THE ALTHEA RACING TEAM RETURNS TO BRITISH SHORES FOR SBK ROUND TEN THIS WEEKEND AT SILVERSTONE Silverstone (UK), Wednesday 1st August 2012: after a ten day break, the Althea Racing team returns to British soil for the tenth round of the FIM Superbike World Championship. After participating in the Donington round earlier in the season, the team now takes on the Silverstone track, a circuit that both Althea riders Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano enjoy. Last year’s Silverstone round was just one of many high points for current world champion Checa who won not just one, but both of the day’s Superbike races. Giugliano, who was racing in the Stock 1000 category last season, was leading his race but unfortunately crashed out two laps from the end. The Althea flagbearers know that they have strong pace and good chances of success at the English track, despite the fact that results may well be conditioned by the traditionally unstable weather conditions. Ten days ago, Checa obtained a third and fourth place finish in the two races at Brno, in the Czech Republic. A more than satisfactory result for the Spaniard, considering that the track is not particularly kind to the Ducati bikes. Giugliano was one of the fastest riders on track throughout the practice sessions but unfortunately his races were conditioned by bad weather and tyre choices. After the first nine round of the championship Carlos is still in fourth position overall with 204.5 points, 67 points behind leader Biaggi. Davide is ninth with 99 points. Ducati lies third in the manufacturer’s standings with 276.5 points to the 290 of Aprilia and 292 of BMW. Carlos Checa: “Last year’s Silverstone races couldn’t have gone any better, I won both and that was the perfect conclusion to what was a great weekend. I like the track and I think we can do well there again this year. The weather conditions are always a total unknown in the UK but after the solid results that we scored in mixed conditions at Brno, I’m feeling confident ahead of Sunday’s races.” Checa’s Superbike form at Silverstone: 2011: Race 1 winner, Race 2 – winner 2010: Race 1- 7th, Race 2 10th Davide Giugliano: “It was good to see that we had the pace to be up there with the frontrunners at Brno, even if the races then didn’t go according to plan. We worked well in all of the practice sessions and so I hope that we can be equally competitive in the upcoming races, starting with Silverstone, a track that I know and enjoy racing at.” CIRCUIT DATA: Country: UK Name: Silverstone Length of circuit: 5.780 km Pole Position: right Race distance: 18 laps = 106.236 km LAP RECORDS: Best lap Crutchlow (Yamaha) 2’05.259 (2010). Superpole Hopkins (Suzuki) 2’04.041 (2011). 2011 RESULTS: Race 1 – 1. Checa (Ducati); 2. Laverty (Yamaha); 3. Melandri (Yamaha). Race 2 1. Checa (Ducati); 2. Laverty (Yamaha); 3. Melandri (Yamaha).