One year after retiring from MotoGP™, Australian hero Casey Stoner will return to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit to join fellow Aussie World Champions Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan for a lap of honour at the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

There are only three riders who have been recognised with their own stretch of bitumen at the renowned Phillip Island track and it is fitting that all three will ride together in a once-in-a-lifetime display for fans at next month’s MotoGP™ event.

Stoner has completed hundreds of laps around the 4.445km circuit on race weekends but 2013 will be something different for the two-time World Champion.

"The 2012 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was a fairytale ending to my MotoGP™ career," he said. "It will be nice to take to the track with Mick and Wayne this year without the pressure of competing. I look forward to enjoying it and mixing with the fans that have supported me throughout my career."

Stoner has won the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix for the last six years in a row and in 115 MotoGP™ outings started on pole 39 times, set 29 fastest laps and took 69 podium finishes. He won 38 times; only Rossi, his great compatriot Giacomo Agostini and Mick Doohan stand above him on the all-time premier class winners’ list.

Stoner will be joined by Gardner and Doohan on 20 October, just moments before the start of the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in which a new King of Phillip Island will be crowned.