We’ve got a batch of final quotes after this exciting World Superbike Championship 2010 season opener at Phillip Island, so check out what the riders had to say after round 1.

Leon Haslam - Race 1: 1st, Race 2: 2nd

I am so happy to get my first WSBK win and it feels great! I want to thank the team and all the staff back at the workshop for all their support and hard work and I’d also like to thank Francis and Patricia Batta for having faith in me.
The first race was such hard work and it was impossible to relax for a second. I knew that I had Michel and Nori breathing down my neck, but I just kept concentrating on my lines and my braking points and tried to hold them off. I realised that Michel was in my wheeltracks going into the last turn and would try and use the draft to get past me, but I kept my head down and charged to the flag. At the end, I didn’t know if I’d won or not, but when I realised that I had, I was so unbelievably happy and it was such a fantastic feeling. All weekend I knew that a win was possible, but thinking about and it happening are two different things.In race two, I had some problems with rear traction but I still thought I could win. I had a great fight with Sylvain and when I finally got ahead of him and made it stick, I thought he might act as a buffer between me and the rest. Then suddenly, Carlos was there. He dived under me just three corners from the end, on the last lap. I tried to get it back, but he managed to hold me off and take the flag. But, it feels good to take a win and a second in my first race with the team and it feels fantastic to be leading the Superbike World Championship.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island: Rider Quotes after Round 1

As usual racing at Phillip Island never lets fans wanting, if Race 1 didn’t disappoint, Race 2 was an absolute thriller. The Italians have a very pictoresque saying about close racing: “correre con il coltello tra i denti” which literally means racing with a knife between between your teeth and that’s what Carlos Checa did today on his privateer Ducati when he won the race.

The Spaniard who debuted with Althea Ducati Racing had a bad start leaving him in 11th on the first lap, but Checa was a man on a mission after his 7th place in Race 1 began working his way through the pack to join the four front runners to make a last lap move to take the victory in front of race 1 winner Leon Haslam followed by Michel Fabrizio who would take third place on the podium.

Haslam seemed to be heading to his second career victory and the race looked like a perfect photocopy of the first race with Fabrizio closely tagging the Brit and Noriyuki Haga in third moving up from his tenth place on the grid, but it would be former MotoGP and BSB rider Sylvain Guintoli who would snatch fourth place from a fading and aching Haga who took fifth.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island Race 2: Carlos Checa wins last lap thriller

Check out what some of the World Superbike riders had to say after today’s first qualifying practice at Phillip Island and find out who was happy, who wasn’t and why.

Carlos Checa – 1st

“I’m really satisfied with today’s test. I worked very well with my technicians and we tested some different tires and settings. It’s always a good result for our team to reach the provisional pole position. Nevertheless, we have to remember that the race will be on Sunday and that probably we’ll have different weather conditions with colder temperature, but this a very good starting point. I would like to thank all the people in my team, and particularly the general manager Genesio Bevilacqua who was able to create such a competitive team. I hope Shakey will be all right tomorrow to fight for a good result during tomorrow’s qualifications and Superpole”.

Michel Fabrizio – 2nd

“We tried different tyre solutions this morning and various setting solutions in agreement with my engineer. I had a fall, losing the front, but without causing myself, or my bike, too much damage fortunately. Then in the qualifying session we found a good direction with the tyre solution that may well be the one to choose for the race; the results were quite encouraging. During my fast lap I lost a couple of tenths through the last corner but I’m happy; we’ve worked well and I’m satisfied with the results. We have a good race pace but a lot will depend on Sunday’s weather.”

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island - What the riders had to say after QP1

The long wait is over and no more testing, we’re finally going to see some real racing action as the 1st round of WSBK kicks off this weekend at Phillip Island.

Satellite rider Carlos Checa on his Althea Ducati led the top of the charts in today’s QP1with a best lap of 1′32″155, but official Ducati factory rider Michel Fabrizio was just a mere 0.007 from the Spanish rider. Leon Haslam was third, two tenths from Checa with his Suzuki followed by Checa’s team mate, Shane Byrne in fourth

There were four Ducati riders in the top five positions, with Noriyuki Haga taking fifth place. Max Biaggi was sixth on the Aprilia-Alitalia. The first Honda CBR1000RR to make it in the top ten was Jonathan Rea in seventh followed by Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki Alstare) and Jakub Smrz finished in ninth with Cal Cruchlow in 10th.

