Checa Previews the Nurburgring World Superbike Round

This weekend the Althea Racing team will be in Germany, at the historic Nürburgring, all set to participate in the twelfth round of the 2012 Superbike World Championship. Current champion Carlos Checa hopes for two great races with which to reduce the gap between himself and the leaders while his team- mate Davide Giualiano, currently tenth, wants a strong performance at what is his favourite track.

Two weeks ago the Superbike riders races at the brand new Moscow Raceway. Despite fantastic results during the practice and qualifying sessions, both the Althea riders had difficulty come race day; both crashed out of the first race while in the second Davide battled against tyre wear and Carlos had to fight hard to avoid being caught up in accidents.

They eventually closed the race in fourth (Checa) and sixth (Giugliano) position. After the first eleven events Carlos is still fourth in the standings with 233.5 points while championship leader Melandri holds 308.5. Davide is in tenth position with 116 points while Ducati is third in the manufacturer's championship with 322 points.

Last year at the German track Carlos dominated race one, winning it with an advantage of almost two seconds over second- placed Melandri. The second race on the other hand was conditioned by heavy rain which meant that the Spaniard's main aim was to finish and cross the line without crashing; he closed in eighth place.

Besides last year's win, Carlos has stepped up to the podium on three other occasions in previous years, thanks to one second place and two third place finishes. Davide was the absolute protagonist in his category last year too; in the Stock 1000 race he crossed the line in first place, over four seconds ahead of Barrier, second.

Both Carlos and Davide hope for similarly positive results this coming weekend.

Carlos Checa: ‟Unfortunately Moscow didn't exactly go to plan and now we need to make up for that at the Nürburgring. I feel prepared and ready for the challenge and hope that data from last year's race will be able to he help us do equally well this year. We've seen a lot of wet weather this season and will probably have rain in Germany too - the important thing is to adapt to the weather and track conditions, and do our job at the highest possible level.”

Checa's Superbike form at the Nürburgring:

• 2011: Race 1 - winner, Race - 8th
• 2010: Race 1- 2nd, Race 2 - DNF
• 2009: Race 1 - 3rd, Race 2 - 3rd
• 2008: Race 1 - 5th, Race 2 - 5th

Davide Giugliano: ‟I've always liked the German track and have some good memories, particularly of last year when I won the Stock 1000 race. During recent rounds we've worked really well during the practice sessions but then in the races I haven't been able to put it all together and score the kind of results that I know I am capable of. So I hope that I can use everything I've learned until now to get back on the right path and take some solid results in this final phase of the championship, starting this Sunday.”

CIRCUIT DATA:

Country: Germany

Name: The Nürburgring

Length of circuit: 5.137 km

Pole Position: left

Race distance: 20 laps = 102.740 km

LAP RECORDS:

Best lap - Rea (Honda) 1'55.392 (2010).

Superpole - Checa (Ducati) 1'54.144 (2011). 2011

RESULTS: Race 1 - 1. Checa (Ducati); 2. Melandri (Yamaha); 3. Haga (Aprilia). Race 2 - 1. Sykes (Kawasaki); 2. Guintoli (Ducati); 3. Smrz (Ducati)

**Source:** Althea Ducati

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