Checa Beats Haslam At Phillip Island

Paul Carruthers | February 27, 2010

Althea Racing Ducati’s Carlos Checa didn’t lead a single lap of the second race of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island – until the last one. After working his way through the pack to get to the four-way scrap for the lead, Checa didn’t stop there. He worked his way to the back of race-one winner Leon Haslam with two laps to go and beat the Brit to the finish line at the end opf the 22-lap race by just.307 of a second.The top four crossed the line basically together with Checa winning his third career World Superbike race (he won both races at Miller Motorsports Park in 2008) over Haslam with Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio and Haslam’s Alstare Suzuki teammate Sylvain Guintoli finishing third and fourth, respectively – the top four separated by just .838 of a second.Fifth place went to Ducati Xerox’s Noriyuki Haga, the Japanese rider in the battle for the lead until starting to fade on the 16th of the 22-lap race. Haga ended up some 3.4 seconds from Checa.Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea came from deep in the pack to finish sixth after a battle with BMW’s Troy Corser, Aprilia’s Max Biaggi, Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland, Aprilia’s Leon Camier, Althea Ducati’s Shane Byrne and DFX Ducati’s Lorenzo Lanzi. Just 3.6 seconds separated sixth-placed Rea to 13th-placed Rea.Jakub Smrz, the Ducati rider who finished race one in eighth, crashed out on the eighth lap and Kawasaki’s Chris Vermeulen completed a miserasble return to World Superbike racing with Kawasaki with his second race crash of the day.

American Roger Lee Hayde matched his race-one 18th-place finish in race two.After the first two races of the 2010 season, Haslam leads the World Championship over Fabrizio, 45-36. Checa, who finished seventh in the first race earlier today, is third with 34 points. Haga has 27 points with Guintoli fifth on 23 points.

RACE 2

1. Carlos Checa (Ducati)

2. Leon Haslam (Suzuki)

3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)

4. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)

5. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)

6. Jonathan Rea (Honda)

7. Troy Corser (BMW)

8. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)

9. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)

10. James Toseland (Yamaha)

18. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)