Source: FIM.

Australia’s Casey Stoner has described the horror crash that took him out of the lead at the 2015 Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan on Sunday, when the throttle stuck on his MuSASHi RT HARC-PRO Honda and forced him to eject entering the Suzuka Hairpin.

The 29-year-old starred in his first motorcycle race since retiring in 2012, qualifying the CBR1000RR third on the grid and then swiftly taking the lead in his opening laps during the mammoth eight-hour encounter.

A mechanical fault put end to Stoner’s chances however, the Aussie dual MotoGP World Champion lucky to escape with a broken his right scapula and fractured his left ankle.

Together with HRC staff, the team checked the machine and confirmed from the data that the throttle was 26 degrees open before the crash. It wasn’t clear why this happened and now the bike will be sent to HRC for a full inspection.

“I am really disappointed that the Suzuka 8 hours has ended like this,” Stoner said. “We have done a lot of work over the last few weeks to get accustomed to the bike and the track and work towards a setting that made all of us quite comfortable.

“We really felt that the race and everything had gone as we planned so far, we were very relaxed and comfortable and making sure we saved the tyres and the fuel to stretch the stint as long as we could.

“Unfortunately, we experienced some mechanical trouble as I was going through the corner leading up to the hairpin. I did not have enough time to engage the clutch and I came in with too much speed, I picked the bike up to try to slow down more but I was heading towards the wall so I decided to lay it over and hit the barrier but unfortunately, they were a lot harder than they looked and we came out of it with a broken bone in the ankle and broken scapular.

“I want to say thanks to my team mates Michael van der Mark and Takumi Takahashi, – they have done a fantastic job over these weeks and this weekend especially. And I would also like to thank the team for how much effort everybody has put in. Their professionalism was outstanding and I really enjoyed working with them. I am very sorry that we could not achieve the strong result I believe we could have.”

Team manager Shigeki Honda said Stoner encouraged the entire team in his Suzuka debut: “Casey Stoner encouraged the whole team during this week at the Suzuka 8 hour endurance race, especially in the Top 10 trial.

“He demonstrated aggressive riding to climb to 1st early in the race, but sadly he crashed out. As a result, we missed out on an opportunity for three consecutive victories, but this is the Suzuka 8 hours where anything can happen. I express my appreciation to all our fans and we wish Casey a speedy recovery. We’ll be back next year!”

Stoner or the Honda Racing Corporation are yet to confirm whether he will return for the historic Japanese event next year.