Ant West - Background...

[MadKaw]

MotoGP Aussie Backgrounder - Anthony West

Australia now has three full-time factory-backed MotoGP riders. They all followed different paths to the pinnacle of their sport– and in the case of Ant West, it was a long and winding road indeed.
When Kawasaki signed Anthony West in mid-season, and later confirmed him as a MotoGP rider for 2008, the Japanese outfit’s Competitions Manager Michael Bartholemey observed: “His route to a factory team in MotoGP was not an orthodox one.” You can say that again, Mr. Bartholemy…

The itinerary seems familiar enough at the outset. Young West, born in 1981, cut his teeth on dirt tracks in the early 90s, finishing third in the Australian 100cc championship in 1994. By 1996 he was a dual national champion, in 125cc dirt track competition and 125cc long-track to boot.

A year later he was a winner on foreign soil, too, taking out the 80cc Bronze Cup at Suzuka in Japan before 1998 took him into quarter-litre racing back at home. In 1998 West won the Australian 250cc Production title, and took third overall in the 125s for good measure, earning the award as ‘Australian-based Rider of the Year’.

It seems hard to believe, but that – nine years ago – was also when ‘Ant’ first flung the leg over a Grand Prix bike. Check the Phillip Island 125cc Entry List for that year and you will see his name against the #46 Christopher West Plumbing Honda. Ant qualified it on the seventh row but came off at the halfway mark of the race.

In 1999 West, with some help from Australia’s multiple World Champion Mick Doohan, got a crack at the World Championship with the Australian-supported Shell Advance team on a Honda NSR250, finishing the season in 12th place. Next year he had climbed six places in the World Championship standings, and for 2001 the big-time beckoned: Ant took the plunge and tried the 500cc World Championship (as it was in those pre-MotoGP days), again on a privateer Honda with Dee Cee Jeans Racing..

Six minor points-scoring finishes took ‘Westy’ to 18th place overall, but it was not the springboard to greater things. In fact he was out of the World Championship scene altogether in 2002. There was nothing for it but to go back to the quarter-litre ranks for 2003 – and when Italy’s Zoppini Abruzzo team offered him a lifeline on their 250cc Aprilia, this became the year of Ant’s first real break-through.

In a three-race mid-year spell from Spain to Holland to England, West was never off the podium. At the track known as ‘The Cathedral’, Assen in the Netherlands, West posted his first World Championship victory aboard an Aprilia, heading home Franco Battaini and Sylvain Guintoli – himself now a member of the MotoGP ranks. He said at the time it was his father, Chris, who had spurred him on: “He told me to stop whining and reminded me how I used to ride the bike – like a real Aussie.” West thrilled a lot of other real Aussies with a splendid second place at the Island from 11th on the grid.

Yet despite a seventh-place finish overall, no factory ride emerged for 2004. And unlike 2003, his season back on the 250 Aprilia ended in dramatic fashion at his home track with what some observers called ‘the crash of the century’. It happened at Turn One on Friday morning, when West was travelling at around 265 km/h. One broken arm, one fractured wrist and multiple cuts and bruises later he was out for the rest of the year.

It looked as if a new dawn had come for West’s Grand Prix hopes when he got the offer to campaign a 250cc KTM in 2005. The Austrian company was moving up the ranks after a successful entry into the 125cc World Championship – after all, Casey Stoner had given them a maiden 125 victory in Sepang and finished on the Phillip Island podium late in 2004.

But West waited… and waited… and the 250 project scarcely got off the ground. A frustrated Ant accepted one-off rides on an Aprilia at Le Mans and a Honda at Assen before finally getting his hands on the KTM at Assen – and promptly planted it on the podium in second spot, ahead of Stoner himself, by now on the LCR Aprilia. Four fairly dispiriting races later, he’d had enough and for 2006 he joined Kiefer Bos Racing on a privateer Aprilia. Best result seventh, overall position 11th: not the stuff World Championship dreams are made of…

With no MotoGP offer in sight, Ant accepted the inevitable and started 2007 on a Matteoni Aprilia in the quarter-litre class. But his road took an unexpected turning when compatriot Kevin Curtain was injured and West was called in to deputise for Yamaha in the World Supersport Championship.

West came through to finish third at Monza in his first race for the team. He won his second, at Silverstone – and his third, at Misano! When Olivier Jacque stepped down from his Kawasaki MotoGP ride in mid-year, West got the chance to test the green machine at Barcelona and impressed Kawasaki so much the ride was offered to the Australian for the rest of the year.

“It was a fun experience,” West said of his first taste of the Ninja ZX-RR800. “Not as difficult as I thought it would be and much less aggressive than what I had expected. The sliding was predictable, and it was just a lot easier than riding the 250cc – but so fast down the straight that you don’t have time to wave at the crowd!”



The rest, as they say, is history. Fastest in warm-up for his debut race at Donington Park, West got up to fourth, came off but re-mounted to finish 11th. He earned high praise from Bartholemy for his performance next time out at Assen – a favourite place of West’s – where Ant finished ninth. “Anthony rode a fantastic race,” said the Kawasaki man. “He’s only had a matter of hours on the bike in the dry but he’s a fighter, battling with Checa, Hofmann and Melandri. It was a fantastic job.”

West has never been out of the points since, and at Motegi he led the race only to be called in for a drive-through for jumping the start. “I could have done so much better,” West lamented. “It was great to lead the race but I'm angry I jump-started. The ride through lost me a lot of time and then I didn't know about changing the bikes because I've never done it before. When I did come in, I stalled and that lost me even more time. I didn't know what was going on and it was pretty nerve-wracking. But the bike felt great today and I felt strong, too, which is why I was able to get to the front. Considering I had to stop twice and stalled the bike, I guess seventh's not too bad!"

No indeed. Just like the news in late August that West would be riding the Kawasaki in 2008 as well. “This is definitely something I’ve been stressing about: whether I can stay in MotoGP and if so, for which team,” he admitted. “But this really is the best opportunity for me, to stay with Kawasaki, as I’m really happy here.” At last… And for 2008, West is looking forward to working with a new team-mate: “It will be cool to be in a team with John Hopkins, too, as I know him pretty well and we get along together. He’s riding really well at the moment, so hopefully I can push him next year.”

For now, though, there’s unfinished business at Phillip Island, and the thrill of being one of three Aussies on ‘works’ bikes in front of a patriotic crowd – and maybe with time to give them a wave. “I’m just so glad I kept trying and stuck at it,” said West back in August. So are we, Ant, so are we…

The 2007 GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix • Phillip Island • 12 – 14 October

[Neka79]

go the ant!!