World Superbikes star Leon Camier writes exclusively for the KM Group
10:13, 02 June 2011
The World Superbike races held at Miller Motorsport, Utah, were good to me last year, and this time they were even better with a second and fourth-place finish.
The race weekend didn’t start well where a combination of rain and cold conditions didn’t gel for me and I crashed out on the first lap of the first superpole on my Alitalia Aprilia RSV1000. forcing me to use my No.2 machine.
With just under two minutes remaining I got into the second superpole, but with the lack of practice and testing I couldn’t progress any higher than 11th, which put me on the third row of the grid for Monday’s race.
Series leader Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati) was on pole with my team-mate, Max Biaggi, sixth but halfway round on lap one Biaggi and Jonathan Rae collided so I was now up to fifth. Up front Troy Corser (BMW) was being harried by Nori Haga (Pata Aprilia) and Checa was third. With five laps gone Checa pushed past Corser for the lead.
With 13 laps to go my pit board was telling me that Eugene Laverty was hot on my heels and he came past me two laps later. But, with four laps to go, I slipped past Laverty to get up to fourth. Up front Checa was some five seconds ahead and went on to beat Jakub Smrtz and Sylvain Guintoli but my fourth place was my best result of the season so far.
From the start of race two Checa took the lead, while I made one of my best starts and slotted into second with Laverty third.
Lap three saw three riders fall in separate incidents, while Biaggi, determined to make up for his non-score in race one, passed Laverty and was two seconds behind me for several laps.
Checa was five seconds ahead at two-thirds race distance with Biaggi still on my tail, but it was a question of keeping my head down and looking at my pit board and, with three laps remaining, it showed I gapped Biaggi by 3.4 seconds.
Checa could not be caught but as the flag dropped I came in second for my best result of the season – and I beat my team-mate and world champion to boot.
This weekend we’re in Misano, Italy. Please visit my website at www.leon-camier.net
