Anthony West (motorcycle racer)

Anthony West
Anthony West in 2005
Nationality	Australian
Current team	MZ Racing Team
Bike number	8
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2001, 2007–2008 Manufacturers Honda, Kawasaki Championships 0 2008 Championship position 18th (50 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 43 0 0 0 0 136 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2010– Manufacturers MZ-RE-Honda Championships 0 2011 Championship position 22nd (40 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 34 0 0 0 0 66 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

Anthony "Ant" West (born 17 July 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.

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.

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]}

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 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. He finished the championship in 9th place, despite only contesting three of the thirteen rounds.

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. He made a good debut at the British Grand Prix, reaching 4th position, but then crashing and eventually finishing 11th. His first four races each saw him finish progressively higher, with 7th at Laguna Seca and 8th at the Sachsenring. 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'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 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.

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

2008

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 6th in the wet and carried the form over into a dry race, finishing 5th in a race dominated by Bridgestone tyred bikes.

2009

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 [1]. 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 17 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.

For 2010 West races in the new Moto2 class.

Career statistics

By season

Seas	Class	Moto	Team	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
1998	125cc	Honda RS125		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC	–
1999	250cc	Honda NSR250		16	0	0	0	0	66	12th	–
2000	250cc	Honda NSR250		16	0	0	0	0	146	6th	–
2001	500cc	Honda NSR500		14	0	0	0	0	27	18th	–
2003	250cc	Aprilia RSV 250		16	1	4	0	0	145	7th	–
2004	250cc	Aprilia RSV 250		14	0	0	0	0	88	11th	–
2005	250cc	Aprilia RSV 250		1	0	0	0	0	30	17th	–
		Honda NSR250		1	0	0	0	0
		KTM 250 FRR		5	0	1	0	1
2006	250cc	Aprilia RSV 250		16	0	0	0	0	78	11th	–
2007	250cc	Aprilia RSV 250		7	0	0	0	0	25	18th	–
	MotoGP	Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR	Kawasaki Racing Team	11	0	0	0	0	59	15th	–
2008	MotoGP	Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR	Kawasaki Racing Team	18	0	0	0	0	50	18th	–
2010	Moto2	MZ Moto2	MZ Racing Team	17	0	0	0	0	26	23rd	–
2011	Moto2	MZ Moto2	MZ Racing Team	17	0	0	0	0	40	22nd	–
Total				170	1	5	0	1	780		0

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	2007–2008	2007 Britain	N/A	N/A	29	0	0	0	0	109	0
Moto2	2010–	2010 Qatar	N/A	N/A	34	0	0	0	0	66	0
Total	1998–2001, 2003–2007, 2010–				170	1	5	0	1	780	0

Races by year

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
1998	125 cc	Honda	JPN	MAL	SPA	ITA	FRA	MAD	NED	GBR	GER	CZE	IMO	CAT	AUS Ret	ARG					NC	0
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	IMO 15	VAL 9	AUS 10	RSA 9	BRA Ret	ARG 8			12th	66
2000	250 cc	Honda	RSA 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	RSA 14	SPA 15	FRA	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	RSA 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	RSA 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	VAL			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	RSM 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 10	NED Ret	GER 10	USA 17	CZE 5	RSM 13	IND 11	JPN 15	AUS 12	MAL 12	VAL 17	18th	50
2010	Moto2	MZ-RE Honda	QAT Ret	SPA 15	FRA 26	ITA 27	GBR 17	NED Ret	CAT 9	GER 13	CZE 18	IND 10	RSM 17	ARA 21	JPN 23	MAL 24	AUS 21	POR 7	VAL 27		23rd	26
2011	Moto2	MZ-RE Honda	QAT Ret	SPA 11	POR 27	FRA 25	CAT 22	GBR Ret	NED 4	ITA 21	GER 23	CZE 29	IND 26	RSM 27	ARA 11	JPN 12	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	VAL 4		22nd	40

External links

• AntWest13.com.au – Official site