Former MotoGP race winner and inaugural Moto2 World Champion Toni Elias has confirmed he is retiring from motorcycle racing after a career spanning more than two decades.
The Spaniard has most recently been competing in the USA-based MotoAmerica series but having only just returned to the Superbike class this season, he announced on the live TV broadcast following the event at Road America that it would be his last.
He has since taken to social media to confirm his intentions to step back from racing, bringing an end to a career that has seen him enjoy success at its highest levels.
“And without knowing it, and running after it, I achieved much more than I ever imagined,” Elias writes on Instagram.
“As I write this, I don't even know where to start. Giant waves of images, vivid memories, emotions and sensations that are difficult to define. Intensity, yes, a lot of intensity.
“How nice to be able to live this moment in which, no matter how hard you try, words don't come out, feelings invade you that you didn't even know you were hiding.
“It's nice to be able to thank everyone and everyone who, together with me, is causing endless overtaking and sensations that are impossible to define right now.
“Describing them is not easy. Not is it for me, writing the words that an athlete never wants to write. But the time has come.”
>>> 2023 MotoGP World Championship standings <<<
After a distinguished stint in the 125GP and 250GP classes delivered nine victories and a best classification of third overall in each, Elias made his MotoGP debut in 2005 with the Fortuna Yamaha squad.
Enjoying modest success in his rookie year, a switch to the Gresini Racing-run Fortuna Honda squad for 2006 delivered similar results right up until he scored a shock victory in the Portuguese MotoGP at Estoril, won by just 0.002s over Valentino Rossi in what remains the shortest winning margin in GP history.
Though Elias wouldn’t grace the top of the MotoGP podium again during a plus-six year tenure in the top flight, a switch to the new intermediate Moto2 class for its debut season in 2010 yielded a dominant seven-race winning run to the title with Gresini Racing.
After a competitive season competing in the WorldSBK Championship, Elias went Stateside from 2016, picking up the MotoAmerican Superbike title in 2017 with Suzuki and scoring 33 wins across five full seasons.
