It's rare that we get to see a new circuit on the calendar, but here we are in the United States at Miller Motorsport, a purpose built and really rather nice facility in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, just thirty miles from Salt Lake City in Utah. It's well laid out, offers a tantalising mix of fast and slow bends and has all the required elevation changes to keep it interesting. It's a very wide track, as you might expect for somewhere designed for cars as well as bikes, and the runoff areas are positively immense. I'm advised that the designers set out to make a track that was both interesting and challenging to race and very safe to fall off at. I'd say they succeeded. They certainly went out of their way to make the circus welcome in town, with a parade and all sorts. Friendly folks...

Friday's practice session didn't have much to raise the eyebrows. Bayliss at the top, followed by the on form Carlos Checa, former AMA champion Troy Corser and...and Regis Laconi. Even more of a surprise was seeing a bright yellow Honda in eighth as Shuhei Aoyama got to grips with the Alto Evolution bike and took a well deserved top ten time. Alto Evolution have had a reshuffle in the team since Monza, bringing in the hugely experienced American AMA racer Jason Pridmore to provide some support for Aoyama's conversion to superbikes as well as brining some more experience to the team generally. Certainly his influence seems to have had some immediate effect on the likeable Japanese rider's results. The new circuit seems a little featureless and some riders appeared to have problems getting their bearings, but although there were a few tumbles, nobody got hurt.

Unlike Saturday. Saturday's qualifying was marred by a collision between Nori Haga and Kenan Sofuoglu. One of those things, and nobody was to blame but the result was a very nasty crash that saw Haga break his right collarbone in two places. Any normal man would have been out for the weekend, but Haga was able to demonstrate that he was still able to ride (apparently by doing ten pressups for the course doctor), went back out on his spare bike and set his best time of the day. The man is, quite simply, a legend. The rest of qualifying saw tidy efforts from all the usual suspects, with Troy Corser taking the honours from Bayliss with a resurgent Laconi, apparently with a revised swingarm on the wayward Kawasaki, third. Checa headed the Suzuki pair of Nieto and Neukirchner with Smrz, Fabrizio and Xaus following. Shuhei Aoyama made his first Superpole in tenth, a huge achievement for the Alto Evolution team. Notable strugglers were Biaggi, who kept making off track excursions, Haga, whose slight lack of pace was totally forgivable bearing in mind the state of his upper body and Kagayama who seemed to be taking a long time to gel with the new track.

Talking of Superpole, it was Carlos Checa who managed to lift pole position from Neukirchner with Bayliss third and Fabrizio fourth in his best performance to date. Troy Corser headed row two from Xaus, Laconi and Kagayama while Biaggi sat behind him, ahead of Haga, Smrz and Muggeridge. Aoyama ended up fourteenth, just behind Fonsi Nieto and ahead of Lorenzo Lanzi and Ayrton Badovini.

So. It'll be no surprise to hear that race day was hot and dry, this being summer in a salt lake and all. Warmup didn't have any surprises in store, Corser being just quicker than Checa though it was good to see Biaggi up towards the front in fifth.

Race one was delayed as Fabrizio's bike died on the line and it all had to get sorted out. To keep things clean (and, no doubt, to stay in line with the all-powerful American TV schedules) the race was reduced by a lap as a result. No problem, though, as when the lights went out it was Bayliss, Neukirchner and Biaggi who made the running, hotly pursued by Checa, Corser and Haga. Aoyama made an amazing start, rocketing up through the pack but got baulked at the first corner and squeezed back down to twelfth. Corser and Checa got a little too close in the first turn, both of them being lucky to stay on as they touched bikes. It took just one lap for Neukirchner to blast past the Ducati while the other Max, Biaggi, went off the track jostling for position with Haga and ended up seventeenth with it all to do again. The young German only got to enjoy two laps at the front, though, before Carlos Checa made a couple of beautifully clean passes to take both Bayliss and Neukirchner on consecutive laps at the same corner. Corser and Haga were pushing hard, too, which nearly made for some real nastiness as Bayliss highsided in front of Corser. The Yamaha rider did extremely well to avoid hitting his namesake who ended up in the middle of the track for a short time before diving to safety.

