2011 WSBK Miller Race 2 Results: Winner Takes Commanding Victory From The Start

Results and summary of World Superbike race 2 at Miller Motorsports Park:

Carlos Checa has rounded off a perfect weekend at Miller Motorsports Park by taking an utterly commanding victory in race 2. With his victory, he has extended his championship lead to 61 points, and heads back to next week's meeting at Misano in charge of the WSBK title race.

The Althea Ducati rider clearly learned from his poor start to race 1, getting excellent drive off the line and holding off the charging Marco Melandri to take the lead into the first corner. That would be the last time Checa was challenged, the Spaniard building a 5 second lead by lap 8, and lapping faster than the rest of the field almost throughout. Checa crossed the line with plenty of time to pull an impressive wheelie, and still have more than 7 seconds advantage over second place.

The battle for second was decided almost as quickly as the race for 1st. Leon Camier took charge of the chase for Checa in the first couple of corners, but could never catch the Spaniard. But like Checa, he, too, was uncatchable, his 2nd place finish never under any real threat. Only his Alitalia Aprilia teammate Max Biaggi came near, after making his way past Noriyuki Haga, Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty in the first couple of laps. But Biaggi only got within a couple of seconds of Camier in the final laps. Laverty rode a similarly lonely race in 4th, unable to match the Aprilia's never seriously challenged from behind, though Michel Fabrizio did get within half a second by the time the pair crossed the line.

The only real entertainment in the races was the battle for 9th, 10th and 11th, where Johnny Rea put up a sterling defense with a losing hand, allowing first Jakub Smrz, then Ayrton Badovini, and finally Tom Sykes to get passed. Beyond that, the race was forgettable for everything but the manner in which Checa dominated.

Checa now has a firm grip on the championship, and can afford a couple of DNFs and still lead the title race. There's still a lot of racing left to go - 16 more races until the season concludes at Portimao - but Checa is looking more and more like a champion, and his rivals continue to trip themselves up.

Results: