From press releases issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Troy Corser put his local knowledge to work on the first day of the Foggy PETRONAS Racing test at Phillip Island.

The Australian former world champ was setting lap times that were quicker than his best qualifying times of his previous visit, in 2001, within just six laps of action at the coastal circuit near Melbourne.

And James Haydon quickly got to grips with the circuit to end the day on a positive note on his Foggy FP1 bike.

Under a cloudy morning sky, which sent temperatures plummeting from the sweltering heat of the previous day, Corser was clearly pleased with the new package at his disposal.

He was also able to brush off a customary skirmish with a seagull, which didn’t fare quite as well as the rider!

Troy said: “We have got new engines out here and they have a lot more power and better grip. I surprised myself at how quickly I got down to the times I did.

“The new slipper clutch is working well and we did some work on the mapping, which also helped. So, hopefully, there is a lot more to come as I wasn’t really pushing.

“It was also good to see that we didn’t have to make radical set-up changes from the last test at Valencia, which is a very different circuit, which proves the chassis is working well.”

James added: “There was no point in me pushing too hard to try and match Troy round here on the first day. It took a while to get into my rhythm but I ended up with 12 quick laps in a row which was good to end the day on a positive note.”

Test diary: A late night in the garage left two of the team members locked out of their rooms after leaving their keys behind a reception that wasn’t used to working Foggy PETRONAS Racing hours. But, in the face of spending the night sleeping on the beach, one resourceful team member (to remain nameless) managed to use a breakfast table knife to work the door lock.

January 15, 2003 – Carl Fogarty admitted that his Foggy PETRONAS Racing team had hit the targets the four times world champion had set for this Phillip Island test – and a day early.

And he also revealed that news from the second day at the Australian circuit left him wishing he had made the trip Down Under.

The team boss was reacting to times posted by his two riders, with James Haydon slicing more than two seconds off his best lap from yesterday as he continued to master the circuit, and Troy Corser making similar progress on home territory.

Carl said: “I’ve heard some pretty exciting stuff today, so I wish I was out there.

“The times that Troy was setting are as fast as the top boys and I know there’s a bit more to come. We are already achieving the targets I had in my mind before the team got there.

“We are still having one or two problems but we seem to know the solutions. So it’s ‘So far, so good’ – with one more day to come!”

Troy was delighted with the progress made today. “I was pushing the Foggy FP1 today, but not really ‘racing’. I’ve made progress with tyres and I am very happy with the set-up. We are not that far away. I just hope that this progress continues for when we test in Malaysia in front of PETRONAS.”

And James was again pleased with further significant progression up the learning curve. “I’m pretty confident I could have got into the 35s if I had been able to do more laps. And I’ve still to do laps on the better tyres.”


Test diary: The Corser family, including Dad Steve and brother, Dale, descended en masse from New South Wales today, but none made their presence felt more than Grandpa, more commonly known as Pops. The man has a back-slapping greeting that can dislodge your front teeth. This is, after all, a guy who wears a T-shirt to races saying: ‘Grandpa Corser – The Gene Machine: Injections Free!’