Troy Corser

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Troy Gordon Corser (born November 27, 1971) is an Australian motorcycle racer, the 1996 and 2005 World Superbike Champion. For 2007 he will leave Suzuki to join Yamaha.

Having previous won the Australian and American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Superbike titles (becomng the first non-American to win the latter, before the dominance of countryman Mat Mladin), and shone in a handful of wildcard rides in WSBK, he went to the series fulltime in 1995. He was classified 11th in WSBK for 1994, hence his riding #11, which he used for many years. Pole for the first round showed his potential, although he did not take a podium until his win at round 5 in Salzburg (partly due to collisions with Anthony Gobert and Piergorgio Bontempi at Monza). A strong remainder of the season (including a win at Laguna Seca, one of the few tracks on the schedule that he knew) saw him beat Aaron Slight to 2nd overall.

He won this title in 1996, but 1997 was an unsuccessful and fragmented year in the 500cc World Championship. Back in WSBK for 1998, he came close to retaking the title, helped by a double win at Laguna, the second race by a mere 0.005sec. He lead the standings before the final round, took pole, but crashing and breaking ribs in a warm-up crash. For 1999 he was teamed with Carl Fogarty on Davide Tardozzi's team, the title going to Foggy with Corser again third. In 2000 and 2001 he was on a factory Aprilia, and took 7 wins on previously-uncompetitive machinery, finishing in the championship top 5 in both seasons.

In 2002 he joined Carl Fogarty's Foggy Petronas team, and spent the year developing the bike before racing it in 2003 and 2004. He finished 9th in the 2004 championship, with a best result of 3rd, but chose to leave the team after this.

In 2005 he raced for the Alstare Suzuki Team on the GSX-R1000 in 2005 which enabled him to regain his position as World Superbike Champion, winning the 2005 championship after a run of early-season victories - later in the season Chris Vermeulen and Noriyuki Haga were usually the men to beat.

Troy won two races early in the 2006 season, however a crash at Phillip Island, and a DNF at Silverstone enabled compatriot Troy Bayliss to gain the upper hand in the early stages of the title chase. A double non-finish at Assen with 4 rounds to go left him 5th in the championship, behind Bayliss, James Toseland, Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt.

Troy has been on pole at Philip Island and Valencia four times, equalling a championship record for a single track. Of the eight cases of a rider having 10 or more podium finishes at a particular circuit, Troy has four - 13 at Misano, 11 each at Laguna Seca and Philip Island, and 10 at Donington Park.

[edit] References

notes on some of Troy's records

Preceded by James Toseland	World Superbike Champion 2005	Succeeded by Troy Bayliss
Preceded by Carl Fogarty	World Superbike Champion 1996	Succeeded by John Kocinski