Rea and Checa shine at Imola
Added on Sunday, September 25th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Rea and Checa shine at Imola
Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa shared the spoils at Imola this afternoon, after an eventful bout of racing in the World Superbike Championship.
As the opening WSB race of the weekend got underway it was Rea who controlled the pace, despite immense pressure from the chasing Noriyuki Haga. Regardless of Haga’s menacing challenge, Rea was able to romp to victory, to notch up his second victory of the 2011 season.
The fast paced Haga was settled in second place as the chequered flag fell. Although he missed out on victory, the PATA Racing Aprilia rider was able to secure the new lap record around the Imola circuit.
Some nine seconds adrift saw third place awarded to pole sitter Carlos Checa. Despite starting at the head of the field the Althea Racing rider lost ground before crossing the finish line in third place. Tom Sykes had held third position for much of the outing, however his podium position came under threat in the closing stages, before Checa stole the position on the final tour.
With the first four positions taken by the first four qualifiers, albeit in a different order, fifth place went the way of Eugene Laverty. Sylvain Guintoli was a few seconds down the road in sixth place, whilst Jakub SMrz and Marco Melandri enjoyed a close battle to seventh and eight places, respectively. Another close fight ensued behind for the final two top ten positions, with Ayrton Badovini getting the better of Joan Lascorz for ninth place.
Four retirements saw Leon Haslam’s race wrapped up early on, when he joined Maxime Berger, Michel Fabrizio and Javier Fores on the sidelines.
A dramatic second race saw Checa further extend his lead at the head of the championship standings. Although he won the second race this afternoon, the Althea Racing ace is yet to be crowned 2011 WSB Champion, with Marco Melandri still in contention.
Rea again looked set to take victory in the second outing, however when his Castrol Honda machine stopped out on track whilst he was leading, he was forced to watch from the sidelines.
With Rea forced into retirement, Checa was able to add to his tally of wins this season, whilst Haga followed for another second place. Leon Camier completed an exciting race with the final podium spot in third place on his Aprilia Alitalia machine.
Laverty and Haslam narrowly missed out on the final podium position, just seconds adrift of Camier in fourth and fifth places. Meanwhile, Checa’s title rival Melandri made sure he was still in contention with a sixth place finish.
Sylvain Guintoli and Joan Lascorz scored seventh and eighth place finishes, whilst the final two top ten positions went the way of Mark Aitchison and Badovini.
A race filled with intrigue saw just fourteen riders take the chequered flag, with a total of eight riders forced into retirement.
Checa has the title crown in his sights with a 97 point lead over Melandri, however with two rounds remaining Melandri is still in with a mathematical chance. All attentions are now focused on the penultimate round at Magny Cours next weekend (1st-2nd October), to see if Checa will take the 2011 WSB championship title.
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