BMW S1000RR

New four-cylinder Superbike makes U.S. debut at Miller Motorsports Park.

By Matthew Miles | Photos by DMT Imaging

June 2009

BMW's determination to create an electronics package from scratch for its new and complex four-cylinder S1000RR has slowed on-track rookie-season progress for the German manufacturer.

Factory riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus struggled to find traction this past May at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, seventh stop of the 2009 HANNspree Superbike World Championship. Corser, who finished second in the title chase last season riding a YZF-R1 for the Yamaha Italia squad for whom MMP double-winner Ben Spies is now contracted, was 15th in race one and 17th in race two. Xaus was 21st and 16th, respectively. Neither rider qualified for Superpole, a first this season for Corser.

Power was not the problem. Corser's top speed at the end of Miller's 3500-foot-long front straight during Sunday's morning warm-up was 187.9 mph, identical to the speed posted in the same session by Spies. Managing that power, particularly at the exits of Miller's many and varied corners, on a surface that Corser said was down on grip from last year, proved tricky.

"Our biggest job at the moment is developing the electronics," said Corser. "It's all in-house; there is no outside assistance. We could have put on a Marelli system and eradicated all those variables, but BMW wanted to do its own system."

Team manager Berti Hauser was frustrated, as well. "The track, the tires, the bike—we have not seen this combination before," he lamented. Crew members spent hours dissecting data. Ninety minutes after race two ended on Sunday afternoon, Corser was still in his leathers. Each track is a blank sheet of paper for the Alpha Racing-led effort, but Miller was a head-scratcher.

Xaus complained that the range of compounds offered by spec-tire-maker Pirelli is narrower this year than last. "Even the softest tire is too hard for us," he said. Superpole qualifying rubber further complicates setup.

Car racing has added a new element to MMP: bumps. "When we came here last year, it was unbelievable—dead smooth," Corser said. "I was looking forward to coming here, but this year has been a bit of a letdown. The facility is great, and the runoff is still there, but the grip definitely has gone down."

Beat up by two crashes in Italy, Corser sat out the previous round in South Africa. He was racing at Miller with a sore shoulder and a broken bone in his clutch hand. "My shoulder is probably giving me the most drama at the moment," he admitted. "I've only got about 90 degrees of movement. I'm sort of riding with one arm."

All is not doom and gloom. "I think the racing is going better than I anticipated," said Corser, currently 17th overall in points. "We're only a second slower than the best bikes in the world. We haven't had that much opportunity to test, so we've had to develop at the racetrack, and that's never easy."