Sunday pm - Checa Joins Ten Kate – the Team He's Never Met
Carlos Checa, the 34-year-old Spaniard currently campaigning an LCR Honda in MotoGP, will fly to Holland tomorrow (Monday) to take up one of the most prized seats in motorcycle racing - the final slot in Ten Kate's World Superbike line-up for 2008.
Incredibly, Checa has never met Gerrit and Ronald Ten Kate, the uncle-and-nephew drivers of the Dutch team. But he impressed Honda by finishing second on a Fireblade in the Suzuka Eight Hours race earlier this year, and they and Ten Kate clearly believe that he retains the fire to chase the Superbike title after spending 15 sometimes frustrating years in
MotoGP.
"We have agreed everything," Albero Vergani, Checa's manager, said here at Estoril today. "Tomorrow it will be a meeting to know the people. They have talked by phone but they have never met."
Checa finished fourth in the 500cc championship on a Honda Pons in 1998, but in the last three seasons he has switched between three different MotoGP teams, appearing with Ducati in 2005, Yamaha Tech 3 in 2006 and now with LCR.
"Carlos is happy because he feels that his career here in MotoGP is finished," Vergani said. "Everyone is looking for young riders, and experience is not valued by some of the factory teams.
"A MotoGP bike is also too small for Carlos, and he has had some problems. After the Eight Hours race he said, 'This is a real bike'. Now he has the chance to fight for a championship again."
Checa will line up beside the reigning British Superbike champion Ryuichi Kiyonari and the 2007 World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuogluo in an expanded three-rider Ten Kate Superbike team.
Checa's move ends suggestions that Max Biaggi might fill the vacant Ten Kate role. It also means that there is not as yet a major British rider on the 2008 World Superbike grid, a situation that could see organisers FG Sport influencing Ducati to run Leon Haslam in one of their line-ups.
Sunday pm - Stoner Will Get his Chance at Motegi
Casey Stoner looked dejected in the post-race conference at Estoril after a clutch problem on his Marlboro Ducati robbed him of the chance to fight for victory, but he will recover his bounce when he reflects on
Bridgestone's record of success at Motegi, the venue for the next MotoGP round in Japan just seven days away.
