Despite starting from 17th place on the grid, BMW Motorrad Motorsport rider Troy Corser stormed through the field to take a tremendous eighth place in the opening race of this year’s Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island. In so doing, he also set the fastest lap of the race - with a time of 1:32.726 - and showed the huge crowd that BMW Motorrad Motorsport are not in the championship just to make up the numbers. In race two, tyre problems forced him out of the reckoning and he should’ve retired. He had numerous lurid slides, but somehow managed to bring his S 1000 RR home, even though he nearly crashed on several occasions. His team mate Ruben Xaus finished 19th in race one, but improved considerably in the second race to finish just outside the top ten. All in all, a great start to BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s Superbike World Championship debut and a portent of things to come.

Top

The new Superpole system ended in disappointment for Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus and, as a result, they will now start from the fifth row of the grid for tomorrow’s opening round of this year’s Superbike World Championship. Two qualifying tyres were available for each rider in the Superpole 1, 2 and 3 and, in view of Troy’s fifth quickest time in normal qualifying, the team elected not to use a qualifier in Superpole 1. The gamble appeared to be working until the final few minutes of the session, when some other riders went faster and Troy ended 17th - and out of Superpole 2. Ruben also didn’t manage to qualify for Superpole 2, due to a small tyre misunderstanding, but hopefully the races tomorrow will end positively for him and team mate Troy.

Top

BMW Motorrad Motorsport riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus ended the first day of qualifying at Phillip Island with the sixteenth and twentieth fastest times respectively. But lap times are very close and Troy was only a second slower then today’s quickest rider, Jakob Smrz (Ducati), with Ruben just seven tenths of a second further behind. Since the test last weekend, some new parts have arrived for the team to evaluate and the work carried out in this area meant that neither Troy nor Ruben were able to chase any lap times.

Top