The big number

In terms of races actually started, 922 individual riders have now at least one World Superbike race listed in their careers. The daddy of them all, however, is still a current entrant in the series, Troy Corser. He has a total of 330 race starts, comfortably ahead of the next most visible rider, Pierfrancesco Chili.

Corser has started his record number of races on machines from no fewer than six different manufacturers, Yamaha, Ducati, Aprilia, Petronas, Suzuki, and currently BMW. He had his first WSB race start way back in 1992, on a Peter Jackson Yamaha, at Phillip Island.

‘Frankie’ has 276 starts to his credit, but next year Noriyuki Haga should overtake Chili. Nori is on 259, but with a Ducati Xerox contract in his pocket for 2010, he should have plenty of chances to overhaul Chili before the end of the next year.

Another retired rider, Aaron Slight, is fourth in the all-time race start totals and the only other rider with over 200 starts is the most successful champion of all time, Carl Fogarty on 219.

Some surprising names creep into the top 20 in terms of race starts, Gregorio Lavilla having 188, Marco Borciani 163, Chris Walker has 148 and Andreas Meklau is 20th in the totals, with 143.

Possibly more surprisingly, and impressively, three-time champion Troy Bayliss has ‘only’ 152 race starts, but 52 victories – the second highest career total.