Checa takes first Superpole

From worldsbk.com

Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) notched up the first Superpole of his short Superbike World Championship career at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah on Saturday.

The 35-year-old Spanish rider, in just his sixth race in SBK, powered his Honda CBR1000RR to a new outright record time of 1 minute 48.193 seconds around the spectacular 4.907km circuit.

"We worked well today," Checa said. "I had an incident this morning so there is always something to improve and something to fix. But finally I was so concentrated in the lap I did, I tried to be as clean and effective as possible. I know that I was able to be in the 48s but I didn't expect 48 low and when I saw that time it was a great surprise and a great satisfaction to be on the pole for the first time.

"Now the start tomorrow is the next step we need to improve. I will try to do a good race tomorrow, for sure we have some chance of winning because we have shown our potential in the last few races, and especially here. The bike is now working well and I'm also confident with the tyres, so you never know."

Just three tenths behind was recent Monza round winner, German Max Neukirchner on his Suzuki Alstare GSX-R1000. The front row of the grid was completed by the Ducati Xerox factory pairing of Troy Bayliss and Michel Fabrizio on their 1098 F08 machines.

"I'm really happy about the position and I think I did a great lap," Neukirchner said. "I had some problems yesterday with the chassis and in particular I was losing a lot of time in the final split, but we found a good way to improve and we were much quicker than yesterday. I think we found a good race set-up and I hope I'm tomorrow I'm in front. Here on this track it's going to be really hard, the times are very close and I'm sure it'll be a big fight."

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) had been quickest after the two qualifying sessions but was unable to repeat his performance in the one-lap Superpole session and just missed out on the front row of the grid by a fraction. Lining up alongside the Australian will be Spain's Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati), Regis Laconi (Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse) from France and Japan's Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare).

The third row of the grid for the two races is headed by Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati), who put in a good performance despite still recovering from his recent injury. The Italian finished a couple of tenths of a second ahead of a courageous Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB), who took part in Superpole with a broken right collarbone following a crash in the morning's qualifying session.

Qualifying Results
1. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1:48.193
2. Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:48.504
3. Bayliss T. (AUS) Ducati 1098 F08 1:48.604
4. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098 F08 1:48.800
5. Corser T. (AUS) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:48.975
6. Xaus R. (ESP) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1:49.181
7. Laconi R. (FRA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:49.206
8. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:49.394
9. Biaggi M. (ITA) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1:49.479
10. Haga N. (JPN) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:49.735
11. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1:49.784
12. Muggeridge K. (AUS) Honda CBR1000RR 1:49.858
13. Nieto F. (ESP) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:49.942
14. Aoyama S. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1:50.007
15. Lanzi L. (ITA) Ducati 1098 RS 08 1:50.446
16. Badovini A. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:50.807
17. Holland R. (AUS) Honda CBR1000RR 1:50.353
18. Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:50.439
19. Pridmore J. (USA) Honda CBR1000RR 1:50.530
20. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1:50.624
21. Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:50.762
22. Nakatomi S. (JPN) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:50.813
23. Lavilla G. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1:50.861
24. Gimbert S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:51.019
25. Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR1000RR 1:51.154
26. Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:52.029
27. Napoleone L. (FRA) Yamaha YZF-R1 1:52.430
28. Rolfo R. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1:52.458
29. Jensen S. (USA) Suzuki GSX-R1000 K8 1:52.601