Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

how Suzuki's big-bore rocket relaunched a career uzuki was the last of the japanese manufacturers to enter World Superbike racing with an official team, which it did nine years ago in 1996. That same year, a certain Troy Corser won the first of his World titles on a semi-works Ducati, a feat he might have repeated two years later on a full-factory desmo V-twin, but he was injured in a race-day warmup crash after leading the points table entering the final round in japan. But nine years after winning his first World crown, Corser finally delivered Suzuki its first World Superbike Championship on the A1stare Corona GSXRI000 KS - a title that has seemed long overdue after the company's half-decade of dominance in AMA Superbike via Mat Mladin. It's about time. That's a view widely shared in the Superbike paddock, as well as among the growing number of fans worldwide for a series that's very much on the rise. For it was Suzuki's longtime Belgian partner, S 30 NOVEMBER 2, 2005 • eye LE Francis and Patricia Bam's Alstare Corona team, that was the first to race a 10000c four in World Superbike, as soon as these were permitted in 2003. But the GSXRIOOO, which Gregorio Lavilla rode with such panache, had never quite succeeded in taking the checkered nag first, thanks mainly to the dreaded restrictors originally inflicted on one-liter fours at the behest of the HRC-dominated MSMA manufacturers' cartel. The following year, 2004, in spite of the new derestricted one-liter FIM regulations that succeeded in redressing the imbalance of the previous rules in favor of the twins, and which they, more than anyone, were best placed to benefit from, Suzuki sat out the Superbike season at World level thanks to an evidently misguided sense of solidarity with the MSMA:s decision to boycott the series in response to the trashing of the restrictors and the controversial new onemake tire rule. But then Suzuki watched as Honda - of NEWS all the builders - broke ranks via its European satellite and came within a whisker of winning a World title, which had Suzuki's name written all over it, thanks to the Alstare team's hard work in developing the GSX-R I000 the year before. Maybe it was the inevitable sense of injustice at this that made the Banas all the more determined to be first out of the blocks at the dawn of the 2005 season in Qatar at the end of February, with a Superbike based on the redesigned new street GSX-R I000 K5 launched at Intermot the previous September, developed and raced in close collaboration with the japanese manufacturer's race department. Corser and Alstare Corona teammate Yukio Kagayarna certainly wasted no time, totally dominating the opening Arabian round and going on to win the first seven races of the season. This led to fears that the 200S World Superbike season would be a one-horse race. It didn't quite turn out like that - but it still took 17 races before By AlAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY KEL EDGE Corser finished off of the rostrum, and his eight victories were more than anyone else could manage all season long, with Kagayarna's additional race win in Qatar helping Suzuki to win the coveted Manufacturers' title. Indeed, no other riders or manufacturers led the points table in either title chase all season long. Mission accomplished - even if there wasn't a single other Suzuki KS on the World Superbike starting grid the entire year. The chance to test Troy Corser's full-on factory Superbike at Magny-Cours three weeks before the final round of the Championship held on the tortuous, French FI-inspired circuit underlined another reason for the Corona Suzuki team's success this year: Not only was the team completely ready for the earliest-ever start of the new season, Francis Bana's decision to invest in an intensive 2005 AIstare Corona test program, both before the season began and at key circuits dUring the year, played a vital role in the team's title success. "Troy had not raced a four-cylinder for

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