MotoGP Legends enjoy Phillip Island return

The crowd at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix got a real treat on Saturday, with beautiful weather, pole position for home rider Casey Stoner and some exhibition laps by MotoGP Legends Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner to round off a perfect day.

Doohan - the 1994-98 World Champion - and Gardner – the 1987 title winner – went round the picturesque Phillip Island track on Honda CBR1000RR Fireblades, pulling wheelies, waving to the crowd and getting up to good speeds on the main straight, alongside Randy Mamola on a Ducati.

Having completed the ride and looking back a decade after the last of his five consecutive World titles, Doohan joked, `I´m probably about 100km/h slower than Valentino Rossi and the others! It´s a little bit of fun to ride around there even though we are going quite slowly. You can never take the racer out of the man!´

Recognising Stoner´s good qualifying performance and looking ahead to the MotoGP race Doohan added, `It was a great effort from Casey right at the end there. Michelin seemed to have a bit of an edge today in qualifying so we will see what happens on Sunday. I would not write off Rossi, even though he may be starting in twelfth. He is a demon racer and the twelfth position won´t be there for very long.´