super bike: April 2011

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) shaved a further tenth off the circuit's best lap on his Ducati 1098R to end up top in the pre-Superpole practice session with a time of 1 minute 28.696 seconds. The Spaniard was almost three-tenths ahead of Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) and his fellow Brit Tom Sykes, who posted his best weekend time on the Kawasaki ZX-10R.

Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike) was fourth quickest ahead of Jakub Smrz (Effenbert - Liberty Ducati) and Noriyuki Haga (Pata Aprilia).

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) took his second pole of the 2011 season by posting the fastest lap of the weekend in Superpole three, a 1'28.099. Local rider Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) will line up behind Checa at Leon's home track, with another British rider, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) third. The last spot on the front row will be taken by Czech star Jakub Smrz (Effenbert - Liberty Racing Ducati).
Carlos Checa: "What can I say? Everything is working so well here at Donington, we expected to go well and we did it. Our progress from yesterday to today was quite comfortable, basically today the tyres were working well with these conditions and this cold. With one lap to get going it was not easy to get confidence but I was able to get a good enough time to get the pole and that's important for tomorrow."

Leon Haslam: "Donington is my local circuit and me and Tom have had some great battles in the past in BSB, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. We got a front row start which we wanted. I've definitely made some good progress from Australia to this event so hopefully it'll be a dry day tomorrow and I can try and beat Carlos this time."

Tom Sykes: "I'm really happy now with this good starting slot for tomorrow's races. I think that's the hardest part of the weekend because qualifying is always important. We had a little problem in SP2 and had to waste a qualifying tyre but for SP3 we went out on a race tyre. The second row was guaranteed but to squeeze onto the front row was something unexpected."

Jakub Smrz: "Donington is one of my favourite races. I had a crash this morning at the very fast Craner Curves, where I have crashed before in the past but I was OK. I am satisfied with my front row position and I have a good set-up for the race, I would have liked to go a bit better in qualifying but the front row is good for me."

Noriyuki Haga (Pata Racing Team Aprilia) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) completed the top six, while an Aprilia trio was finished off by Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) with Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) the final rider on the second row, making it four British riders in the top eight places.

The hot track action warmed up the enthusiastic local crowd as the temperatures dipped from the highs of Friday, with the track temperatures dropping to single figures for Superpole.

Leading contender Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) just missed out on the final Superpole session and will start Sunday's races from ninth place and on row three. Haslam's team-mate Troy Corser lapped his way to tenth, ahead of lone Suzuki force Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare). The Kawasaki Racing Team entry put its second rider into the top 12 when Joan Lascorz completed row three.

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

A huge crash in the first Superpole session for Melandri's Yamaha team-mate Eugene Laverty kept him on row four, alongside Sylvain Guintoli (Effenbert - Liberty Racing Ducati), Maxime Berger (Supersonic Ducati) and Ruben Xaus (Castrol Honda).

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

New rider to WSBK racing Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike) took only three races to record his first WSBK win, finally overhauling long time leader Jakub Smrz (Effenbert Liberty Racing Ducati) to win by 2.455 seconds.
The last podium place went to Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati), after he passed local hero Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) with two corners to go.

Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) scored fifth place and Noriyuki Haga (Pata Racing Aprilia) was sixth, one place up on the factory bike of Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia).

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

The two riders who won races at Donington today, Carlos Checa and Marco Melandri, are the two who leave at the head of the championship chase, with Checa now on 91 points and Melandri on 72. In front of 51,500 spectators Superpole winner Checa (Althea Racing Ducati) used his experience to change his rear tyre choice for race two and improve from a third place to be a clear winner, while Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) made two great recoveries from a third row start to post a win and a second place.

Jakub Smrz (Effenbert Liberty Racing Ducati) nearly won the first race, with the local fans having something to cheer about as Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) went third in race two, to make up for a hard first round in Australia that was badly affected by illness.

2010 World Champion Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) had his drama-laden weekend turn into a mini-crisis as he finished only seventh in race one, and was excluded from race two after jump starting and failing to come in for a ride-through penalty. In the overall championship third place belongs to Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) on 53 points after two fourths today, while Biaggi has 49 points in fourth overall.

Race 1

New rider to WSBK racing Melandri took only three races to record his first win, finally overhauling long time leader Smrz to win by 2.455 seconds. The last podium place went to Checa after he passed local hero Haslam with two corners to go. Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) scored fifth and Noriyuki Haga (Pata Racing Aprilia) was sixth, one place up on the factory bike of Biaggi. A potentially great finish for Tom Sykes and his Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike machine ended in a crash at the redesigned Esses section, but the home crowd were to have a podium star to cheer for in race two.

Marco Melandri: "It has been an awesome race for me, very tough and at the start many guys were very aggressive. I kept my rhythm and when I got on my own I caught Camier and some others then it took some time to get to Haslam. After that it was only a few laps to go and Kuba was pretty far ahead. I just kept the best pace I could and in the end Smrz's pace was gone and I passed him. We missed a little bit of top speed but the package was very balanced, we won and I had a lot of fun."

Jakub Smrz: "Of course I am disappointed to not win the race but it was really nice and I am back on the podium, which is important. The feeling all the race was very good and the bike was perfect, in the end my rear tyre was gone and I could not push any more. Marco passed me and I did not want to risk anything in the end."

Carlos Checa: "I had some issues with the rear tyre grip at the beginning of the race, and I lost some positions, touched with other riders and it ended up as one of my most exciting races from the back to the front. Finally I arrived to Haslam after I had pushed to my maximum and I passed him when I had the opportunity. It was the last lap and I got third position."

Race 2

Checa controlled race two from the early laps and won by 3.397 seconds from race one victor Melandri. Camier was a contender for second for long periods, before Melandri upped the pace and left him behind. Another Leon, this time Haslam went fourth for the second time today, despite running off track at one point. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) was a great fifth on the new ZX-10R machine, despite not yet being at full fitness. With Rea sixth for Honda and race one retiree Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare) seventh in race two there were seven different manufacturers represented in the top seven places, proving how competitive the 2011 season is after only two rounds.

Carlos Checa: "It is a fantastic beginning to the season, especially this victory in Donington, which is something special. Basically we decided to put on a different tyre with better grip at the beginning, so now I was stable and had good grip. At the end the tyre dropped down a little but it was good enough. Everybody knows what happened here to me many years ago, when I lost something so now I'm quite satisfied to win at Donington!"

Marco Melandri: "It was a pretty good race for me. Leon was very fast, about 50% of the race I was coughing in my helmet and finding it hard to breathe so I lost my concentration. After that I recovered, I did my best and passed Leon again but Carlos was just too fast for me."

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Leon Camier: "I can't believe it's happened. I started the year with glandular fever, which got me down a bit after all the hard work over the winter and to come here and get a podium at my home race is absolutely awesome. In the first race we had a few problems with the settings, so we changed it for the second one and it seemed to work well. It was a good battle with Marco, he was very strong, but to get third place is great."

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Carlos Checa's spectacular start to the season continued on Sunday with his third win in four races at Donington Park for the Althea Racing Ducati team. A third place in race 1 also helped him to consolidate his leadership in the championship and the Spaniard now has a 19 point lead over Marco Melandri, 92 points to 71, with two rounds down.
Checa was eleventh on the first lap of race 1 after a bad start but then worked his way through the field to take third after overhauling Leon Haslam at the Melbourne hairpin in spectacular style on the final lap.

"In Race 1 I was struggling at the start, I didn't have feeling with the rear tyre and as a result I lost a lot of positions. But I have to say it was one of the most exciting races of my career, so many riders touching, crashing, everything! After the first laps I was able to build up a good rhythm and start moving up through the pack one rider at a time. It wasn't easy but I pushed hard and then two laps from the end I realised that I could maybe get past Haslam too for third. I'm really happy because I didn't think I'd get from 11th on lap one to the podium. We made the decision to use the hard tyre solution for the race and even thought we paid for this at the start it turned out to be the right decision in the end."

Checa and the team then opted for a softer solution after the break and this proved to be was the winning move as he dominated to take the eighth win of his career in Superbike. For Carlos this victory at Donington was something extra special as he had a horrific accident at the Craner Curves in the 1998 British GP in which he suffered a ruptured spleen that left him temporarily blind.

"We opted for the softer tyre in race two," he said. "We knew it would be very high performing although a bit less so towards the end of the race. It remained pretty consistent but towards the end I had to change my riding a little to manage the situation. My strategy was to get to the front, built up a bit of a lead and then manage that lead and today everything worked perfectly. It was great to win at Phillip Island but today meant even more to me. A lot of people may remember what happened to me here many years ago; that day I lost something here but today I can say that I found it again."

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Carlos Checa returns to the track this weekend at Assen in the uncomfortable role of being the man to beat. The Althea Ducati rider is currently leading the table with 91 points following a rocket-like start to the season: three wins and a third place. If we also take into consideration the final two rounds of last season (Imola and Magny-Cours) Checa has actually won five of the last eight races. The points leader talks about his sensational start to the season in this brief interview.

Carlos, did you really expect such a good start to this year?

"To be sincere I have way exceeded my own expectations. In Australia I was sure I could fight for the win but at I knew it was going to be tough at Donington. Instead I came home with a third place and a win, results that surprised me more than the double win at Phillip Island."

Phillip Island and Donington are two tracks that are particularly favourable for Ducati. What about the others?

"We were lucky to start the season on tracks that are more suitable to our bike. But even Assen might be a ‘friendly' circuit. That will be followed by some circuits where we know it's going to be difficult, such as Monza, Brno and Silverstone. But I'm not too worried, when we get there we'll know how to get the best results. I'm not ticking off any boxes."

Your rivals Melandri and Biaggi in Britain also hit the headlines off the track. What's your view?

"We're not racing for charity, the level of competition is high and tensions can explode. Sometimes things happen out there that can overflow off the track. It's a consequence of our rivalry and the desire to be in the lead and win. We've spoken a lot about Marco and Max but even in the MotoGP race at Jerez a few days later there was tension between Rossi and Stoner..."

