Corser’s deal with Foggy delayed by fineprint

The chances of Troy Corser confirming his deal to ride in the all-new Foggy Petronas WSB squad before Christmas are fading.

But he is still expected to sign up within the next 10 days. The only hold-up appears to be minor legal technicalities of the kind which usually crop up during the signing of contracts.

Speaking from his Australian home, Corser said: ” There is no change to talk about at the moment, but once things have moved on a bit I should have some news. ”

Australian Corser has been Foggy’s top target to join James Haydon, who he announced as one of his riders on Tuesday this week.

And Corser himself has confirmed he is deep in negotiation with the Foggy squad.

On Wednesday lunchtime Foggy joined fans for a live web chat on this site. When asked if his second team member would be an Aussie, he laughed, before saying he couldn’t say anything before the deal was done and dusted and that he expected to make a further announcement within 48 hours.

Foggy wants Corser, not only because he is a big name in bike racing, but with world and American superbike titles behind him and a reputation as one of the sharpest set-up men in the business he makes a natural choice.

Corser was hoping to be kept on at the factory Aprilia team in WSB after two years with the squad but Japanese rider Noriyuki Haga has now been confirmed as the lone rider there.

Corser said: ” I have spoken to Carl a lot over the past few weeks and I came to England two weeks ago to see the Petronas bike at the Harris workshops – I was very impressed with what I saw.

” It seems the set-up of the team is really good and they are not behind anyone in the development of the bike because the aims of going to MotoGP are still there and they are not really far behind anyone like Aprilia or Suzuki who are developing new GP bikes.

” The deal with Petronas is not finalised. I’m at the stage of sorting out the small legal issues that are always a part of contract negotiations – I don’t see anything major in this but it all has to be done. The most encouraging part of the whole deal is that Petronas are not getting involved to see if this is going to work – they are here to see that it does.

” I really want to be involved in the development of the bike – something I never really was with Aprilia because Allessandro Antonello did all of that sort of thing. I only had an input in developing the chassis. ”

Corser spoke to MCN from his Australian home – just days after a car crash in Italy that he was lucky to escape from unharmed.

Corser said: ” I was in Italy for a Lamborghini dinner and was driving there when it started to snow. Another car came around the turn in front me on the wrong side of the road and I swerved to avoid him. I slid off the road and into a ditch and ended up on my roof.

” I wasn’t hurt but the car was in a bit of a mess. ”