Checa tightens grip at Miller

Carlos Checa has produced yet another world Superbike master class with a winning double in round five of the championship at Miller Motorsport Park in America overnight.

Cruelly robbed of victory in last year’s WSBK round at Miller because of mechanical problems, this time around there were no such hiccups for the ageless Spanish warrior, who ran way in both 21-lap races.

In the opener Checa defeated Jakub Smrz and Sylvain Guintoli to make it a clean sweep of the top places by Ducati, and in race two the former 500cc GP winner powered to the biggest race win this year – a 7.194-second triumph over Briton Leon Camier (Aprilia), with world champion Max Biaggi (Aprilia) recovering from an earlier crash to finish third.

Checa has now won six of the opening 10 races and leads the championship by an imposing 61pts (195 to 143) over Yamaha’s Marco Melandri.

“Two amazing wins today, especially after what happened to us here last year. This was not only a double victory but a moral victory,” said Checa.

“In race one I rode cautiously during the first laps as the conditions were a little mixed, but after a while I found good feeling with my bike and was really able to push. In the final stages I stayed calm, controlled the margin and I did it!

“It was really funny because as I was returning to Parc Ferme, I saw some fans who wanted to give me a flag so I went off-road to get it only to find thick mud which caused me to crash -- the happiest crash of my life I would say!”

It was another disappointing day for Australia’s main hope Troy Corser, who led race one for five laps before freefalling back through the pack with serious tyre, and then in race two he crashed on lap three.

Corser is now languishing 14th in the standings and, with his championship prospects now all but gone, his immediate goal over the next couple of rounds will be trying to cement a spot in the top 10.

“We are disappointed with the way the weekend has ended,” said Corser.

“I felt like we had a good set-up for both the wet and dry conditions, and I was really confident going into today’s races. In race one I got away well and led the early laps. The bike felt good for the first five to six laps. Then the grip from the rear tyre became a real issue.

“In race two I decided to take it a bit easier in the early laps to save the tyres, but I began to lose too many positions. So I then started to push and clipped the kerb with my engine casing and lost the front – crashing out of the race. On the whole it was a difficult weekend and one we need to analyse in more detail.”

Corser’s compatriots, Mark Aitchison (Kawasaki) and wildcard Josh Waters (Suzuki), finished both races, for 16-17 and 12-15 results. The embattled Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki) sat out the event in lieu of more testing in Europe, and he’ll return to action in the next round at Misano on June 10-12.

At the front of the pack, Checa didn’t put a foot wrong at Miller, as he continues to stake his credentials to become the first Spanish rider to win the WSBK title.

In race one, Checa’s opposition was watered down with both Biaggi and Jonathan Rea (Honda) crashing, but it’s unlikely that they would have been able to contain the Ducati rider, whose final winning margin over Smrz was 2.766 seconds, with Guintoli, Camier – who recovered from a mid-race off-track excursion -- and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha) completing the top five.

Camier held it altogether for race two but he wasn’t able to keep Checa in sight, who effortlessly ran away with proceedings.

Biaggi passed Laverty on lap six to annex third spot, and the balance of race two became a procession apart from Italian Michel Fabrizio methodically working his way up to fifth place from well down the field.

Biaggi remains third in the points on 133, just one behind Melandri, followed by Laverty (109) and Leon Haslam (BMW, 95).

Race one: 21 laps
1 Carlos Checa, Spain, Ducati
2 Jakub Smrz, Czech Republic, Ducati +2.766
3 Sylvain Guintoli, France, Ducati +4.093
4 Leon Camier, Great Britain, Aprilia +8.885
5 Eugene Laverty, Great Britain, Yamaha +15.718
6 Tom Sykes, Great Britain, Kawasaki +20.477
7 Aryton Badovini, Italy, BMW +22.170
8 Leon Haslam, Great Britain, BMW +22.267
9 Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Aprilia +24.087
10 Marco Melandri, Italy, Yamaha +27.150
12 Josh Waters, Australia, Suzuki +33.428
13 Troy Corser, Australia, BMW +36.573
16 Mark Aitchison, Australia, Kawasaki +1:14.736

Fastest lap: Checa – 1:49.779

Fastest lap: Checa – 1:48.827

1 Checa 195
2 Melandri 134
3 Biaggi 133
4 Laverty 109
5 Haslam 95
6 Rea 94
7 Camier 91
8 Fabrizio 85
9 Smrz 83
10 Guintoli 54
14 Corser 49
19 Aitchison 9
20 Waters 8

Next round: Misano, San Marino, June 10-12