Corser to start on equal terms at Monza

Troy Corser may just have found the circuit breaker to ignite his 2009 world superbike campaign at Monza this weekend.

The historic 5.793km circuit near Milan is one of the few circuits on this year's calendar where Corser's BMW team has already tested, which will give the Australian some meaningful engine and suspension data to utilise from the get-go when practice begins on Friday morning.

"The great thing is that we will not be trying to play catch-up as much as we have to do normally," said Corser. "Monza has some fast straights and is a track where slipstreaming can play an important part. It's possible to be in fourth place exiting the Ascari chicane on the last lap and still win if you can take advantage of the draft."

However, before Corser can even contemplate some epic slipstreaming battles against championship leader Noriyuki Haga and American star Ben Spies, he knows that he has to find a remedy for his qualifying woes.

Corser's best qualifying position so far in 2009 has been 14th, which has been perplexing for someone with the most pole positions in world superbike history.

"Superpole has not worked out well for us so far and, considering that, I think we've done well to get the top 10s we have," said Corser, who won at Monza in 2005. "I hope that we can qualify better at Monza and get even better results."

Corser will be joined by the full roster of Australians at Monza, with Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) returning from a shoulder injury to line up alongside Karl Muggeridge (Suzuki) and Brendan Roberts (Ducati).

"I had a displacement operation to remove the gap between the collarbone and the shoulder and I'm recovering well," said Parkes. "I'm still pretty sore all over, but I was lucky to not break anything and to have this time in between races to recover."

Parkes crashed at high-speed in a private UK test session and, as well as the shoulder injury, he broke his nose and received bad bruising and swelling to his knee, elbow and ankle.

Haga is the runaway championship leader after four rounds, and already holds a 60pt lead over American Ben Spies (Yamaha).

Haga is also the form rider around Monza, winning three of the last four races on a Yamaha. But he's now in the Ducati factory team, which is a scary proposition for his opponents.

That's because since 1999, Ducati factory riders Carl Fogarty, Neil Hodgson, Régis Laconi and Troy Bayliss have all come away with maximum points at Monza.

If Haga wins race one on Sunday, history suggests that he's a fair chance to complete the double, as 11 of the 17 rounds at the circuit have resulted in clean sweeps.

However, Spies, who was fastest in a recent test session at Monza, wil be desperate to scramble back some points on Haga after crashing out in race two at Assen, while Italians Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia) will be out to put on a show for their local supporters.

Leon Haslam (Honda), Max Neukirchner (Suzuki), Laconi (Ducati) and Jonathan Rea (Honda) will also be pushing hard in round five.

Monza circuit is steeped in motorsport legend and, with its long straights punctuated by such iconic corners as the Parabolica and the Ascari chicane, is renowned for spectacular slipstreaming battles at speeds of more than 300kmh.

Haga's current lap record comes at an average speed of 196km/h -- 23kmh more than Phillip Island.

In world supersport, Australia is still looking for its first win of the year, but it will surely come soon as Andrew Pitt, Anthony West, Mark Aitchison and Garry McCoy continue to push hard.

Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) leads after podiums in three of the first four rounds, for one win, with fellow rookie Eugene Laverty (Honda) second, just ahead of Turkey's Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda).

Laverty is the only multiple winner so far in 2009.

Live coverage from Monza begins at 7.30pm this Sunday, May 10 on Fox Sports 1. SBS will also screen a one-hour highlights package at 12.30pm on Sunday, May 17.

Superbike standings (after round 4 of 14):
1 Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Ducati 180
2 Ben Spies, America, Yamaha 120
3 Leon Haslam, Honda, Great Britain 94
4 Michel Fabrizio, Italy, Ducati 80
5 Max Neukirchner, Germany, Suzuki 75
6 Tom Sykes, Great Britain, Yamaha 70
7 Max Biaggi, Italy, Aprilia 65
8 Regis Laconi, France, Ducati 64
9 Jonathan Rea, Great Britain, Honda 53
10 Jakub Smrz, Czech Republic, Ducati 44
15 Troy Corser, Australia, BMW 35
19 Broc Parkes, Australia, Kawasaki 8
21 Karl Muggeridge, Australia, Suzuki 4
22 Brendan Roberts, Australia, Ducati 3

Current supersport standings (after round 4 of 13)
1 Cal Crutchlow, Great Britain, Yamaha 74pts
2 Eugene Laverty, Ireland, Honda 68
3 Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey, Honda 65
4 Anthony West, Australia, Honda 52
5 Andrew Pitt, Australia, Honda 43
6 Mark Aitchison, Australia, Honda 34
7 Fabien Foret, France, Yamaha 28
8 Joan Lascorz, Spain, Kawasaki 27
9= Matthieu Lagrive, France, Yamaha 25
9= Barry Veneman, Netherlands, Suzuki 25
15 Garry McCoy, Australia, Triumph 12

For full results and standings, click here.