Althea aiming for better fortunes at Silverstone

After the Althea Racing team name had strangely not figured in the top echelons of the World Superbike classification in both Brno races of the ninth round of the championship, Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne (photo) will be looking forward to making up ground again at Silverstone but for different reasons.

Checa qualified in eighth place at Brno, but closed the morning's race in ninth position while in the afternoon he just missed out on the top five, having to settle for sixth. "In the morning we tried to adapt the bike to the situation but during the race it was sliding around a lot," declared the privateer Spaniard, who is still the leading Ducati rider in the standings after two-thirds of the season is over. "I tried to push to take as many championship points as possible but now my head is already focused on Silverstone, a great track, rich in history, on which we will try to race to the front."

Shane Byrne, who had suffered a nasty gash in his left hand in a pre-Brno testing crash at Imola, fulfilled his initial objective to finish in the top ten. The British rider, who as far back as 2003 scored a sensational double win at the Brands Hatch WSB round, is now concentrating on getting a good result again in front of his home fans. "Now I'm banking on getting fully fit so I can be totally prepared for Silverstone. No-one has ridden on the new track yet and this could be an interesting factor as far as the races are concerned."