Troy Corser is a new name in the Yamaha Motor Italia squad this year but the veteran Australian is certainly no stranger to world superbikes, having contested 250 races and won the title twice prior to the 2007 season.

 

The schoolboy motocrosser actually made his Superbike World Championship debut on a Yamaha in 1992, riding his national championship FZR750R to points scoring rounds in the Australian and New Zealand rounds.

 

Troy won the Australian superbike title in 1993 before winning the American AMA series the following year, the first time a non-American had won the championship. His 1994 campaign also included several wild-card outings in the world series, scoring five podium finishes to take 11^th overall in the championship.

 

In 1995 Corser ended his first full world championship season as runner-up to team-mate Carl Fogarty, before going on to win his first world title the following year. 

 

Having won the Superbike World Championship Troy set his sights on the 500cc Grand Prix class. Corser had competitive machinery at his disposal in the form of Yamaha’s mighty YZR500s but the dream turned sour when his Austrian-run squad ran out of money mid-season. After seven races Troy’s Grand Prix was over and for the 1998 season he was back in world superbikes, where he has remained ever since.

 

Between 1998 and 2001 Troy was a model of consistency, winning 12 races over the four years and finishing third in the championship on three occasions and fourth once.  

 

Corser linked up with old rival Fogarty, whose team was due to run a newly-designed three-cylinder machine for the 2002 season. Delays in development meant Troy was forced to spend a year without racing, but when the bike finally made it to the racetrack Corser stunned the paddock by putting the underpowered machine on the front row for its very first race.

 

With a solitary pole position and a second place at Misano in 2004, Troy’s two years racing the Petronas may not look to have achieved much on paper. However, those in the know could see that the Aussie still had the hunger to outride the bike and when he finally got on a competitive four-cylinder machine he was unstoppable.

 

Corser cruised to the title in 2005, winning eight races along the way. His defence in 2006 was surprisingly off-colour, marred by bad luck and uncharacteristic mistakes, but despite some problems he still ended the year fourth.

 

So now Troy comes back to where it started – back with Yamaha. Success for Corser this season could see him break many more superbike records and at 35-years-old Troy still has a huge enthusiasm to match his experience. With his talent to get the maximum from the bike and the ability to pull out a sensational superpole lap, it would take a brave man to bet against him being there or thereabouts on the new-for-2007 YZF-R1.