Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.INTERVIEW . AMA Superbike National Champion Troy Corser ----'------ - - - - -- - - - - While this was going on there was a protest filed agai ns t the AMA's homologation of what was essentia lly a kit mo torcycle. Through it all, Corser was unfazed. "Obviously, Era ldo wasn't very happy with it, basically, giving us a weight penalty," Corser says. "Bu t it was like, 'okay, we're just going to have to work with w hat we've go t now. We've got to do it: Just try to test as much as possible d ifferent weigh t variations around the bike, just to see what's the best. "Maybe we have a n advantage, I d on't know. I th ink we so rt of h ad an advantage over everybody becau se we were racing a Du cati and they' re not," Corser adds. The next race at Mid-Oh io wo uld test his com posu re. For the fi rs t ti me a ll year, his bike br oke during the race and he lost a big chunk of poi nts to Jam es. At the same time, Edwards was coming into his own and wo n the battle with his teamm ate Jam es . "If the bike broke, he didn't kick the bike beca use he knows," Ferracci says. "He wants so bad to do good. He gets disappointed. If he finished seco nd nobod y talks to you , he thinks:' "I didn 't say anything, it didn 't worry me," Corser said ." ext race, now it's not going to be easy . We've go t to finish up higher in the positiuns and we all knew th a t, and that's how we approached every other race after tha t race: ' The Brainerd weekend would come next, Corser riding through the pain to gain a few more points on James, points he would lose in a quick heap at the penultimate race at Sears Point. This time it wasn't the motor, but the shock linkage mount that broke, pu tting h im out of the race and championship lead in a New York minu te. He' d clashe d with Edwards ea rlier in the race and h a d decide d to prote ct th e champi ons hip ins tead of taking the risk of racing for, ano the r victory. "On lap seven the linka ge mount on the fra me breaks. Everything was going well. I was getting used to the track and (Left ) Troy Corser and his mother celebrate the National Championship at the final round in Atlanta, Georgia. (Below) The Young Guns - Corser watches the action with Mike Hale. 16 his teammate Pascal Picotte. The French Can adi an had raced the previous year in the shadow of Dou g Polen and now had to dea l with th e su ddenly successful Corser . Corser co nceded th at Pico tte was determined that weekend; it wo uld be his first win, and he was cont ent wi th seco nd. If there is an aspect of the tracklearning process that Corser has d ifficulty with it's elevation changes, and laguna has a few of the m. Second wasn' t a bad finish, and wi th every race he was pu llin g a little farther away in the championship. The Ducatis had been domina nt for too long. a number of rival tea m owners thou gh t, and the AMA agreed. At a road race advisory meeting in Monterey they decided 10 add weigh t to the Du cati for the following race at Elkhart Lake. Tha t bro ug ht an immedi ate and su rprising ly stride nt conde m na tion from the owners of Cagiva, Ducati's p arent com pany, along with threats of wi thd rawing fro m Am erican racin g . In th e en d, n othing was d on e, the weight was added, and life went on. Tacking 20 pound s of ballast to the 955 actually helped the handling. The bike always had a light fron t end and by pla cing some of the weigh ~ near the not rid ing 100%. I was being a little careful and not tak in g any risk. I could've finis hed seco nd," Corser said. Sudden ly, for the firs t time all yea r, Corser trailed Ja mes in the cha mpi onsh ip . The margin was three p oin ts goi ng in to the final race of the year at Roa d Atlanta. Co rser acknow ledged that "Jamie had ha d a fai r few races around there. He was going to be hard to beat. The track was real technical. At the time, I wanted to wi n the race: ' But cooler heads prevailed. The math ad ded up like this: Corser had to finis h two spo ts in fro nt of James to take the title back to Australia. The twist wo uld be the appearance of Scott Russell. The native Atla ntan wa nted to race in front of his fellow Georgians and Rob Muzzy provided him wit h a bike. Fer racci had bu ilt two new engi nes for the final race and had confidence that Co rse r would rid e one to the title. "I knew Troy, w ithout takin g anyth ing away from anybody, co u ld beat Jamie," Ferracci said. "I knew these two guys (Corser and Picotte) can do it. If I lose the championship like this we still knew we did the bes t we could." Picotte had bee n instru cted that if h is pit boa rd was turned backwards, he should fall in line behind Corser. It never happened because in the fi nal stages of the race, a nd season, James suffered a failure with an EXUP exhaust valve and was forced to slow. Corser passed David Sadowski on the last lap and the title was his - by a single point, 273-272. Out front, Russell was long gone. "The easiest way to win the championship was to win the race," Corser told Cycle News that day. "B ut Scott got away. I knew exactly where Jamie was in the race and where I was:' To get back to the origina l ques tion: How good is Troy Corse r? It's fair to say we d on 't ye t kn ow. Th is was only his fourth season of profession al racing and he's wo n titles the last two, then aimed high er the next yea r. In 1995 he ups the stakes again, mo vin g on to contest the World Superbike titl e aboard a factory Ducati . There will be new tracks to learn, new riders to race against, a different brand of tire s to use, and a new crew to try to communicate w it h. To Ferracci, there 's not much debate. "The kid's go t a big heart. He wa nts to do good. His future is over there : ' I~ front it helped plant t he fr o nt w heel. What w a sn' t ta ken in to account was the brake s and they wou ld fa de in the race, with Corser run ni ng off t he track, but recoverin g to finish fourth. His te amm at e Pico tte wou ld win his secon d race in a row . By the next race the b r a k e s would be fixed and the w e ight s would be moved aro und th e bi ke to im p rove the handling, Of m ore im po rtan ce to the cha mpions h ip, afte r fin ishing second to Picotte, Jam es w a s g iven a controversial one-lap p enalty for passing on a waving ye llow flag and dropped to 17th. -- • ' ..... ~ ' ''" -:1..~._.~ _~_. • .. - " . _._ _ ..:_ ' , _

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