We could not have wished for a better start to the season even if we had planned it! A wonderful double win for Carlos Checa wearing his X-lite X-802 at Phillip Island at the first World Superbike championship round and an important result (5th and 3rd) for Marco Melandri (Nolan X-802) in his first World Superbike race ever. This was a great achievement for Marco considering he is still recovering from shoulder surgery which he had after Christmas. Ayrton Badovini finished 14th and David Salom just missed the podium with a superb 4th position in the season’s first Supersport race.
Carlos had performed brilliantly throughout the whole week beginning with the 2 free test days where he was always on top which culminated with him setting the fastest lap ever around Phillip Island on a Superbike machine leading to Pole Position, showing unreachable pace. In both races he moved to the front easily and led throughout to take two amazing wins.
Marco, despite the shoulder problems, endured throughout the race and was delighted to be on the podium for the first time in a long period.
In the official rankings, Carlos is 1st and Marco is in 3rd place, with the next race taking place at Donington on 27th March.
Meanwhile in Sepang during the 3 day MotoGP test, Casey Stoner (Nolan X-802) was superfast with his factory Honda RC212V machine whilst World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (X-lite X-802) took 7th position and will now continue to work on developing the Yamaha ready for the start of the season.
Next tests are scheduled in Qatar on March, 13th/14th.
