Checa Does It Again In Misano

Henny Ray Abrams | June 12, 2011

World Superbike Championship leader Carlos Checa won his eighth race of the season today, the Spaniard completing a sweep of the two races at the Misano Adriatico Circuit in Italy with his second win coming in a race that was stopped after 10 laps and restarted for the remaining 14 laps.The stoppage did nothing to hinder Checa’s run to victory, however. He led Aprilia’s Max Biaggi, who was racing with a small fracture in his ankle, by a second when it was stopped after 10 laps. On the restart, Biaggi shot out to the lead but the Italian made a mistake and ran wide on the eighth lap and Checa shot past. From there he was never headed, beating the defending World Champion by 1.4 seconds. More importantly, he leaves the Adriatic Coast with a whopping 72-point lead in the championship. Checa has now won eight of 12 races; and he’s also earned four of the six pole positions.The race was stopped after 10 laps when Yamaha’s Marco Melandri and Leon Camier crashed separately in turn one with Camier’s Aprilia dumping oil on the track. Melandri, slipped to third in the standings today and is now 95 points behind Checa.Biaggi held on for second, well clear of a battle for third that went the distance. At the line it was PATA Racing Aprilia’s Noriyuki Haga beating BMW Motorrad Italia’s Ayrton Badovini by .028 of a second. The podium finish was Haga’s first of the year.

With Badovini fourth, fifth went to BMW’s Leon Haslam, the Brit bouncing back after crashing out of race one. Alstare Suzuki’s Michel Fabrizio also rebounded from a race-one crash to finish sixth, just a tenth of a second ahead of Sylvain Guintoli on the Effenbert Liberty Ducati – salvaging something for the team after leader Jakub Smrz ended up crashing out of both races today.Castrol Honda’s lone entrant Ruben Xaus finished eighth with his teammate Jonathan Rea out with a broken wrist and collarbone after crashing in the morning warm-up.Kawasaki’s Joan Lascorz and his teammate Chris Vermeulen rounded out the top 10 in what was easily Vermeulen’s best result of the season.It was a tough race for the factory Yamaha camp with both Melandri and Eugene Laverty crashing out of the race. Laverty, who crashed in the restarted portion of the race, was able to remount to finish 13th. Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes, who finished fourth in race one after starting from pole position, also crashed but finished 14th.

Race Two

1. Carlos Checa (Ducati)

2. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)

3. Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia)

4. Ayrton Badovini (BMW)

5. Leon Haslam (BMW)

6. Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki)

7. Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati)

8. Ruben Xaus (Honda)

9. Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki)

10. Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki)