The thunder from down under – Troy Corser
The Australian can indeed not be ignored in the history of WorldSBK. In the statistics he still leads with a number which impressively underlines this. With a total of 374 races, he is still the leader with the number of World Championship races in the WSBK. The man from Wollongong, south of Sydney, took pole position 43 times. In his long career he drove for Yamaha (a 5th place in the World Championship and a runner-up), Ducati (1 World Championship title in 1996, a runner-up and two thirds in the World Championship), Aprilia (two top 5 in the World Championship) , Petronas, Suzuki (1 World Championship title in 2005, a 4th World Championship position), as well as 3 more years for BMW at the end.
His openness was refreshing – his speed often overwhelming
Before Tom Sykes appeared in the Superbike World Champion at the same time as Jonathan Rea, Troy Corser was the undisputed king of a fast lap. This also gave him the title of “Mister Superpole”, by far the fastest man of his time over a lap. The Australian also rarely minced his mouth when it came to giving his opinion. When asked what he hated the most, he called big heads and bad journalists, which we can understand very well. Often enough we ask ourselves about the state of mind of the scribes, who often derive the world title from a good lap time. Conversely, they tend to prematurely label drivers as losers after modest test results. Such birds never became the friends of the fast Australian.
The history of Troy
Troy Corser was born on November 27, 1971 in Wollongong, New South Wales), around 90 km southwest of Sydney. When he was only 10 years old, he began to take part in trial, motocross and dirt track events. From 1986 in the latter two categories also at national and supraregional events. In 1989 he drove his first road race in Oran Park (near Sydney) on a Honda CR 125. In the same year he immediately won the 250cc Production Championship of New South Wales on a Suzuki RGV 250.
The first title
One year later, the 19-year-old Corser became national 250cc production master and was the youngest in his country to receive an A license. In the 1991 season it continued in the Australian road championship on Yamaha, which he finished in 6th place. A year later, Troy finished fourth in the national Superbike category and at the same time the first races in the World Championship followed. After winning the Australian Superbike Championship, he went to the USA. He was the first non-American to win the AMA Superbike title in 1994, which was followed by his first full WSBK season.
The most important titles in Corser’s career:
1990 – Australian Production Championship 250 cc, champion
1993 – Australian Superbike, Winfield Honda, Champion
1994 – AMA Superbike Championship, Fast by Ferracci Ducati, champion 1996 – World Superbike Champion on Ducati
2005 – World Superbike Champion on Suzuki
Troy Corser’s Superbike World Championship years
Many difficult years and still very successful
Similar to Jonathan Rea before his time at Kawasaki, one can only guess at Troy Corser how many more titles he could have won on more competitive material. Since he was in 1996 in a private team just like Doug Poland in 1991 for the team “Fast by Ferracci” on Ducati World Champion, the time until his second title in 2005 on Suzuki was a phase of many missed opportunities for Corser.
Many difficult years
Both from the 2000 season on the V2 Aprilia RSV Mille, and especially after that, the two years on the Petronas FP1, the Australian fought for four long years with mostly blunt weapons. It is also interesting that Troy won his AMA Superbike title for the same US team that won the 1991 Superbike World Championship with Doug Poland. It should be noted that the “Americans” with Poland as their rider had also devastated the Ducati works team with Raymond Roche.
