World Superbike: Best weekend yet for Corser and BMW

World Superbike Press Release

A fifth and a tenth place for Troy Corser were in some ways dream results for the BWM Motorrad Motorsport team at Brno, but what may have been even more encouraging was the obvious progress made with the bike in a short space of time recently. The good results from the first weekend of racing in Australia may have masked quite how tough WSB is in this or any year, but many aspects of BMW's overall development have now converged in a highly positive manner, and had an instant reward in the Czech Republic.

Said Corser after race two, "It's been a good weekend for us, even though Ruben got injured. That was a shame because he qualified next to me on the grid and I'm sure he would've also got some good results. What was good about this weekend is that we have been on the pace consistently in every practice, qualifying and we also got into final Superpole for the first time. That shows that we are making good progress and it is due to the hard work put in by the whole team and some really good tests in Italy recently. We know which direction to take and now we need to work on how to manage the tyres on this bike."

The way Corser led in the early laps was partly a function of qualifying well, but it was also an indication of the high outright performance level of the BMWS1000RR. The trick now is to make that level consistent over a full race distance, and at circuits which are not as obviously favourable to the BMW as Brno.

Troy's team manager, Rainer Bäumel paid tribute to all the efforts of his crew and riders, and confirmed that Brno should be a turning point for the project. "The test in Mugello helped and then we went directly to Imola for testing, with all the new things on the bike, we brought all new things together and set it up and made a really good step," said Rainer. "On the other hand this Brno track is very good for our bike."

Bäumel also confirmed that there would be another test for the bike before the next round in Germany. "We will test in August, but with Steve Martin in Lausitzring. To test out some new mapping settings for the engine and these things; just a small test to improve and make some small steps."