It was a busy day forformer double WorldSBK Champion Troy Corser at today’s unofficial practice ahead of the 25th running of the Phillip Island Classic, which gets underway tomorrow.

The morning kicked off with a few issues with the gearbox selection on one bike, then an oil leak sprang from the other T-Rex Honda Harris F1 machine. “I told Rex [Wolfenden] and the rest of the boys, don’t stress, just take your time and let’s find a few things out in regards to how to fix the problems,” Corser told bikesportnews.com at the conclusion of the day.

The 46-year-old explained that he didn’t want to change the bike setup, as all he wanted to do was to get the gearbox fixed. What he and his crew tried, fixed  the teething issues. Surprisingly enough, Corser didn’t adjust a single thing on the bike, at all throughout the four 15-minute sessions.
“I just left the bike exactly how it was when it rolled out of the van yesterday as I simply wanted to learn how to ride it as I don’t know how it’s suppose to feel,” Corser explained.
 
“Lap by lap, corner by corner we are learning more about the bike. We are braking a bit more, using the engine brake a bit more, so we are getting there. Considering I have only done about twenty laps in total today, I actually feel quite comfortable on the bike. It’s not doing anything out of control and it’s pretty stable as well,” added Corser, who racked up a total of 377 starts in his World Superbike career.

Corser thought the bike was going to be a little bit more unstable, just because of the twin shocks and the frame. In the last session this afternoon he put in a new tyre, as for the previous three sessions Corser was running around on old tyres, just to run around on. With new tyres in the bike, Corser expressed that the bike felt great.
 
“We tested the Pirelli SC0 and in the hot sun it seems to be the one. As they are only short races you may as well have the grip. The SC0 also seemed to balance the bike out fairly well.”

As this was the first time Corser had thrown his leg over the Honda Harris F1, he felt it has a very heavy throttle but obviously getting off the BMW S1000RR which has fly by wire, Corser is used to a featherlight touch. The clutch is also quite heavy as well, being a mechanical clutch. But it is what it is and Corser just got on with the job at hand.

“Overall, I’m happy about how the day has gone. We’ll just keep working away and see how the rest of the weekend goes now. The bikes which I have come up to or passed, I have managed to pass quite comfortably. Even with Colin [Edwards], who I followed for two thirds of a lap to try and see how his bike was turning and the T-Rex Honda Harris F1 seems to turn a bit better than his, although his is faster down the straight. Colin pulled a good 6-7 bike lengths down the straight. I believe it will even itself out.”

Corser also explained that he’s trying not to over rev the engine, as it’s quite easy to do, so he’s short shifting everywhere.  “Hats off to the boys as they have had the gearbox out, clutch off and trying all sorts of stuff. It’s just nice to be able to finish the day on a positive, compared this morning where our heads were down a bit as the bike wasn’t really running. Fingers crossed we can continue to carry this positive momentum into tomorrow.”

The first three sessions Corser said he didn’t really care as he was just running around. The last session he were going to do a time but only got to do three laps until the bike blew the header pipe off the exhaust, so he just shut the bike down and idled in and tried not to damage the engine.
“For myself I feel like I’m around the 40-41s, just myself running around, which I think in today wasn’t too bad for the first time on the bike."