Troy Corser

Troy Corser

Troy Gordon Corser (born 27 November 1971 in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian former motorcycle road racer, the 1996 and 2005 Superbike World champion.

Having previously won the Australian and AMA Superbike Championship titles, and shone in a handful of wildcard rides in the Superbike World Championship (taking five podiums), he went to the series full-time 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 only took one podium until his win at round 5 at the Salzburgring (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, while teamed with Luca Cadalora on Yamaha YZR-500, Power Horse backed, team.

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 led 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 RSV-Mille. He would take the Aprilia to its first WSBK wins in 2000, and opened 2001 with a double victory in South Africa, but a double DNF at Monza scuppered his hopes of a championship challenge.

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 which enabled him to regain his position as Superbike World Champion, winning the 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 2006, 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. He ultimately overhauled Pitt to finish 4th, through a double podium at the final round. For 2007 he left Suzuki to join Yamaha, however he was outpaced by team-mate Noriyuki Haga and finished 5th overall, with eight podiums but no wins. He remained with the team for 2008, pipping Haga to finish as championship runner-up behind Bayliss.

For the 2009 WSBK season Corser signed with BMW to ride alongside Ruben Xaus on BMW's new superbike. His best result in the first half of the season was an 8th place in the opener at Philip Island, although there were several other minor points finishes. Strong results later in the season saw him finish 13th overall.

Corser and Xaus continued with the team for 2010. Corser scored two fifth places at Assen, he took BMW's first ever WSBK podium in race two at Monza, aided by a first-lap collision between Xaus, Jonathan Rea and Toseland. He also took pole at Misano and had scored in every race until being forced to miss Brno following a practice crash.

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.