With the season opener in the bag, Stoner is hoping that he can continue the same way, bettering his performance from 2008 by tackling Motegi effectively as well. A somewhat uncharted territory for the Desmosedici GP9, Motegi poses an interesting challenge for Stoner and his team. However the team is quite confident according to the Aussie.
“We haven’t tested here in preseason whereas we had in Qatar, so we’ll see how we get on starting from zero, with less practice time available. I’m fairly confident, the set-up we found in testing has worked well at different kinds of circuits so we should have a decent base setting to work from at Motegi,” states Stoner. “In any case, we won’t take anything for granted - we’ll keep working hard together and stay focused.”
It seems to be a similar script for 2009 as Stoner and defending champion Valentino Rossi seem to be the top contenders for the title once again. However Stoner has said that it is still too early in the season to say that someone may or may not be a contender and as far as he is concerned, they are all contenders. 
“At this stage Valentino has been the hardest rival in testing and we know that Valentino will always be there, but people should always expect the unexpected,” he warns. “You don’t know what other riders are capable of, so we will see how the beginning of the season goes during the first few races and understand who is going to be competitive and who is not, and then focus on the toughest challenger.”
Stoner’s best performance at the Motegi circuit has been the second place finish at last year’s race although he has done better in lower classes of motorcycle racing.