Carlos Checa is determined to get his waning title bid back on track after a difficult time in the latest World Superbike round at Misano.
Suffering on a Honda bike that had been comfortably out-paced by each of the bike manufacturers all weekend, Checa at least made the most of several retirements ahead of him in the first race to cross the line in fifth place from 11th on the grid.
A satisfying result given Ten Kate's failure to dial into the San Marino circuit over the weekend, Checa wasn't able to produce a similar result in the second race when he ambled home in eighth.
Losing second place in the rider standings, Checa is hoping Honda can now learn from their struggles as the season heads into a particularly crucial stage for his title aspirations.
“It was not easy at all today,” he said. “We had a lot of chattering and lost precious time in some sections of the track. It was difficult to be on the pace and keep it consistent. In the second race we made some small adjustments to the bike but it didn't increase our pace.”
“We knew it would be difficult racing here after yesterday's results and were pleased to at least set a top five result in the first race. It's hard to start from the back of the field and my pace was too slow to make much ground. Some riders at the front crashed out so the damage was not too bad. In the second race it was impossible for me to improve my position after a bad start.”
”We leave this track with a lot of new information on the CBR1000RR. We'll look at the data to find out why we cannot be fast here. We still continue to grow up and hopefully will be able to catch up on the loss in the next round.”
