Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) took only four races of his World Superbike racing career to secure a podium finish, missing out on a win in the second 22-lap race at Phillip Island by only 1.127 seconds.
It was his and his 2008 specification Honda CBR1000RR's first visit to the podium, and came after he had qualified on the front row in Superpole on Saturday, with the fourth best qualifying time.
Checa had been knocked off his number one machine on the first lap of the first race, although the race was restarted from the beginning in any case, because of a dramatic crash on the starting grid. Despite suffering from a sore ankle, foot and leg, Checa used his spare machine for the restarted race and battled hard to secured a sixth place finish, and then go on to take the best Honda finish of the 2008 season so far in the second outing.
"We are still new to this, a new rider on a new bike but at one stage of race two I thought I could win. Then I realised that Bayliss, like in race one, had a bit in reserve”, said the Catalan. “Second is a good result for this stage of the season. My pace was enough to pull away from Xaus and Nieto, but there are still areas of the bike to improve. I didn't have a lot of time to get back from the medical centre after the crash in race one, but we just made it for the restart. I didn't feel ready to race right then and considering this we did OK in sixth."
Checa now sits fifth and top Honda rider in the points, with 45, while Lavilla is just in the top ten, on 18. Kiyonari's turnaround puts him 11th equal on points with his team-mate Sofuoglu.
