Championships 0 2015 championship position NC (0 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 46 0 0 0 0 136 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2010–2015 Manufacturers MZ-RE-Honda, Moriwaki, Speed Up Championships 0 2015 championship position 22nd (30 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 98 1 1 0 0 187 250cc World Championship Active years 1999–2000, 2003–2007 Manufacturers TSR-Honda, Honda, Aprilia, KTM Championships 0 2007 championship position 19th (25 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 92 1 5 0 1 578 125cc World Championship Active years 1998 Manufacturers Honda Championships 0 1998 championship position NC (0 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 1 0 0 0 0 0 Supersport World Championship Active years 2004, 2007, 2009 2009 championship position 7th Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 17 2 6 0 2 190

Anthony "Ant" West (born 17 July 1981) is an Australian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He competes in the Supersport World Championship aboard a Yamaha YZF-R6. He has won two races, the 2003 Dutch TT in the 250cc class, and the 2014 Dutch TT in the Moto2 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]

Career

West was born in Maryborough.

500cc World Championship

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.

Return to 250cc World Championship

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.

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 enojoyed more success when, at the Monza round of the 2007 World Supersport Championship, he rode through the field from 18th on the grid to finish 3rd, while substituting for injured compatriot Kevin Curtain on his first visit to the track, on his first race aboard the Yamaha. Then, in the following World Supersport round at the historic Silverstone circuit, West secured victory in a wet race. He repeated this feat again at Misano.^[2] He finished the championship in ninth place, despite only contesting three of the thirteen rounds.

Return to premier class

Following the retirement of Olivier Jacque in June 2007, West was offered the position to race with the Kawasaki Racing Team in MotoGP and aboard the Ninja ZX-RR for the remainder of the season, buying out his contract with Yamaha.^[3] He made a good debut at the British Grand Prix, reaching fourth position, but then crashing and eventually finishing 11th.^[4] His first four races each saw him finish progressively higher, with seventh at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and eighth at the Sachsenring.^[5] He was seventh 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 second amidst an all-Bridgestone podium, emphasising the missed opportunity. In his home country's Grand Prix the Australian's error caused him to only finish 12th while compatriot Casey Stoner won aboard his Ducati.

At the following race in Malaysia, Sepang, West qualified an impressive fifth 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.

Anthony West riding a Kawasaki at the 2007 Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island

West remained with Kawasaki full-time for 2008, joined by John Hopkins. However, he did not achieve great success, and spent much of the season as the last of the 18 regular riders in the championship. There was improvement at Brno however; he qualified sixth in the wet and carried the form over into a dry race, finishing fifth in a race dominated by Bridgestone tyred bikes.

It had already been announced on the Saturday at Brno that West would not be riding for Kawasaki in the 2009 season. Kawasaki reportedly offered him a ride in another championship (which would likely be the Supersport World Championship, in which he competed briefly in 2007); West did not immediately reveal whether he had accepted or declined this offer.

Due to Kawasaki team manager Michael Bartholemy's stated desire to keep West in the Kawasaki family, West was rumoured to be an outside chance to ride a third Kawasaki in MotoGP, which would have been run by Jorge Martínez 'Aspar', who runs the Aspar 125cc and 250cc teams.^[6] However, West was never officially mentioned and it transpired that Martinez and his sponsors were only interested in hiring a Spanish rider, a factor that resulted in the team's entry to MotoGP being postponed until after 2009 when no suitable rider could be found.

On 16 October 2008 it was announced that West had signed to ride for the Stiggy Honda team for the 2009 World Supersport Championship, cutting his ties with Kawasaki.^[7]

Moto2 World Championship

For 2010 West raced in the new Moto2 class.

2012

For 2012, West was scheduled to ride for the Speed Master team in MotoGP with their CRT Spec Aprilia RSV-4, however he failed to raise the sponsorship necessary and the ride went to Mattia Pasini. West then signed with Supersonic Racing, riding the BMW S1000RR in the British Superbike Championship after narrowly missing out on a ride with Swan Yamaha.

Further drama was to come however, when West's fellow countryman Damian Cudlin was dropped from the QMMF Moto2 Team after struggling with the Moriwaki machine in pre-season testing. West quickly signed with the team, less than a week before the season opener in Qatar. He subsequently left the British Superbike Championship to race in Moto2 full-time.

From Mugello onwards, West raced the Speed Up chassis in place of the struggling Moriwaki. He achieved two season best results of second at Malaysia and his home Grand Prix in Phillip Island.

On 31 October, it was announced that a sample that West had provided for testing at the French Grand Prix contained traces of methylhexanamine, a banned substance. West was stripped of his seventh-place finish in the French Grand Prix and was banned from competing in any FIM-sanctioned race for one month.^[8]

2013

For 2013, West continued with the QMMF Moto2 Team alongside Indonesian rider Rafid Topan Sucipto who replaced West at Valencia following his ban. In November 2013 the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency against the decision of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme to only ban West for one month following his positive drug test in 2012. The court retrospectively increased the ban to 18 months and all his results between 20 May 2012 and 19 October 2013 were voided.^[9]

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

By class

Races by year

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anthony West.

• Official website
• Supersport Stats