Anthony West is nothing if not versatile. The 25-year-old
Australian rider started the 2007 season in the 250cc World
Championship, switched to the World Supersport Championship,
where he won two races, and now he's back in the Grand Prix
paddock to ride the factory Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR for the
remainder of the 2007 season.
Like many Australian riders before him West cut his teeth racing
dirt track, racking up two national titles by the time he turned 15.
His first road race outing came at Suzuka in 1997 where he raced
in the 80cc Bronze Cup series. In 1998 he lifted the Australian
250cc production title, finished third in the national 125cc
championship and made his Grand Prix debut as a wild card rider
at Phillip Island.
The following season saw West leave his native Australian to
contest the 250cc World Championship series for the Shell
Advance team, with whom he stayed for two seasons, finishing
sixth in the championship standings in just his second year.
For the 2001 season West stepped up to the premier class aboard
a privateer 500cc v-twin machine, which was no match for the v-
four, full factory bikes of his rivals. After a year out of the Grand
Prix paddock in 2002, The Australian returned to the 250cc
championship in 2003, claiming his first Grand Prix win at Assen.
His reward was a place in the factory KTM 250cc squad for 2005
where, despite a bike that was still in the early stages of
development, he managed to pull off a surprise second place in a
wet race at Donington, behind his new Kawasaki teammate,
Randy de Puniet.
With Olivier Jacque forced to sit out the Catalunya Grand Prix
through injury, West was drafted in as a temporary test rider to
assist Randy de Puniet with Bridgestone tyre testing the day after
the Catalunya race. West was quick to adapt to the Ninja ZX-RR,
ending the his first day aboard Kawasaki's MotoGP racer with lap
times close to those of the rider he was standing in for.
When the decision was made by Kawasaki for Olivier Jacque to
step down from racing full time to concentrate solely on
development, West's performance during the one day Montmeló
test made him the obvious choice as a replacement.
click on ozzy go to the interview on KawasakiMotoGP.com