Corser's corner: Chasing Bayliss.

Reigning Superbike World Champion Troy Corser talks about his on track antics at Monza and his all new custom motorbike.....

Hi guys, how's it going?

Monza was a good weekend, two podiums so I can't complain about scoring good solid points. During the first race we experienced a few problems with the front brakes, they were inconsistent. Sometimes they were a long way out and other times they came right into my hand. I nearly went off the track a few times when they came right in. I really had to be a bit cautious and brake a bit earlier to allow for if the brake wasn't there for me, so to finish third I was reasonably happy considering I was struggling on the brakes and Monza is all about braking. The guys found the problem and between the races they fixed it and it was perfect for the second race, everything else was perfect on the bike. I'm a bit disappointed that we had the problem with the brake set up at first as I feel I could have run with Troy (Bayliss) in the first one, but with the problem I had it wasn't possible, we'd have risked a crash.

The big crash on the first corner made the track treacherous for the following lap and I nearly crashed. When you are the first rider and you arrive somewhere where they've got the oil flag out you are really unsure if it is just a bit of dirt or if it is oil or what there is. So I braked and went in a little bit cautious, just before I hit it I had actually seen that there was dirt, grass and rocks right across the track. Fortunately I had just enough time to let go of the front brake, if I'd held onto the front brake for sure I would have crashed. I was very close to crashing, I think Troy almost crashed behind me as well and then after that I was a little bit cautious in there the next lap. Like I said it wasn't going to happen because of the front brake, but they cleaned it up for the second race and it was fine.

I was battling with Haga which was a bit frustrating because I couldn't go any faster because of the brakes. I could catch Nori but I couldn't pull away from him because I had to brake early and then he'd come past me on the brakes and that let Troy get away. But at that stage I was just fighting to stay on the podium especially when Barros came up, I thought "There is no way I don't want to be on the podium after racing so hard." So I pushed really hard for the last lap and did a good lap time enough to get past Nori, not quite enough to catch Barros. I almost did, but I made a small mistake coming out of Ascari I didn't get enough tow down the straights, other wise I'd feel confident that we could have finished second in the first race, but if we had no problem it would have been much the same as the second race.

During race two Troy and I swapped places and had a look back, some people thought we were having a bit of a high speed 'chat.' What happened was I felt we were pulling away from whoever was behind and we just sort of did two or three laps feeling out what we were going to do for the end of the race. It was something we had discussed on Saturday after Superpole. It was like well pretty obvious we were going to be in the front on the last couple of laps, so when he looked back and moved over I went past and looked back to see who was behind him. He caught me out just a little bit I wasn't too sure what was going on, we dropped our lap times just a little bit. What I didn't want to happen was to slow down and let the others catch us up and Troy felt the same. It was just seeing how fast I was pushing and I was seeing how fast he was pushing. When he got back in front he just caught me a little off guard, he came past and just put his head down and went about three laps earlier than what I had expected.

He put his head down with five laps to go and just made that initial one second gap in one lap. Then I pushed hard on the next lap and I made a small mistake that cost my big bit of time and it was too late then and there was nothing I could do. So a bit of cat and mouse I guess and I got caught out a little bit but that is racing you know. Monza is always a tough race, so much grafting is involved you can make up a lot of time on the straights. Unfortunately the Ducati is a little bit stronger out of the first hair pin and also out of the Parabolica onto the straights. It pulled half a second or so and I'd make up a quarter of a second and then he'd pull half and second and I'd make up a quarter, it was just going back and forth. The Suzuki was strong, it was fast, and the Ducati was very fast and strong, stronger than what we thought it would be here. Obviously they have got a full package and that is why they won.

At the moment I'm just taking each race weekend as it comes. After Valencia I was looking forward to coming to Monza, the bike went well there last year, and now this weekend we scored good points again. We can't be too unhappy with a second and a third for the championship, there are still all lot of races to go and it is important to score points and to be on the podium if possible in every race. We've had our bad luck, Troy hasn't had any bad luck at all in fact he has had a fair share of good luck. He has nearly crashed a few times and he has managed to stay on so, I'm not wishing that he crashes but he may end up running off the track somewhere of running wide and we'll get some points back on him.

The racing is so close between me and Troy that there isn't much in it, if you lose just a couple of tenths in a lap then that can be enough to lose the race. When you are racing someone who can go to the same lap times it's very hard to make time up, if you are racing someone who is a little bit slower then you can make time but both me and Troy are riding ten tenths. It was no different at Valencia to what we did here in the second race and like I said I'm happy, if I can race like that and do my best and if we finish second we finish second. It is getting a bit frustrating finishing behind him, like I said we have a lot of races to go, a lot of tracks where I feel we can be strong again so we will see.

I've had a custom bike built by one of the mechanics on the 750 Cup, Carlo Colombo; he has built bikes in the past for some friends and some customers. We started to speak last year and I enjoy Harley Davidsons, I have one in Australia, and he said if I would like he would build me a special custom bike with some fine details so you can tell that it is my bike. The theme is my crocodile logo that I run on my helmet, so the bike is green with some crocodile details. It is just fantastic, it is more of a show bike, but it is special to me to have something like this. I've always wanted a really nice bike just to have in the house on display and take if for a ride every once in a while. He has done a fantastic job and I'm really happy.

See you all in the UK.

Troy