While Ducati is weeping in MotoGP, in Superbikes it’s all smiles, proving that all those moans and complaints and the rest of the yada yada from fans that came when they announced they would be pulling out their factory team at the end of 2010 a was pretty well unjustified as Carlos Checa and the Althea Racing team are doing an excellent job in taking up the slack.
Carlos Checa took Ducati to its 300th Superbike win during race one at Silverstone and to mark the event, Ducati held a special celebration with the Ducati Corse racing department and Checa in their factory in Borgo Panigale.
Checa also autographed the new poster that hangs on the wall of the main reception area of the Bologna factory.
Ducati’s historic 300 race wins in the World Superbike Championship started with victory for Marco Lucchinelli in the first ever World Superbike race at Donington Park, England in 1988 and continued as 25 more Ducati-mounted riders wrote themselves into the pages of motorcycle racing history.
Legendary riders such as Carl Fogarty, Doug Polen, Raymond Roche, Troy Corser, Giancarlo Falappa, Neil Hodgson, Pierfrancesco Chili, Ben Bostrom, James Toseland, Noriyuki Haga, Troy Bayliss and many others up until the current World Championship leader, Carlos Checa.
The victories have generated a total of 155 Ducati pole positions, 753 podiums, 13 Rider’s and 16 Manufacturers’ World Championship titles.