World Superbike Championship leader Carlos Checa had a remarkable weekend in front of 64,000 fans at Silverstone, despite not expecting to be in full contention before arriving in the UK.

In winning the first race abord his Althea Racing Ducati, Checa became the rider who gave Ducati 300 race wins in this championship, and added one to the total when he took his second win in a few hours.

His race two victory was his tenth of the season. Checa is something of a century man, as he notched up 100 WSBK races in the second encounter and he was also the rider to give Honda its 100th win in WSBK, at Miller Motorsports Park in 2008.

“I didn’t know it was my hundredth race, but it’s most important I’m not 100 years old! It was also Ducati’s 300th win, a fantastic weekend, and I will remember it for these many reasons,” said Checa.

He missed out on a Superpole victory but controlled the pace in each race, making a break away from early leader, Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty each time.

“I expected to have more trouble at Silverstone but we worked, planned and adapted well to make a perfect result,” Checa added.

“You never know, there are still many races to go and it’s easy to lose points but now we arrive at some tracks where I feel more comfortable.”

“For sure now we go on holiday quite relaxed!”

Laverty’s team mate Marco Melandri was third in each race, moving closer to overall second place rider, Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team’s Max Biaggi, who had a terrible opener but a much-improved second race.