Althea Racing Ducati's Carlos Checa dominated both races at the opening round of the 2011 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island, Australia
Considering how he had dominated the tests and practice/qualifying sessions leading up to the opening round of the 2011 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Althea Racing Ducati’s Carlos Checa was going to be at the front. The only question was how much of a fight the rest of the WSBK field was going to put up, and while a valiant effort was made by Aprilia Alitalia’s Max Biaggi, Checa was simply unstoppable on this weekend.
In Race One, Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty managed to steal the holeshot and lead for a couple of laps, but Checa was soon past and quickly built up a lead that was unassailable. Reigning WSBK World Champion Biaggi worked his way past Laverty on lap five, and while he turned the quickest lap of the race in his attempts to reel in Checa, the Italian ended up some four seconds behind the cruising Checa at the finish. A spirited battle for the final podium spot raged between Laverty, his Yamaha teammate Marco Melandri, BMW’s Leon Haslam, and Alstare Suzuki’s Michel Fabrizio, with Haslam finally getting the nod the finish, with Laverty just getting the better of Melandri and Fabrizio.
Race Two was pretty much all Checa, with Haslam managing to get by the Spaniard briefly on the second lap before Checa set things in order a lap later. Haslam soon had his hands full with Melandri and Biaggi, who took their battle into the closing laps until Biaggi finally managed to open up a slight gap to grab second, with Melandri third, and a resurgent Jonathan Rea on his Castrol Honda just getting past Haslam for fourth.
Photo Gallery: 2011 World Superbike Phillip Island race results, Checa does the double - Sport Rider Magazine
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