Despite suffering from a bout of indigestion during yesterday’s test and having to handle those six kilos on his Ducati, Carlos Checa continued his dominant form even on the final day of private testing at Phillip Island.

The reigning World Champion set a best lap of 1.31.8, but even on this third day where lap times again were again lowered, he was unable to shake off an aggressive Tom Sykes who was just one tenth of a second adrift and has almost equally matched Checa’s pace over these last three days.

Leon Haslam took third using qualifying tires as did Max Biaggi who ended up in fourth, while Aprilia team mate Eugene Laverty suffered a huge crash at the first corner sustaining an injury to his left hand, with reports are saying that he fractured his third metacarpal bone and now is seriously in doubt for the season’s opener. He will probably be sidelined until the Imola round with Crescent Fixi Suzuki’s John Hopkins.

Continue reading: Carlos Checa stays on top on final day of private testing at Phillip Island

....

0 comments

Today’s second day of World Superbike private testing at Phillip Island saw lap times drop considerably for all the riders, and leading the top of the Day 2 timesheets was reigning World Champion Carlos Checa who set the best unofficial lap time in 1’32″1, which was just one tenth of second faster than Provec Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes, with whom yesterday Checa shared the top honours.

Also improving were Aprilia’s duo Max Biaggi and Eugene Laverty who slotted in third and fourth, just two and four tenths adrift respectively, which bodes well for the RSV4 who has always problems at this circuit. Joan Lascorz climbed up the chart to take fifth and proving that the Kawasaki ZX-10R may have finally come into stride.

Another team duo followed Biaggi and Laverty, and that was BMW Motorrad’s Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri, with the Italian being the last rider within a second from Checa.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island test: Carlos Checa fastest on Day 2

....

0 comments

Ten World Superbike teams and eighteen riders are taking part in a three day private at Phillip Island ahead of the the official test that takes place February 20th-21st, before the season opener that opens on February 26th in Australia.

Not taking part in this test are Honda’s Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama, Red Devil Ducati’s Niccolo Canepa, ParkinGO Aprilia’s Chaz Davies, Grillini BMW’s Mark Aitchison and Pro Ride Honda’s Raffaele de Rosa, while wild-card David Johnson on the Rossair AEP BMW is present.

The first day, that saw cloudy weather with intermittent sunshine was characterized by a few falls, including Crescent Fixi Suzuki rider John Hopkins who had a speed crash at the Southern Loop and broke a bone in his right hand. The American rider is now returning to the States for further for a further check-up and his partecipation in the opening round is now seriously in doubt.

Reigning Superstock 1000 FIM Cup champion Davide Giugliano who switched to Superbikes with Althea Racing also crashed as did Jakub Smrz and a contact between Aprilia’s Max Biaggi and Effenbert Liberty’s Maxime Berger sent the Aprilia rider down.

Since there are no official lap times, we’re more or less relying on the unofficial ones recorded by the teams so there will probably be several discrepancies.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island test: Tom Sykes and Carlos Checa divide top spot on day 1

....

0 comments

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.

....

1 comment

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.

....

0 comments

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

....

0 comments

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.

....

0 comments

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.

....

0 comments

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

....

0 comments

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

....

1 comment

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.

....

0 comments

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

....

0 comments