Last Friday at the BMW Group Classic in Munich, Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport officially launched its second season in the FIM Superbike World Championship with Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus who are ready to begin the 2010 season that takes of at Phillip Island February 28th.

In the presence of Infront Motor Sports CEO Paolo Flammini, Superbike World Championship Director Paolo Ciabatti and other guests, Corser and Xaus arrived on stage, riding their BMW S 1000 RR bikes.

Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport Berthold Hauser has ambitious goals: “Our goal is to close the gap to the leading teams. We are aiming to finish in the top five as regularly as possible and pick up our first podium. That’s the ambitious aim we have set ourselves for our second year in what is an extremely challenging World Championship. However, we are well aware that our competitors have not been standing still either. The Superbike World Championship brings us up against six motorcycle manufacturers who have established themselves on the race track. You can set yourself aims in sport and make plans to achieve them, but you cannot dictate results – those have to be earned out on the track. Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport is working flat out to make this possible.”

Davide Tardozzi, former Ducati team manager will head up team management and operational control at the race tracks. Rainer Bäumel will continue as Head of Overall Project Management and Project Management Engineering, and Tardozzi has been given carte blanche by the German company.

Continue reading: BMW 2010 Team Launch

The rumors were circulating for several weeks, but Italian website Motosprint has now former Ducati Xerox manager Davide Tardozzi almost signed up with WSBK’s official BMW team.

Tardozzi left Ducati after almost twenty years of service and eight Riders’ Championships, first as a team manager then as Ducati’s SBK project manager, stated that he left the team because he was seeking new personal challenges and will find it in the highly ambitious German Superbike team in it’s second year of world racing,

No official press release yet, but Tardozzi is apparently hard at at work and many are convinced that he’s behind Ducati’s tech and track engineer Max Bertolini,who worked with rider Michel Fabrizio for the past two years, defection to BMW.

Tardozzi will find in BMW two riders he already knows and managed when he was in Ducati, Troy Corser who won the 1996 title with Ducati and Ruben Xaus.

We’ll see Tardozzi in the BMW garage during the official tests at Portimao, January 22th-24th.

Continue reading: WSBK – Davide Tardozzi becomes BMW’s Team Manager

Not that we’re jealous or anything, but the guys at Motoblog.it got to see: Ben Spies‘ Superbike live, Max Biaggi’s Aprilia live, Troy Corser’s BMW live and new Superstock champion Xavier Simeon’s bike as well. The Akrapovic stand also has the (very hot) limited edition Akrapovic KTM RC8R 1190 on display.

Stand Akrapovic Eicma 2009

Continue reading: Akrapovic live at EICMA: Ben Spies, Max Biaggi and KTM limited edition on display

Ben Spies will be taking back his original number 11 that he used while racing in the AMA series, when he moves to the MotoGP World Championship next year to ride in Yamaha Tech 3.

The American will have to give up his #19 that has brought him luck in WSBK, as Spanish rider Alvaro Baustista, Suzuki’s new rookie, will be keeping the same number that he now uses in the 250cc series.

Spies chose to run #19 in his rookie year in the World Superbike series when he couldn’t take his own because BMW rider Troy Corser was using number 11. Picking number 19 was also Spies special way to pay homage to his late friend Ryan Smith.

Source | mcn

Continue reading: Ben Spies to Race in MotoGP with Number 11

Troy Croser has been hit by so many birds while racing we can’t even begin to count them. Noriyuki Haga was hit by a pigeon in race 2 in Monza that eventually caused him to crash. We’ve seen cobras slithering across the the Shah Alam and Sepang circuits, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a turkey attacking motorcyclists.

Freddy, as the turkey was known was a favourite sight in Easton, but the fowl picked up the bad habit of trying to attack bikers and his penchant for doing it increased in these last months, so the authorities had to put him down.

Source | patriotledger

Continue reading: Bikers attacked ... by a Turkey

BMW Motorrad Superbike rider Troy Corser and F1 driver Nick Heidfeld exchanged rides for a day event for fans and partners of the BMW Sauber F1 team at the Nürburgring circuit.

Heidfeld got a chance to ride the S1000RR that Corser races in the WSB series, while Corser tried his hand with the 700bhp F1 car.

Troy Corser:

“It was just awesome! The car feels so balanced and the brakes are fantastic, the tyres have unbelievable grip and the steering is very direct but still has a lot of feeling. I can’t believe how hard and late you can brake. I know I was braking too early and I really would like to have a day or two with the car to really see what I can do with it. I’d like to thank everybody involved in giving me this opportunity – and I hope I can do it again.”

