Carlos Checa knew going into the World Superbike round at Monza that he was going to have a hard time keeping up with the likes of Max Biaggi down the long stretches of the Italian circuit. But Checa was able to walk away from Monza with a 9th and 10th place finish, and was able to maintain 27 points over the rest of the World Superbike field.
"We’re satisfied because we were aware of our limitations before we arrived here at Monza and we knew that it would be difficult to reach the podium,” Checa said. “In race 1 I had to push so hard on the straights that it probably affected the tire because in the last laps the performance had really dropped off and I couldn’t get ahead of Camier.
“In the second race we had good pace until three laps from the end when I had an engine problem. It slowed me down so much that I was lucky even to finish. I closed in ninth and tenth position today and, all things considered, these are good points for us at Monza. We leave here with a 27-point lead which surprises me to tell the truth. We’re really happy and will now concentrate on the next round at Miller, where I hope to be able to make two great races.”
Checa’s two top ten finishes gave him a few points to add to his total, but the Althea Ducati rider was also helped out by another unfortunate penalty for Max Biaggi. Biaggi earned a second place finish in race 1, and was on his way to victory in race two, but a penalty dropped him down to 8th place.
Biaggi’s 8th place finish and race two combined with Marco Melandri’s solid performance at Monza, puts the defending champion down in third place. Melandri sits in second, 27 points behind the season leader, Carlos Checa.
[Photo Courtesy of Althea Racing]
