Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Interview: Troy Corser he is far too sensible to jeopardize his By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Gold & Goose C 30 arl Fogarty knew that Troy Corser was coming and there was nothing he could do about it. It was the second leg at Donington Park, the third round of the World Superbike Championship, and Corser had Fogarty covered like a bad rash. At the end of the first leg, Corser, the 23-year-old reigning AMA Superbike Champion, had chased down Fogarty after a slow start, serving notice of his intent by eventually taking second. And in the second race, nothing the World Champion did on his home track could shake the Aussie upstart. Corser sat patiently, riding his Promotor Ducati 955 well within himself, holding a much tighter line than the Englishman in the comers, getting upright and on the gas on the fat part of the tire well in advance of Fogarty. He was lurking, there was no doubt. The only question was when he would decide to take the lead. Fogarty couldn't hide his concern, glancing back at one point as they entered the front straight. "I looked to my right, he wasn't there. I looked to my left, he wasn't there. That's when I knew he was up my ass," the Briton later said. Then, with about two laps to go, it all went bad for the Australian. Feeling something amiss in his rear wheel, Corser pulled his Power Horse-backed Ducati onto the infield at the end of the back straight. The cush drive which holds the sprocket was destroyed. Fogarty was relieved, but he wasn't surprised that Corser was there. "No, not really," he said, answering the question. "He was good at Donington; he's been there three times now. The first time he was there (his Ducati World Superbike debut last spring) he qualified second-fastest to me at Donington. I think he's riding really well and it was turning into a good race. I was looking forward to the last few laps and then the next thing he disappeared. I had a plan and I'm sure he had a plan." . The Donington race has proven an apt metaphor for the season: Corser showing great promise, only to be denied success by seemingly minor annoyances. Granted, some haven't been so minor - a few tire problems and a few crashes - but no one doubts that Troy Corser will win a race or more this year and that the only thing that stands between him and a championship is time. At last year's U.S. GP at Laguna Seca, Garry Taylor. the Machiavellian head of the Lucky Strike Suzuki SOOcc Grand Prix team, approached Corser about replacing the injured Kevin Schwantz for the last three races of the 1994 season. Corser, after checking with the Ducati factory bosses, was forced to decline. That, however, didn't stop Taylor from ringing up Corser again this year, the week before the Misano World Superbike round, when it was obvious that Taylor would need a replacement for the retiring Schwantz. Again Corser declined, citing his contract for this year which has an option on both sides for 1996. Certainly the Castiglione brothers, who own Cagiva-Ducati, have shown great faith in him, signing him to ride for Eraldo Ferracci in 1994 and for the , factory team this year. And one of the things that Corser kept reminding them of was his desire to test a 500cc Cagiva, a wish that was granted just prior to the Italian GP. Corser, and former GP rider PierFrancesco Chili, now a Ducati-mounted World Superbike regular, tested the bikes that Doug Chandler and John Kocinski rode in last year's 500cc World Championship. Since Corser has both Italian and Australian licenses, he could conceivably have entered the Italian GP at Mugello as a "Wild Card." But after putting in about 40 laps at Mugello, he was a few seconds off Chili's pace on the year-old bikes, and Chili did the GP alone. Corser said that he's not interested in doing a one-off ride, that he would want to put in the appropriate amount of testing, and he would also like to race a current spec bike, not one pulled out of mothballs. And, despite getting on reasonably well in his first 500cc foray, World Superbike year for a lark on a GP bike. The year got off to a somewhat curious start for Corser. Just after Christmas he got word at home that he would be part of the Austrian-based Promotor team, not the official Duca ti Corse run by Virginio Ferrari which has supported Fogarty the past two years. Though he was assured that he would get identical equipment, he was skeptical. Earlier in his career, when he was riding for Yamaha in Australia, he'd also had a question about a contract which wasn't being answered to his satisfaction. So he drove up to Yamaha's headquarters and knocked on their door. His reaction this time was identical; only the distances were greater. When he took the phone call at home in Wollongong, a suburb of Sydney, he said, "Right, I'm going to be coming to meet you because I want to make sure we're going to get the same equipment. I was at home. I got on a plane the next day, I flew there, met them for the day, had lunch, got on a plane and flew back 'to Australia (also making a stop in Philadelphia to sell the car he'd used in the United States last year). And then I got a phone call that afternoon when I arrived (at home) - I got there in the' morning. I got a phone call to say to come over because we've got some testing to do. So I got on a plane the next day and flew back to Italy again. It was about 22 hours each way." And, in the end, Corser was convinced it was the best solution to a ticklish problem. "I don't think it would have worked if I was in the same team as Carl as good as it's working where I am at the moment," Corser said. When he was told he would be on the Ferrari team he said that he undeC)ltood that, "Carl's the World Champion and he wants to be the number one, and bringing someone new in to start working in the team is going to be hard." And, he added, "I get on with Carl fine, no problem at all off the track. On the track we do our own thing. I'm definitely happy ,being aside because then he can be number one - that's good - but I'm also number one to my~lf." What he needed most was the pledge of equality in machinery. "I just said to (team manager Davide) Tardozzi, I said, ''Listen, we've got to have the same stuff. Otherwise it's going to fail.' I said, 'I know I can ride with Carl and (Mauro) Lucchiari (Fogarty's teammate).' I said, 1f we're going to do it, let's do it properly and be sure that we get the full factory stuff.''' And he wanted it now. "Not that they test it first and then we get it. If they get it, then we get it. Then we can

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