Former world superbike champion Troy Corser gave his new BMW an inglorious introduction to Phillip Island when he crashed during testing on Saturday.

The main local hope for next weekend's season-opening Australian round, Corser hurt his hand in the mishap but was otherwise uninjured.

He was continuing trialling the new S1000RR which BMW will use as its inaugural entry in superbike racing.

Dusty conditions at the island track became windier as the day wore on and Corser completed 40 laps today, with the lowlight a crash at Honda corner.

"I am okay, I had a bit of a bang this afternoon, but I'm fine and really looking forward to next weekend," Corser said.

Corser was not the only rider to come off.

Ducati's new factory rider Nori Haga of Japan went down this morning and Spaniard Carlos Checa from the Ten Kate Honda team took a tumble later in the day.

Corser said his team was experimenting with set-ups on the bike and he was pleased with early progress.

"Yeah, we are not going too bad, trying lots of different settings, and the bike is responding to the changes really well," said Corser, who banged his hand in the crash as he lost the frame going into turn four.

"I'm not worried about lap times too much yet.

"I did a best of 1m33.8s today and that is not far off today's pace.

"Fabrizio (Michel Fabrizio) on the Ducati did the best lap - a 1m33.4s - but it is really very early for us here.

"We are just focusing on our set-up for next weekend, we are coming here with no data, so we have some work to do to get the bike right."

Also on the track this weekend are the Honda, Yamaha and Triumph world supersport teams with Australia's world champion Andrew Pitt and Sydney veteran Garry McCoy among the riders testing.

The Australian World Superbike round begins next Friday February 27 with first qualifying and testing.

Saturday's agenda features final qualifying and the new elimination Superpole format, and on Sunday the world superbike teams will contest two 22 lap races in the first hit out for 2009.

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