Carlos Checa Dominates at Phillip Island Test

Carlos Checa was fastest overall, with a lap time of 1:30.578, as the final World Superbike winter test ended Tuesday at Phillip Island. That time was also nearly a half second faster than the existing lap record set by Regis Laconi in 2009, and almost 1.3 sec faster than Troy Corser’s race lap record from 2007. In addition to Checa, Sylvain Guintoli, Jonathan Rea, Jakub Smrz, and Joan Lascorz completed the fastest five. Rea’s time from Tuesday morning kept him third fastest despite a crash at Turn 3 in the afternoon that resulted in an injured hand. No word is available yet on the specifics of his injury.

Checa was fastest overall on Monday followed by multiple Ducatis, all lacking factory support after Ducati’s withdrawal from WSBK last season. Leon Camier only rode Monday afternoon after taking ill, sitting out the other sessions. Also absent was Australian Chris Vermeulen who will not ride until Donington Park, and has been replaced by Akira Yanagawa at the factory Kawasaki team.

Overall Times for 2011 World Superbike Phillip Island Test:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Best Time
1.	7	Carlos Checa	Althea Racing	1:30.578
2.	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing	1:31.196
3.	4	Jonathan Rea	Castrol Honda	1:31.206
4.	96	Jakub Smrz	Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing	1:31.654
5.	17	Joan Lascorz	Paul Bird Kawasaki Racing	1:31.866
6.	3	Max Biaggi	Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team	1:31.870
7.	84	Michel Fabrizio	Team Suzuki Alstare	1:32.113
8.	33	Marco Melandri	Yamaha WSBK Team	1:32.122
9.	58	Eugene Laverty	Yamaha WSBK Team	1:32.137
10.	66	Tom Sykes	Paul Bird Kawasaki Racing	1:32.272
11.	41	Noriyuki Haga	PATA Racing Aprilia	1:32.299
12.	12	Josh Waters	Yoshimura Suzuki	1:32.394
13.	111	Ruben Xaus	Castrol Honda	1:32.405
14.	91	Leon Haslam	BMW Motorrad Motorsport	1:32.413
15.	52	James Toseland	BMW Motorrad Italia SBK	1:32.880
16.	11	Troy Corser	BMW Motorrad Motorsport	1:32.994
17.	86	Aryton Badovini	BMW Motorrad Italia SBK	1:33.233
18.	67	Bryan Staring	Team Pedercini	1:33.398
19.	6	Arika Yanagawa	Paul Bird Kawasaki Racing	1:33.432
20.	121	Maxime Berger	Supersonic Racing	1:33.485
21.	44	Roberto Rolfo	Team Pedercini	1:33.514
22.	8	Mark Aitchison	Team Pedercini	1:33.721

However, simple fastest lap times do not always give the full story of a test session. One way to see how a rider might do over the entire season is to see how consistent he is through a test. As first introduced after the Infront Motor Sports test at Portimao, here at A&R we use the overall rankings over the course of the sessions to show which riders were most consistently quicker than their competitors.

Session Rankings for February 21-22 Test at Phillip Island:

	Rider	Mon #1	Mon #2	Tues #1	Tues #2
Tier 1
	Carlos Checa	6^th	1^st	1^st	1^st
	Sylvain Guintoli	1^st	2^nd	2^nd	2^nd
	Jakub Smrz	3^rd	3^rd	4^th	4^th
	Jonathan Rea	2^nd	8^th	3^rd	3^rd
Tier 2
	Michel Fabrizio	4^th	5^th	6^th	7^th
	Joan Lascorz	5^th	11^th	5^th	5^th
	Marco Melandri	7^th	7^th	7^th	8^th
	Max Biaggi	no time	4^th	11^th	6^th
Tier 3
	Tom Sykes	9^th	6^th	9^th	10^th
	Eugene Laverty	12^th	10^th	8^th	9^th
	Leon Haslam	8^th	9^th	14^th	14^th
	Noriyuki Haga	15^th	16^th	10^th	11^th
	Josh Waters	11^th	12^th	12^th	12^th
	Ruben Xaus	13^th	13^th	13^th	13^th
Tier 4
	Troy Corser	10^th	14^th	15^th	16^th
	James Toseland	14^th	17^th	16^th	15^th
	Maxime Berger	17^th	18^th	18^th	20^th
	Ayrton Badovini	18^th	20^th	17^th	17^th
Tier 5
	Roberto Rolfo	16^th	21^st	19^th	21^st
	Bryan Staring	19^th	19^th	20^th	18^th
	Mark Aitchison	21st	22^nd	21^st	22^nd
	Akira Yanagawa	20^th	23^rd	22^nd	19^th

	Leon Camier	no time	15^th	no time	no time

Despite the different angle of rankings, it is still difficult to tell just how the season will shake out. With just days before the first round, again at Phillip Island, one thing is abundantly clear: even without factory support the Ducatis are quick and Checa is ready to lead the way. Racing begins in earnest this weekend.

Source: WorldSBK & SPEED TV Australia; Photo: Althea Racing