Australia reacts to their newest Grand Prix winner

Australia is a country obsessed with sport. From rugby to the Olympics, Australia stops whenever their athletes are on the world stage. It may have been late in the night when Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) crossed the line at the Motul TT Assen with a magnificent wheelie, but from the moment he did congratulations flooded in.

He’s been in everything from Black Hawk Down to Finding Nemo, but Eric Bana’s passion for motorsport has never faded. The actor was one of the first to congratulate Miller, having stayed up all night to watch the thrilling racing from Assen.

Former pro-surfer Sally Fitzgibbons is a huge fan of all sport, but MotoGP™ has always had a special place in her heart. She cheered on during the Stoner years and Miller has given her another chance to proudly wave the Australian flag.

It’s hard to find a bigger MotoGP™ fan than nine-time Formula 1 winner Mark Webber, the Australian a frequent visitor to the paddock. He was as pleased as anyone to hear Advance Australia Fair once again.

The Formula 1 paddock is full of MotoGP™ fans, Daniel Ricciardo cheering on fellow Aussie ‘Jackson’ in the final laps.

With his win in Assen, Miller became the 12th Australian to win a premier class Grand Prix since 1949. Darryl Beattie was no stranger to the podium in his day, taking three wins and a total of 14 podium finishes in the 500cc class.

In 1987 Wayne Gardner cemented Australia as a motorcycling nation, taking Australia’s first 500cc World Championship title. Known as the ‘Wollongong Wild One’, he, just like Miller, knows what it’s like to come back from injury and win.

Miller’s win put Australia back on the top step of the premier class podium for the first time since Casey Stoner took his last win at Phillip Island in 2012 before retiring. The double MotoGP™ World Champion was flying while the race was on, but jumped to Twitter as soon as he landed to catch up on #JackAssen.

In the MotoGP™ era, Miller is only the fourth Australian to win a premier class race, joining Casey Stoner, Chris Vermeulen and Troy Bayliss in a very exclusive club.

Of course there weren’t just Australians rushing to congratulate Miller, his former teammate and great friend Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) was waiting in Parc Ferme for ‘JackAss’ to return.