Despite hot and dry weather conditions, the session was scattered with numerous riders crashing their bikes; including today’s QP1 leader Checa. Shane Byrne highsided trying to better his times. Max Biaggi also crashed as did BMW’s Troy Corser and team mate Ruben Xaus, who totalled three crashes today. James Toseland also binned his Yamaha R1, leaving the English rider with a very sore left wrist.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island: Carlos Checa leads in QP1

Althea Ducati’s Carlos Checa left the Valencia test the fastest on track and on the first day of WSBK official testing at Phillip Island, the Spanish rider came out again on the top of the charts, with a best time of 1.31.959 and 90 laps on his Ducati.

Michel Fabrizio on the factory Ducati was second fastest of the day, 0.390 seconds behind Checa while team mate Noriyuki Haga spent the afternoon testing Pirelli tires came out fourth overall and placed his best time in the morning session.

Leon Haslam was the fastest rider in the morning, but with higher track temperares in the afternoon couldn’t better himself, but was able to keep third place overall.

Jonathan Rea, shaved off more than a second from his morning times to finish in fifth overall and according to his Twitter page, it was tough going, especially the morning session.

After the jump rider quotes and overall testing results from day 1.

Continue reading: WSBK: Carlos Checa on Top on 1st Day of Testing

Check out Carlos Checa’s brand new helmet design for this 2010 season. Checa who will be racing with Althea Ducati in WSBK, decided that it was time to change the graphics on his lid, and Nolan Group who supplies his helmets was more than happy to satisfy the rider’s request.

The designs on the helmet are a metaphor of Checa’s life and passions and each single design tells a story, with the animals expressing his love for nature, for free climbing, surfing and all extreme sports. The continents represent the Spanish rider’s feeling of being a citizen of the world and the top of helmet sees a windrose compass.

Nolan Helmets will be selling this X-Lite X-802 Checa Replica from April 2010 and is priced at € 539,00 and will be available in all authorized dealers.

Source | mypersonalhelmet

Continue reading: Carlos Checa's New 2010 Helmet

Improved weather conditions at Valencia allowed the remaining WSBK teams to get in five hours of testing with Carlos Checa on the Althea Ducati who came out on top of the unofficial time charts. Checa put in 50 laps with a best time of 1.33”8 despite a track temperature of only 12°.

Xerox Ducati riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio did 1.34”0 and 1.34”3 respectively, while Shane Byrne put in the same time as Haga on standard tires.

Jakub Smrz finally got some lap time and was just four tenths of second from Fabrizio, despite the fact that his Ducati doesn’t have ride-by-wire electronics as the Xerox Ducati and Althea Ducati’s have.

Davide Tardozzi hasn’t worked his black magic yet, because BMW had the highest test times on this last day of testing. Ruben Xaus and Troy Corser up in the 1’35s, with Xaus, who is unhappy with the Nissin brakes he’s been using and wants to go back to Brembo, doing the same lap time as test rider Alex Hofmann on the Aprilia who did a total of 75 laps.

Continue reading: WSBK Valencia Test: Carlos Checa Comes Out on Top

You can tell that we are finally approaching the new racing season when teams start their official presentations.

The new 2010 Althea Racing Team was officially presented on Saturday January 16th at a club in Fasano, near Brindisi (Italy). This year Althea Racing has switched from Honda’s to Ducati 1198’s and will see Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne contest in the World Superbike Championship while the team will also see Flavio Gentile ride in the CIV (Italian Superbike Championship).

The Italian team has a brand new red and white and blue racing livery designed by Maya Cohen, who also works as the team’s press officer.

Carlos Checa joined Althea having spent his first two WSBK seasons with Ten Kate Honda: “In few days we’ll leave for Portimao and I will be able to start to work with my new technicians in order to start the Superbike world championship in the best possible way. My team worked very hard to prepare the bikes and I’ll do my best starting from the first test session in Portimao because I want to start this 2010 season in the right way.”

Continue reading: WSBK - Althea Racing Launches 2010 Line Up

Several websites were reporting that Carlos Checa would be returning to MotoGP to be a test rider for Ducati after being dropped by Ten Kate Honda to make room for Max Neukirchner, instead the Spanish rider has confirmed that he’ll be in the World Superbike championship in 2010 and will be riding for Althea Racing.

Checa was probably linked to a test rider job as Ducati’s official test rider Vittoriano Guareschi, will be hanging up his leathers next year and has been promoted by Ducati to a management job and will officially play liaison between all the Ducati riders and the official team.

Checa’s announcement also confirms the rumors that Althea Racing would be switching from Honda to the Ducati marque.

“I am very contented to stay in WSB and I am motivated by the chance to ride a Ducati. We have all the guarantees from the factory and I have a good relationship with them. I will have the very latest machinery which will be on the same level as the factory pilots.”

Source | solomoto

Continue reading: WSBK - Carlos Checa to Althea Racing

If you expected an apology or a decent explanation about what happened today during the WSBK FP1 at Imola, you’re not going to get it. The circuit organizers have down played the occurance and stated that a number of riders requested that the track be cleaned because they considered it to be too slippery. The track was finally washed and dried after more than two hours of consultations and riders refusing to ride, but according to the official SBK website, several riders and team managers maintained that it was only necessary for the riders to stay out on the track to continue to lay down rubber.

We won’t get into the controversy, but when some of the most experienced riders in the world (Spies, Haga, Biaggi, Rea, Corser, Haslam, Byrnes and others) who’ve raced in all type of conditions say that a track is dangerous because it has no grip, you’ve got to believe them and respect their opinions because it’s their lives that are on the line not the promoters.

Free practice finally got underway at 17.45 and saw Ducati Xerox’s Michel Fabrizio take the fastest time with a 1.49.895 and the only rider to get under the 1.50 mark, followed Carlos Checa, with points leader Ben Spies third, and Jonathan Rea (who just renewed his contract with Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) was fourth.

Max Biaggi took fifth place, while 250 cc world champion Marco Simoncelli who is subbing for Shinya Nakano and his first outing at Imola was twelfth while Noriyuki Haga, who is trailing behind Spies in the standings was thirteenth.

Full times after the jump:

Continue reading: WSBK Imola Delayed Free Practice Results

Race 1

Ben Spies took his 12th win of the season at the Nurburgring track after battling with rival Noriyuki Haga and the win closed the championship gap to two points.

The Japanese rider started fast and took the lead, but Spies after overtaking Jonathan Rea, who would finish fourth, battled it out over several laps and then overtook Haga on lap 10. The Xerox Ducati made a small error on the 17th lap and the Texas Terror won the first race by 3.85 seconds.

Third place went to Carlos Checa and fifth went to Aprilia’s Max Biaggi, sixth to Leon Haslam, while Haga’s team mate Michel Fabrizio finished in seventh. Troy Corser took eighth place after running for most of the race in fourth .

Race 1 was red flagged on the opening lap after a horrific accident. John Hopkins went down with Broc Parkes and Makoto Tamada. Hopkins and Tamada required medical attention on track and later were both taken to the local hospital for suspected concussions.

Continue reading: WSBK Nurburgring - Spies and Rea Win, Haga crashes, Spies Takes the Leadership

Max Biaggi took his Aprilia RSV4 to their first victory of the season during Race 1 at Brno.

Biaggi took an easy win when Xerox Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio on lap four of the race tried to pass Ben Spies, overbraked and lost his front and went down taking Spies with him. Spies naturally was not happy and vented his anger on Fabrizio because this DNF caused by the Italian stopped him from closing in on points leader Noriyuki Haga.

Haga riding injured and loaded with painkillers, rode defensively and finished eighth and increased his lead in the standings by another eight points.

Continue reading: WSBK Brno Race 1 - Max Biaggi and Aprilia take 1st Victory