Continue reading: Troy Corser and F1 Driver Nick Heidfeld exchange rides

The 2009 edition of BMW Motorrad Days at Garmisch-Partenkirchen was a success with more than 30,000 visitors from 30 countries attending the event. Official BMW SBK riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus made an appearance, and in the Stunt area presented the BMW S1000RR road bike.

Talking of actual stunts, champion Chris Pfeiffer left more than one spectator speechless in a show with his F800R, and a mountain bike acrobatics show featured Igor Obu and Andreas Schuster (who ever said you could do THAT with a bicycle?).

Motard and Enduro shows also took place, along with track trials of the current BMW Motorrad range, which took in the picturesque town. For BMW car fans, the X3, X5 and X6 were present with some opportunity to try out extreme driving with this range of luxury SUVs.

BMW Motorrad Days 2009

Continue reading: BMW Motorrad Days 2009 pics

Troy Corser will be another rider that will miss the Kyalami round of the World Superbike Championship.

During Race 1 at Monza, Corser was one of the several riders involved in the horrific pile-up. Hit by another rider, the Aussie crashed and while down another crashed bike struck the back of his neck and smashed his helmet. He struggled to his feet and staggered off the track and collapsed, winded and out of breath. The marshals put him on a stretcher and took him to the ambulance, but after recovering his breath he got to his feet and walked back to the pits. He was battered and bruised, but decided to take part in the restart.

On the first lap of the restart, he crashed at the Parabolica, but fortunately came out with no serious injury except a sore arm and a little daziness, but decided not to start Race 2.

BMW have advised him to avoid competing in South Africa due to the short gap between races and have called up test rider Steve Martin to take his place alongside Ruben Xaus.

Continue reading: Steve Martin to replace Troy Corser

News from testing on Australia’s Philip Island circuit includes the unusual event of a collision with a plover bird. Troy Corser had a run in with the bird on his BMW 1000 RR last weekend, though apparently Corser is still happy with his time on the bike.

For your information, Australia’s plover birds are quite large and extremely agressive around nesting time (they are ground nesters), though this is the first time I’ve heard of one actually colliding with a rider going at speeds of 230 km/hr.

The collision has left Troy with a bruised left arm so here’s hoping that Australia’s wildlife doesn’t interfere with the rest of testing or races this year.

Source | MC News

Continue reading: Troy Corser's collision with bird

Finally arrived is the road version of the S 1000 RR, BMW’s superbike effort that will be presented at the World Superbike Championships at Phillip Island in March. After recent tests in Portimao and Valencia, riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus are positive about the future for the BMW Motorrad Motorsport Team.

The racing bike version will be similar to the series bike, in line with the sports spirit. Production of the road version has already commenced with a completely new package, compact and light, and a four cylinder, in line 999cc engine. The dry weight comes in at 183 kg, and combined with the performance, this makes for an attractive new package from BMW.

The whole bike, from valves to twin cam, has been designed to be light and compact with dimensions at the level of a Formula 1. This should enable the complete torque and performance of the bike to be fully exploited.

Continue reading: Supersport BMW S 1000 RR road version

Two times World Superbike Champion Troy Corser got his chance to try out the Stobart Ford and M-Sport teams World Championship Rally car, the Ford Focus RS WRC.

The Australian rider who has signed for the BMW World Superbike team for the 2009 season alongside Ruben Xaus, completed approximately 28 kilometres alongside the Stobart driver Matthew Wilson.

Driving a car on a surface that is a world away from riding his bike in a controlled environment, Corser was surprised by the levels of grip being offered on the slippery and muddy surface, the car’s brakes, handling and launch control and particularly on how late you could brake for corners. while Wilson too was impressed with how quickly he was able to get up to speed.

Continue reading: Troy Corser tries Rally Car

Even when this bike moves in slow motion it looks like it’s going fast. BMW Motorrad has released on its Web TV channel the video of the BMW S1000RR Superbike that Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus will ride in 2009’s World Superbike Championship.

It’s quite an exciting video though I have to say if I had a ride (as passenger that is!) I would likely either be sick or fall off for the adrenalin of the thing. Below we give you a few more shots of this lovely masterpiece whose performance we will see next year.

Continue reading: Video BMW S1000RR Superbike