Checa captures pole position
He earned the pole position in qualifying early Saturday. When the race started, he jumped out to an early lead and stayed there for all of the 14 laps around the 4.5-mile winding track.
In world superbike racing, qualifying runs were held and, after an hour of riding and nearly 40 laps, Troy Corser of Australia was the top qualifier with a lap time on the shorter 3.1-mile track of 1:49.224.
Troy Bayliss, also of Australia, held the top qualifier's spot for most of the time, but late in the race Corser found the right groove and posted the fastest time among the 29 riders qualifying. Bayliss' time was 1:49.636.
Third was Regis Laconi of France. His time was 1:49.618.
But then the starting positions shifted in what is dubbed the Superpole. Under world rules, the top 16 riders return to the track in the late afternoon. Each of the 16 is given the chance to race one lap around the track to try for a better time and a chance to move up in today's start.
Carlos Checa of Spain, in only his sixth race for Honda, moved up into the pole position with a time of 1:48.193. Second was Germany's Max Neukirchner. Bayliss was in third and Michael Fabrizio of Italy was fourth.
"Now the start tomorrow is the next step we need to improve. I will try to do a good race tomorrow; for sure we have some chance of winning, because we have shown our potential in the last few races, and especially here. The bike is now working well and I'm also confident with the tires, so you never know."
Neukirchner said he was happy with his run.
"I had some problems yesterday with the chassis, and in particular I was losing a lot of time in the final split, but we found a good way to improve and we were much quicker than yesterday. I think we found a good race set-up, and I hope I'm tomorrow I'm in front. Here on this track it's going to be really hard; the times are very close and I'm sure it'll be a big fight," he said.
Starting on the second row will be Corser, Spain's Rubin Xaus, Loaconi and Japan's Yukio Kagayama. The third row will be Max Biaggi of Italy, Noriyuki Haga of Japan.
Spies' greatest challenge came from Mat Mladin, the No. 2 qualifier. He jumped in behind Spies off the line and was within seconds of the leader as he followed him around the first lap.
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