Carlos Checa won his second straight pole of the World Superbike season Saturday at Donington Park, setting a new circuit record in the process (1:28.099), and he will be joined by Leon Haslam, Tom Sykes, and Jakub Smrz on the front row. The testing last week at Aragon must have done wonders for the factory Kawasaki team as Sykes posted his fastest lap on a race tire, not a qualifier. Dropping back during qualifying, early weekend frontrunners Max Biaggi and Marco Melandri qualified only sixth and ninth, respectively. Melandri’s teammate Eugene Laverty crashed in Superpole 1, destroying his Yamaha, but continued on a backup bike to qualify thirteenth.

Racing

Do you like the Isle of Man TT? Do you like the third dimension? Do you like watching bikes hurl down city streets at imprudent velocities? If you answered “yes!” to these questions, then we have the cinematic experience you’ve been waiting for your whole life. TT3D: Closer to the Edge (Facebook & Twitter) is a new movie coming out that documents the 2010 Isle of Man TT, and is the first feature-length 3D sport documentary to boot. Packed with not only footage from the TT itself, the documentary also tells the story behind the race with segments on Guy Martin, John McGuinness, Conor Cummins, and Ian Hutchinson

News

Honda has announced that it will be restarting motorcycle production at its Kumamoto factory as of Monday, March 28th. Initially closing all its facilities in Japan after the devastation caused by the Sendai earthquake, Kumamoto will be one of Honda’s first facilities to re-open in almost two weeks’ time. While the company’s Sayama, Saitama, and Suzuka facilities will remain closed through April 3rd, Honda will make a decision on when to restart production at those locations as that date becomes closer. Honda will continue to make decisions on its operations from this date forth, keeping a close eye on its supply chain and the good of the country as whole as the situation in Japan continues to change and evolve.

Rumors

MV Agusta is hosting it dealers meeting this weekend, and it is expected that the Italian company will unveil details on its upcoming 2011-2012 model line-up. With information coming forth about its new smaller Brutale 675 “B3”, a naked version of the companies recently unveiled MV Agusta F3 three-cylinder supersport, MV Agusta is likely to have the bike on sale as early as February 2012, with a base price of €8,990. Also expected to be announced at the dealer meeting is the company’s plan for the releasing the MV Agusta F3, and news of a 201hp MV Agusta F4 “Corsacorta”.

Bikes

Isaac Chavira brings us his rendition of a Ducati Monster 848R. The name sort of gives off what’s going on here, as Chavira has incorporated the 848’s superbike motor into a Monster chassis (a Monster 796 chassis to be exact). While the Monster line has become Ducati’s air-cooled street machine, we like where Chivra’s head is at when explains his choice for using the 848 Superbike’s water-cooled motor: “As you’ll see I have given it a heart transplant stuffing the 848’s motor into the Monsters chassis. After all they gave it a menacing name, why not have the heart of a beast right?”

Racing

Asphalt & Rubber‘s MotoGP infographics return with maestro Peter Lombardi taking us through the statistical analysis of the races. First up is the Qatar GP, MotoGP’s first event, and the only race on the 18 venue calendar to be held at night. Under the lights of Losail, we got our first glimpse into how the 2011 MotoGP season could shape up, and GP fans got a spectacular race with multiple battles going on under the floodlight dotted Arabian sky.