Carlos Checa: World Champion

Cycle News Staff | October 2, 2011

There’s winning a championship and there’s winning a championship in style. Carlos Checa won his in style, the Spaniard winning his 13th and 14th races of the season today at Magny-Cours in France to easily seal the 2011 World Superbike Championship.In the first of the two races, Checa trailed Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty before taking the lead on lap 10 and never looking back. The win was his 13th of the season and it gave him the World Championship. He followed that up with another victory race two, the 14th of his season.With Checa going well above what he needed to do to win the championship, the man who fared second best on the day was Yamaha’s Marco Melandri, the Italian riding the R1 to two second-place finishes on the day that it was announced he would be joining Leon Haslam on the factory BMW team for 2012. Melandri passed his teammate Eugene Laverty on the last lap with a bold pass in race two.

Haslam also had a solid day, the Brit riding the S1000 RR to third- and fourth-place finishes in France. In the first of the two races, Laverty ended up third after leading early and in the second race he would lead again – laps seven through 13 – before dropping to fifth place. At the end of the day, despite losing second to Melandri on the last lap of race two, Laverty moved ahead of the absent Max Biaggi to third in the championship standings with one race left to run.Castrol Honda’s Jonathan Rea, the other man besides Laverty and Checa to lead the second race, was knocked out of the race by a mechanical problem. It was a miserable day for the Northern Irelander as he’d earlier crashed out of race one.Homeboy Sylvain Guintoli rode the Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati to fifth in race two after finishing sixth in race one. He got the better of a fight with Aprilia’s Leon Camier, the Brit slipping to sixth after finishing fourth in the first race.Then came Kawasaki’s Joan Lascorz over BMW Motorrad Italia’s Ayrton Badovini, BMW’s Troy Corser and PATA Aprilia’s Noriyuki Haga. Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes. Lascorz was eighth in race one; Corser was ninth in both outings; and Haga was seventh in the first race.Thus far in 2011, Checa has led 221 laps. The next best? Max Biaggi with 93.Checa’s win in race two also gave Ducati the manufacturer’s crown for 2011.Earlier, Yamaha’s Chaz Davies rode to a conservative sixth place to earn the 2011 World Supersport Championship.Race 2

1.                  Carlos Checa (Ducati)

2.                  Marco Melandri (Yamaha)

3.                  Eugene Laverty (Yamaha)

4.                  Leon Haslam (BMW)

5.                  Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati)

6.                  Leon Camier (Aprilia)

7.                  Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki)

8.                  Ayrton Badovini (BMW)

9.                  Troy Corser (BMW)

10.                  Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia)Race 1

1.                  Carlos Checa (Ducati)

2.                  Marco Melandri (Yamaha)

3.                  Leon Haslam (BMW)

4.                  Leon Camier (Aprilia)

5.                  Eugene Laverty (Yamaha)

6.                  Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati)

7.                  Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia)

8.                  Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki)

9.                  Troy Corser (BMW)

10.                  Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)