Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1113817
VOL. 56 ISSUE 18 MAY 7, 2019 P151 Corser to Daytona. The test went well. The 22-year-old Corser who had no history at Daytona and no his- tory on a Ducati, still managed to clock a 1:52.21, which would have landed him on the front row of the '93 Daytona 200. All of this on an ex-Polen bike with 900 race miles on the clock. Sheene's recommendation looked solid. In spite of his strong test out- ing, a Cycle News pre-season feature on the 1994 AMA Super- bike Championship predicted Corser finishing eighth in the championship. The reasoning be- ing that he would be at a disad- vantage trying to learn American tracks. (Interestingly, the feature predicted, another Australian Kevin Magee, was the rider who would win the AMA Super- bike Championship aboard the Smokin' Joe's Honda.) A week later, illustrating how little Ameri- can fans knew about him, Cycle News ran another feature titled: "Who is Troy Corser?" The first round of the '94 AMA Superbike Championship was the Daytona 200. It was a Ferracci Ducati sitting on the pole for the talent-packed race, but instead of Corser, it was his teammate, Picotte. In the 200, it was Scott Rus- sell winning after starting from the back of the field because of a mechanical failure on his Muzzy Kawasaki in one of the Twin 50s. The race came down to a battle between Russell and Corser and their respective pit crews. On their last stops, the Muzzy Kawasaki crew elected not to change tires. Ferracci decided to put fresh rubber on Corser's Ducati. That gave Russell a big lead in the final segment of the race. Corser put on an epic charge in the closing laps but came up 2.9-seconds short at the checkered flag. Ed- die Lawson was third. Even though he finished second, Corser pushed perhaps the all-time best at Daytona to the very end. Fans were beginning to figure out just who this new guy from Down Under was. Then came round two in Phoe- nix, two weeks after Daytona. Corser set the tone early at Phoenix by running fastest in practice and eventually qualifying on the pole. Corser's 1:02.532 at 86.931 mph broke the previous mark set by Doug Polen by nearly a half second. Corser had such a comfortable margin in qualifying that he pulled in and watched the final 15 minutes of the qualifying session. Never having seen the track before this weekend didn't bother the friendly Aussie. "It's a very short track and is easy to learn," Corser said. "It's the kind of track that you have to attack in places and take it easy in others, and it doesn't hurt a bit that the Ducati is perfectly suited for this type of circuit." In the race, after a few laps, Corser closed in on early leader teammate Picotte, as the Fer- racci Ducatis pulled away from everybody else. On lap 13, the leading duo hit traffic and Corser took the lead for the first time. Picotte took the lead back briefly and was running a close second when his Ducati expired on lap 22. With Picotte gone, Corser was alone up front with a five-second lead over a good second-place scrap between Fred Merkel, Colin Edwards, and Tiger So- hwa. Try as they might, Merkel and Edwards, who left the fading Sohwa, couldn't make a dent on Corser's lead the rest of the race. The Australian put the Ducati on auto-pilot in the clos- ing laps and cruised home to his first victory in America. "I was fortunate to stay out of trouble early after my slow start," Corser said in the press confer- ence. "It was quite hectic on the first lap. I didn't realize at first that Pascal retired from the race. I kept looking around for him. I thought maybe he crashed." The win not only put Corser in a solid lead in the series after only two races, but it also showed everyone, fans and fel- low competitors alike, that the new Aussie was no longer the un- known new guy, but instead the rider to beat in the championship. Corser would go on to win the '94 AMA Superbike title before embarking on a stellar career in World Superbike. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives