This afternoon at their company headquarters at Civita Castellana, World Superbike team Althea Racing officially presented their 2012 line-up with reigning Superbike champion Carlos Checa and Superstock champion Davide Giugliano and the new livery that the team will be using in this season’s championship.

Althea Racing has picked up some important sponsors for 2012, not only has Unibat re-confirmed their backing, the team has also picked up a couple of mega sponsors like TIM (Telecom Italia’s mobile phone brand) and SNAI (Italy’s largest gaming and betting group) to front their racing effort.

The presentation was followed by the sponsors, Paolo Flammini, CEO of Infront Motor Sports, Paolo Ciabatti, General Manager of Infront Motor Sports, and Ernesto Marinelli, Ducati’s Superbike Project Director and various members of the press.

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As reigning World Superbike champion Carlos Checa has the right to run the #1 plate, but the Spanish rider has opted to keep his #7, but to make Ducati and sponsors happy has come up with a new design that sort of combines the two numbers and also keeps his distinctive ‘El Toro’ motif.

Checa just spent three days testing the Ducati GP12 and also his updated Ducati 1198 that now weights six kilos more as per the new Superbike rules.

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Very little leaked out from Ducati’s first day of testing at Jerez de la Frontera. The circuit was on lockdown and no one got a glimpse of the highly awaited GP12, also due to the fact that the expected shakedown test didn’t take place yesterday.

World Superbike champion Carlos Checa who is acting as a test rider managed to Tweet : “1st test this year recovering good feelings on bike, we are working well. I can’t say so much, tomorrow more work. Ciaoo!

What Checa was probably refering to was that since the track was very wet following an intense rain shower, he instead took out his Ducati Superbike to check out the new updated electronics (WSBK testing ban is officially over) and then the Valencia test version of the MotoGP bike in order to have more data to give to Filippo Preziosi, when the Italian engineer arrives at Jerez today to see his new 2012 brainchild in action.

Source | sportmediaset.it

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Ducati didn’t present their ‘90% new’ 2012 MotoGP machine at last week’s Wrooom to the disappointment of everyone, but the GP12 is currently at Jerez de la Frontera circuit for a very private and behind closed doors three day test.

Test rider Franco Battaini and reigning World Superbike champion Carlos Checa have the onerous task of giving the the GP12 a shakedown test and testing set-ups before sending the hopefully competitive Desmosedici to Sepang where Ducati riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will ride the almost completely new bikes for the first time.

As Filippo Preziosi has already stated the bike was designed and developed in less than six months and while he was reticent on revealing any aspect of the engine angle (rumors in Italy say it’s no longer 90°, but 75°) he did state that the bike has retained the twin-spar aluminium chassis and a carbon fiber swingarm and that they have modified the weight distribution and size of bike in order to allow a larger range of adjustments.

Troy Bayliss also tweeted that he too may get a chance to test the GP12 later this season.

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While some World Superbike teams have trouble finding paying sponsors (just think of the problems Alstare Suzuki has had over the years) others like Althea Ducati renew their agreements.

Althea Racing announced yesterday that they will continue with their key sponsor Unibat (high perfomance batteries for cars, motorcycles and heavy duty vehicles) for upcoming 2012 season after having sponsored the team for the last two years.

“Having seen team Althea’s ambitious plans for the 2012 Superbike season, we have decided to renew our contract as main sponsor of Althea Racing for another year. We believe in this team, made up of individuals who work well together on both technical and organizational levels. We’re certain that our efforts will help consolidate Unibat’s position as leader among motorcycle battery manufacturers across the globe,” said
Antonio Annoscia, CEO of Unibat.

Genesio Bevilacqua, General Manager of Althea Racing said, “We are delighted to have come to an agreement with Unibat for a third consecutive season. With an extremely successful 2011 season already behind us, we look forward to working with Unibat in 2012 as we strive to consolidate this year’s performance. Unibat has been one of our most loyal supporters over the last two years and we are therefore very pleased that our relationship will continue into the coming season.”

Althea will be fielding two riders in Superbikes next season, World Superbike Champion Carlos Checa and World Superstock Champion Davide Giugliano.

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In an interview with Spain’s Marca website reigning Superbike champion Carlos Checa talked about swimming with sharks, skiing and the Dakar rally and being Ducati’s test rider for their 2012 MotoGP project. Checa has already ridden the GP0 twice and will be back on the bike in mid-January to give it another shakedown test and give more feedback ahead of the official Sepang tests where Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will test the new bike.

Here’s an extract from the interview that we’re sure you’ll find interesting.

And you’re Ducati’s test rider.

Being Ducati’s MotoGP test rider is a great experience for me. This is a bike that starts from zero and gives me other sensations. It’s an important moment and I’m helping them as I can and trying to give them best information possible. I am delighted to collaborate on this project.

The million euro question, will this bike help Rossi get ahead?

“I do not know, it’s hard to say because I haven’t tried the other bikes. I’d have to race the bike against others to see where we are. What I feel is that this motorcycle moves a lot, I see some limits on the chassis and this is what they’ll have to work on. I can’t give out other details because I’ve been forbidden to talk about it.

