Crutchlow's journey to the top
He may have only just turned 30, but Crutchlow is now in his 18th year of racing in a career that spans back to 1999. During that time he’s won in Aprilia Superteens, British Superstock 600, British Supersport, British Superbike, World Supersport, World Superbike and now, finally… MotoGP.
He’s raced Casey Stoner back in 2000 and 16 years later he walked on water to beat Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez to become the first Brit to win a MotoGP race since the late, great Barry Sheene.
1999, 1st
UK Junior Challenge: “I was a bit of a latecomer to racing by today’s standards, and I hadn’t ridden a geared bike until a week before my first race! I didn’t make it round one lap before I crashed! I loved it though.”
2000, 5th
Aprilia RS125 Challenge: “I’ll always remember being on the podium at the last race. I was third and Stoner won it.”
2001, 1st
Aprilia RS125 Challenge winner: “It was my secondyear in the series, which supported BSB, so I had more experience under my belt. I took eight wins and I won the championship.”
2002, 4th
Junior Superstock: “First time on a four stroke, racing a GSX-R600. I was competitive, but never stood up to the best.”
2003, 2nd
Yamaha R6 Cup: “I finished second to Tommy Hill, but I believe it was better for me not to go straight to BSB like he did.”
2004, 10th
British Supersport: “I joined Ekerold Honda, on Bridgestones with Masao Azuma, who went on to be the chief engineer of their MotoGP project.”
2005, 3rd
British Supersport: “Team-mates with Craig Jones, it was great fun. I took wins and podiums.”
2006, 1st
British Supersport: “I won the title using Pirellis when Dunlops were the best tyre.”
2007, 9th
British Superbike: “I had Chris Walker as my team-mate which was a dream for me. He taught me a lot of bad habits and racecraft!”
2008, 3rd
British Superbike: “I wasn’t focused on being a full-time racer. I won a couple of races, but only decided to go professional at the end of the season.”
2009, 1st
World Supersport: “I was given the opportunity to be a factory Yamaha rider in WSS and I’ve never looked back.”
2010, 5th
World Superbike: “Fifth didn’t justify what we put in. But I was happy with my year there – I was fast, it was just up and down.”
2011, 12th
MotoGP: “Halfway through my first year I had a big fight with team boss Herve Poncharal and I wanted to come back to WSB. I stayed and took top rookie.”
2012, 7th
MotoGP: “With a great rider like Dovi as a team-mate I had to step up, and I took podiums at Brno and Phillip Island.”
2013, 5th
MotoGP: “Finishing the season as top non-factory rider behind Rossi in just my third season in GPs was amazing.”
2014, 13th
MotoGP: “It didn’t look good on paper, but we had some races that weren’t too bad. Tehcnical problems didn’t help.”
2015, 8th
MotoGP: “Last year was the first year with Honda riding the RC213V, and it wasn’t a bad year all in all.”
2016, 10th
MotoGP: “Well we’re still working on this year so we’ll have to see. I got my first GP win, maybe I can get another!”
