Carlos Checa claimed a brilliant Superbike World Championship double victory on the American Memorial Day holiday ahead of 48,00 enthusiastic fans on Monday at Miller Motorsports Park in the United States.
Fans were treated to a double win from a rider who was robbed of a double last year by simple bad luck, with Checa extending his series lead to a comfortable 61-point lead.
The Spaniard had a dose of good luck this time as his two main rivals had difficult race day experiences.
“It’s a fantastic feeling to get this result, especially after last year,” Checa beamed. “We did a great job, we knew we had a chance but you just never know.
“I don’t know what is special about this place for me, I just feel really good here ever since I first did the double. I actually like left-side tracks and probably it’s my riding style as well, altogether a combination of things make me strong and help me win here.”
Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike) was 10th and then sixth, while Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia) crashed out of race one after colliding with Jonathan Rea (Castrol Honda). Reigning champion Biaggi recovered good ground in race two, taking third place.
The podium in race one was a Ducati whitewash, with privateer Jakub Smrz and Sylvain Guintoli securing second and third respectively.
Biaggi’s teammate Leon Camier beat him to second in race two, the tall Englishman taking his second podium of the season.
Fourth place in the championship is now held by Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike) with his fifth and fourth place finishes in today’s races lifting him above both Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) and Rea.
Behind the podium places, Camier, Laverty and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team Superbike) pushed their way into top six finishing positions in race one.
In the second 21-lap contest Laverty, Fabrizio and Melandri took fourth to sixth places.
Haslam and his Aussie teammate Troy Corser had difficult weekends all in, with the Brit struggling with some aspects of machine set-up on the dry track surfaces on raceday, while Corser started each race well, dropped to 13th in race one and then suffered a crash in race two.
Flying the BMW colours highest this weekend was Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike) who was seventh and ninth.
Aussie Superbike regular Josh Waters scored 12-15 results despite struggling with communication at Yoshimura Suzuki, and Pedercini Kawasaki’s Mark Aitchison was 16th in race one and 17th in race two.
In the overall championship standings, Checa has 195, Melandri 134, Biaggi 133, Laverty 109, Haslam 95, Rea 94 and Camier 91.