Carlos Checa rates his title rivals

Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider Carlos Checa will start the 2009 season as one of the favourites.

The veteran Spaniard now has a year of World Superbike experience and a year of developing his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade superbike.

Speaking ahead of this weekends opening World Superbike race, Checa told MCN his prediction for the season ahead and who his biggest rivals will be.

He said: “At the beginning of the year I think it will be Haga, Fabrizio, Spies and maybe Sykes. Neukirchner will be there of course and also Byrne.

In Portugal Byrne showed his potential and was very fast and the other Ducati guys Haga and Fabrizio are also very strong.

“Yamaha are going well, Spies looks like he has more talent, but Sykes is getting more consistent and In Portugal was very fast.

Neukirchner and Suzuki will be consistent and fast and so far he looks very comfortable.”

In testing the new BMW and Aprilia teams have been competitive at times, but as expected have lacked the pace of their more established rivals.

Checa said:

“At this moment BMW and Aprilia are not competitive but they are factory teams so we should know that they will arrive.

“Corser is very consistent and he can be at the front although there is a question mark over the BMW.

“Biaggi and Nakano have great potential with the Aprilia because they have some very strong people involved in the factory project.”

And regarding his own Ten Kate Honda team-mates Ryuichi Kiyonari and Jonathan Rea he commented.

“Kiyonari I don’t know, he knows the tracks now so we will have to see what he can do. Jonathan is very fast and he has very good talent. For sure he is a rider that will come in the future.

“This year there is a long list of riders that can be fast, but unfortunately the list of riders that get on the podium is only three! This makes it exciting.”