CARLOS CHECA TAKES THE DOUBLE IN THE USA 

Carlos Checa extended his championship points tally at the top of the leaderboard after taking both race wins at the Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City, USA for the fifth round of the World Superbike Championship. The Althea Ducati rider nows sits on 195 points, some 61 clear of of Yamaha WSBK Team's Marco Melandri who's just one point ahead of reigning world champion Aprilia Alitalia's Max Biaggi who sits in third.

Race One. For the first six laps of the race Carlos Checa sat behind BMW Motorrad Troy Corser, then he made his move to the front. Once clear of Corser the Althea Ducati rider opened up a healthy lead to eventually take the win by seconds. The battle for second came down to the two Effenbert-Liberty Racing Ducati's of Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz who shadowed his team-mate for a handful of laps remaining, quickly catching Guintoli, before making his move with three laps to go, where he held onto to second. British rider Leon Camier overcame a mistake which saw the Aprilia Alitalia rider drop from third to sixth, where he managed to claw his way back to fourth ahead of Yamaha WSBK Team's Eugene Laverty and fellow countryman Kawasaki's Tom Sykes taking sixth. BMW Italia rookie Ayrton Badovini scored another impressive race performance in seventh ahead of the factory BMW of Leon Haslam in eighth. PATA Aprilia's Noriyki Haga done a great job holding off Yamaha WSBK Team's Marco Melandri for ninth.

Race Two. After seeing his double victory slip away last year, Carlos Checa didn't put a foot wrong in race two where the Althea Ducati rider went unchallenged throughout the 21-lap race to secure his second win of the day. A remarkable ride from Leon Camier who came from eleventh on the grid to take second ahead of his team-mate Max Biaggi who crashed out of race one whilst trying to overtake Castrol Honda's Johnathan Rea done a great job in holding off a late attack from Yamaha WSBK Team rider Eugene Laverty. The battle for fifth was highly contested between the two Italian's of Michel Fabrizio and Marco Melandri whose toing and throwing allowed the two Effenbert-Liberty Ducati's to catch up, but the Alstare Suzuki of Fabrizio which is getting stronger by every round comfortably held onto fifth ahead of Melandri, Guintoli and Smrz. Another good ride from Badovini saw the BMW Italia rookie cross the line in ninth, while Kawasaki RTS rider Tom Sykes just done enough to hold off fellow countryman Castrol Honda's Johnathan Rea for tenth.