Continue reading: Carlos Checa on being Ducati's MotoGP test rider

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2011 World Superbike champion Carlos Checa took a dive today at the L’Aquarium Barcelona where he swam with the sharks (last year it was Jorge Lorenzo’s turn) tweeted, “Just arrived at Barcelona Aquarium, where I will swim with sharks, I hope they allready had a good breakfast…”

This is the second time that Checa has the opportunity to get up close with sharks as he already experienced the heady moment back in 2002 when he was still riding in MotoGP and entered the tank with Sete Gibernau and Alex Barros.

Checa is an experienced diver; he learned to dive at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef back in the late ’90s and has also dived off the Malaysian coast.

Photo source | carloscheca.facebook.com

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Last year Carlos Checa made up an original sonnet to share with fans for the Christmas season, but this year the 2011 World Superbike champion has become a modern day Santa Claus for Ducati.

No reindeers or sled for Santa Checa, but a stunning white Ducati Multistrada with a lot of ponies to help deliver Christmas gifts and wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Feliz Navidad and a Buon Natale.

Enjoy the video.

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Carlos Checa, the 2011 World Superbike champion isn’t afraid of getting down and dirty nor is he afraid of picking up an off season injury when he took part in this weekend’s second annual Endu-Roc - a 38km super enduro challenge - that takes place at Suria, Spain.

Checa rode a Honda CFR 450 to second place in the ‘Friends’ category, while multi Dakar champion Marc Coma took first place and in the Master B category took eighth place while his brother David, a former GP, Superbike, Supersport and now an endurance racer, took fourth.

Photo source | carloscheca.twitter.com

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The first day of private testing at sunny Jerez saw a potpourri of machines, a factory MotoGP, three CRTs and a bevy of Moto2s and one lonely World Superbike team.

Ducati had their test team out on the Spanish track with the addition of 2011 World Superbike champion Carlos Checa lending a helping hand in the development of the GP12. Mouths were shut tight on lap times and Checa only tweeted “Nice experience, different feelings in sunny Jerez.”

Colin Edwards finally returned to action following the shoulder injury he sustained in the tragic accident at Sepang that claimed the life of Marco Simoncelli (today is a month since he passed away). Edwards got his first taste of NGM Forward Racing team’s CRT bike that sports a BMW S1000RR engine and a Suter chassis, which is one of more developed CRT bikes. Edwards posted the fastest lap for the CRT group that saw Ivan Silva on the Inmotec and Yonni Hernandez on the BQR - FTR Kawasaki, but he was still one second slower than Scott Redding who topped the unofficial timesheets for the Moto2 category despite a crash earlier today.

Continue reading: Jerez Moto2 test day 1

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We already knew after Sunday’s race 2 at Portimao that after very intense last minute negotiations between Ducati, Althea Racing and Carlos Checa that the newly crowned World Superbike champion would be staying with the Italian team.

We also imagined that the 2011 Superstock champion Davide Giugliano would be switching to Superbikes as Bevilacqua had previously hinted at it and he gave the Giugliano a head start by having him debut in WSBK’s during the season’s finale at Portimao, where he finished 16th and 12th

Now Althea has officially confirmed that they will field two bikes in 2012, with Checa and Giugliano at the helm of two Ducati 1098Rs.

“We have finally reached an agreement with Ducati that was very important for the continuation of our long term plans. Things took a little longer than expected but fortunately we have resolved these problems in a very positive way, with the help of Ducati and the good sense of all involved,” said a relieved Bevilacqua.

“I hope this announcement clears up any doubts as I know some wrong information has come out in the press in recent days. Everything is now in place and to be able to announce this at the end of the final race of the 2011 season allowed us to conclude an extremely memorable season, for us, for Ducati and for Carlos in the best possible way. Now what we must do is continue to fight as we have this year, even more so as we will surely be penalized as far as weight on our bike is concerned. We are extremely confident: Carlos and Davide are very determined, the team is more united than ever before and we are sure we can provide the riders with all necessary support.

“Particular thanks goes to Claudio Domenicali, and to Ducati for deciding to support our team in a difficult period such as this. We will do our best to repay this trust, as we have done this season, as we strive to repeat the kind of success that sacrifice and passion have allowed us to achieve this year.”

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Carlos Checa will be staying with Althea Racing next season. The announcement was personally made by team manager Genesio Bevilacqua during La7’s post race show and this was able to happen with the last minute help of Ducati’s Claudio Domenicali, according to Alberto Vergani head of Nolan helmets and Checa’s personal manager.

More when we get it.

Carlos Checa talks about his staying with Althea:

This weekend has been very special; before Race 1 it looked like there was no way that I could stay with Althea Racing in 2012 and I was very upset about this but now it seems that Althea Racing and Ducati have come to an agreement and I am over the moon to hear that I can stay with my team and with my bike again next year. We have built something very special here and to leave would have been heartbreaking. More than a win, today has been a moral victory – in the space of two days I have lost, and thankfully regained my team.”

Continue reading: Carlos Checa to stay with Althea Racing! Updated

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