Anthony West | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Anthony West in 2005
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Nationality | Australian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Maryborough, Queensland, Australia |
17 July 1981 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | West Racing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 13 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Anthony "Ant" Keith West (born 17 July 1981) is an Australian motorcycle road racer. He has won two races in Grands Prix, the 2003 Dutch TT in the 250cc class, and the 2014 Dutch TT in the Moto2 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.
West was born in Maryborough.
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.
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.
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.