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) secured his third pole in three race meetings with a fabulous 1 minute 35.292 second lap in the final Superpole session, leading home Jakub Smrz (Effenbert - Liberty Racing Ducati) and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team). The final place on the front row for Sunday's races was taken by Noriyuki Haga (Pata Racing Team Aprilia).
Last year's double winner Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) went fifth fastest, and world champion Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) was sixth. Top Kawasaki rider was Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) but Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) lost his chance of pole by crashing in the final minutes and he now starts the races from the back of row two.

Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) and Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) just missed out on the final period of Superpole qualifying but made it into the top ten.

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda) overcame the early battles at Assen to record his and Honda's first win of the 2011 season, beating Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) by 0.7 seconds and championship leader Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) by 3.5 seconds in race one.
Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike) overcame a slow start to claw his way back to fourth, just ahead of Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare). With Troy Corser (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) behind Fabrizio there were six different machines inside the top six places. Top Kawasaki runner was Mark Aitchison (Pedercini Team Kawasaki) in tenth. Leon Haslam, Corser's team-mate, survived a fast early crash to recover to a top-12 finish.

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Points leader takes win after day of drama

A delayed start to the second Assen race made no difference to the outcome, as Checa and Biaggi played a high-speed game of cat-and-mouse. Biaggi looking to have it wrapped up as he passed long time leader Checa, only for the Spanish rider to reassert himself on the final lap and win his fourth race of the year.
A battle between Rea and Melandri ended when the Italian star fell, leaving Rea on the podium in third. Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia) was fourth, while a multiple rider fight for fifth went to Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport), from Laverty, Fabrizio, Haga, Smrz and Guintoli.

In the points standings Checa now leads by 132 to Biaggi's 89. Melandri is third on 85, Rea jumping to fourth with his new total of 79 points.

more new info

Checa takes new best lap in FP2

Checa wins Superpole at impressive pace

Melandri wins his first in WSBK

Melandri and Checa share the spoils at Donington

Checa wipes out painful Donington memories with win

Checa scores pole at Assen

Checa becomes top target at Assen

Rea takes his first 2011 season win

Spain's Checa on a victory roll

A fourth win of the season in six races, the ninth in his SBK career, but for Carlos Checa Sunday's win in race 2 at the Assen TT Circuit was one of his best. Following a third in race 1, the Althea Racing man again stepped onto the top of the podium in the second run, beating Max Biaggi with a superb pass two laps from the chequered flag.

For race 2 the Spanish rider chose a softer tyre solution and the superior race-long grip level enabled him to take another win and strengthen his championship lead in the run-up to Monza, which is notoriously a difficult track for the Ducati 1198 machine. Checa now has a 43 point advantage over Biaggi and 47 over Marco Melandri.

"The beginning of race 1 was difficult," explained Checa. "I didn't have enough grip and so some of my rivals were able to get past me. Then I really had to push to make up lost ground. I tried to stay calm and maintain my rhythm and was able to get in front of the second group, but to reach Max and Johnny was just too difficult. They already had an advantage because I had lost time getting past Laverty. I happily accept the result however, a positive end that gives us important championship points."

"Then for Race 2 we decided to change tyre and so, with the softer solution, I had more grip and could maintain a strong pace right from the start. I wanted to push at the beginning and try to build a gap between me and Max but he stayed with me, putting me under pressure. When I made a small mistake and he passed me in the final stages, I was able to see that he was having some tyre trouble. I got back past him and took the win, a result that is surprising but fantastic. At Monza we will try to defend our position as best we can, knowing that it will be a very tough track for us."

more new info

Place of birth
Sant Fruitos de Bages, Barcelona (Spain)

WebSite
www.carloscheca.com

Bike
Ducati 1098R

Team
ALTHEA RACING

Career highlights
2010 3rd World Superbike

STATS

All Time

Poles

Races

Podiums

Wins

Seconds

Thirds

F.Laps

Pos

Superbike

Year

Poles

Races

Podiums

Wins

Seconds

Thirds

F.Laps

Pos

2011	Superbike	3	6	6	4		2	1	1
2010	Superbike	1	26	8	3	4	1	7	3
2009	Superbike		28	4		2	2		7
2008	Superbike	1	28	7	2	3	2	5	4

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Sunday, April 3, 2011

Event Schedule Assen

Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike (2009)	Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike (2009)	Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike (2009)
Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike (2008)	Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike (2008)	Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike (2008)

Event Schedule Assen

Friday 15-04-2011
FREE PRACTICE	12:45	60'
QUALIFYING PRACTICE	15:45	60'
Saturday 16-04-2011
QUALIFYING PRACTICE	10:45	45'
FREE PRACTICE	13:50	45'
SUPERPOLE (1)	15:00	14'
SUPERPOLE (2)	15:21	12'
SUPERPOLE (3)	15:40	10'
Sunday 17-04-2011
WARM UP	09:20	20'
RACE 1	12:00
RACE 2	15:30

Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike (2008)

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