Just as hot on four wheels for Casey Stoner Casey Stoner looked anything but a beginner in his first official V8 Supercar practice session in Adelaide. Former MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, driver of the #27 Red Bull Pirtek Holden, is swamped by fans prior to practice. IT WAS attention only a world champion could command. The most anticipated debut in the V8 Supercar development series dominated Clipsal 500 opening day when two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner slid behind a steering wheel. He didn't quite hit the 340km/h he is used to on two wheels, but Stoner, 27, admitted to feeling like a kid on his first day of school. It started with breakfast at the track at 7.30am. By 8am, fans were queuing outside his team truck and mobbing him in the pits. If the Triple Eight Race Engineering garage wasn't already the most popular hang-out for revheads chasing a glimpse of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, Stoner's arrival has put it beyond doubt. Watched from the pits by his wife Adriana and daughter, Alessandra, Stoner was eighth-fastest in ahead of today's opening Dunlop Series race. "Everyone's been very polite to me and given me plenty of space," Stoner said. Honestly, it's like I'm starting again. I'm not really looking at it as a transition so much as starting from new. Stoner might have felt like a rookie but there was no denying the superstar status that comes with winning two world titles and the Phillip Island MotoGP six times. While Stoner had the pick of Red Bull Racing's two B-Double-size trucks in which to rest, his competitors were 400m away working in makeshift tents no bigger than a horse stable. His practice sessions were followed by lengthy discussions with the team's engineers who compared his data to that of teammates Lowndes and Whincup from last year. As Stoner's new life as a racing car driver began in Adelaide, his old combatants in the world of MotoGP were testing their bikes in Malaysia. If Stoner had any doubts whether the switch could be done, yesterday's performance in what was virtually the first time he'd driven a V8 Supercar in anger put them to a swift end. But with a philosophy as simple as his, it's almost impossible for him to fail. "We're taking it step by step and if we can keep it out of the wall and around the track then we should keep improving," he said.