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World Superbike Miller Motorsports Park Race One—Checa continues MMP mastery

Carlos Checa wins Race One handily, with Marco Melandri and Max Biaggi filling out podium; John Hopkins crashes out on lap seven, Shane Turpin 18th, Jake Holden 19thTOOELE, UTAH, MAY 28 – Carlos Checa continued his ownership of Miller Motorsports Park with his fifth win in the past seven races, and fourth this season in Race One of the two World Superbike races here.

Checa won his first double here in 2008, had a pair of heartbreaking mechanicals in 2010, then rebounded with a double in 2011. The possibility that this race may not be on the 2012 World Superbike Championship calendar was something he didn’t want to consider.

“Well, if I need to pay, if that is the problem. I can pay, I can help,� he joked after beating BMW Motorrad’s Marco Melandri by 2.313 seconds on a sunny day in Utah. “Will be nice to come back. I like this place.

“For sure this track always feels very, very strong here and for me it will be nice, not only for the track and for the winning, always of the people, the state. Always really enjoy. I mean, I spent time before, I will spend time after in Moab and always I try to take a few days before or after to be around here that not only the track, all the state I really enjoy.�

This Miller World Superbike win was especially meaningful to Checa. He’d met up with mentor and friend Wayne Rainey at his vacation home in Lake Tahoe prior to the race, and Rainey and his wife, Shae, made the drive to watch Checa race World Superbike for the first time.

“I would like to dedicate to him and to many other people, but especially him,� Checa said. “We spend some good time, we have a lot of fun together, for sure. Yesterday he told me, ‘I had really good fun, I enjoyed to come here. I hope (tomorrow) to even enjoy more,’ and for me it’s a great pleasure to win when people and special people like Wayne came here for the first time. For sure we will have some good moments tonight to talk and to celebrate.�




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