A few laps later and it was Haga's turn to go down again, fortunately on his relatively uninjured left side. This time it was Jakub Smrz who deserves a medal for firing his Ducati between the fallen Japanese rider and his sliding bike, avoiding both. In a race of attrition, Laconi also took an early gravel bath, sadly taking Xaus with him. The luckless Spaniard was able to restart but lost a massive ten places as a result. And unfortunately Aoyama's sterling efforts came to naught as well, a failed hose clamp allowing a massive coolant leak and forcing his retirement from a commendable thirteenth, having been as high as tenth at one stage.

Up at the front, it was Checa who was making a break and nobody really seemed able to stop him. Troy Corser finally got past that pesky German and made an enormous effort but it was Checa who took the chequered flag from Corser with Michel Fabrizio an astonishing third. Astonishing because the Italian went from the front row of the grid to fourteenth in the first lap and really seemed to be going nowhere for a while before regrouping and managing to pip Neukirchner in the last couple of laps. Nieto rode an excellent race on the second Suzuki to take fifth, while Jakub Smrz in sixth was nearly the best finishing Ducati on his private entry. Muggas came seventh, just ahead of Kagayama while Biaggi fought his way back up to ninth. Kiyonari rounded out the top ten.

Race two started on time so ran for the whole twenty one laps. Apart from Jakub Smrz, who, having had to start from the pitlane was black flagged for a technical violation. Russell Holland, too, had a short race on the DF Honda, retiring on the first lap after running onto the gravel. Up at the front, though, this time it was Troy Corser who made the break from Bayliss, Neukirchner, Biaggi and Xaus. Checa got swallowed up in the first corner melee, dropping back to sixth ahead of Haga while Fabrizio repeated his race one performance by finishing the first lap in twelfth. Corser got to enjoy clear track for two laps before Neukirchner made a move and calmly blasted past at the end of the main straight. Bayliss, too, had a go, relegating the Yamaha rider to third on the next lap. But Carlos Checa had regrouped after his appalling start and was now coming through the pack in an impressive style. Lap five saw him pass Bayliss after a brief and spirited resistance from both Troys and four laps later he again took the lead.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Because there was some high drama unfolding. Bayliss' Ducati developed a technical problem which later transpired to be a gearshift issue. Interestingly the same problem that nearly sidelined Fabrizio in race one. Unable to maintain race pace, the championship leader was forced to pull into the pits and though he was able to rejoin a couple of minutes later that couple of minutes put him two laps down and outside any real hope of getting points. The recently vacated third slot now became a fiercely contested prize, with Biaggi and Corser the protagonists. For a while it looked as though Biaggi would take it, but after lap upon lap of constant pressure, Corser forced the Italian into a mistake and slipped by. From there it was quite straightforward to both open a gap and to close on second placed Neukirchner. Or it would have been had Corser not pushed just a little too hard and lost the front, sliding off into the gravel and out of the points. But still Biaggi wasn't going to get onto the podium, as Michel Fabrizio really did repeat his efforts from race one, storming through to take third in style. And it nearly got worse for Biaggi as he found himself coming under pressure from Haga, riding an astonishing race considering his right collarbone was in three pieces. The Japanese, who has never broken a bone before, harried and pressed Biaggi until the penultimate lap when he finally appeared to accept that he wasn't going to get past and that he really was in pain. And on the final lap Haga was also passed by his mate Kagayama, ending up sixth. Ruben Xaus' weekend didn't improve as a really nasty looking crash left him crawling across the track, stunned and obviously in a lot of pain though happily it seems nothing was broken.

So yes, Carlos Checa did the double to make this Ten Kate's most successful weekend since Brands Hatch last year when Toseland did the honours for them. For the Spaniard it had been a ten year wait since the last time he stood on the top step of the podium. And then two came at once. Bayliss took no points away with him this weekend, which has narrowed the gap at the top to just twenty eight points. That's got to be good for the championship as realistically there are still six riders in with a real chance of challenging for the top. Though I still wouldn't bet against Bayliss...

In two weeks time we'll be at the Nurburgring. Obviously not the old circuit, but the new one which has little of the atmosphere but is at least a great and popular circuit to ride. See you there.

Race One

1 Carlos Checa (Honda)
2 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
3 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
4 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
5 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
6 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
7 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
8 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
9 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
10 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)

Race Two

1 Carlos Checa (Honda)
2 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
3 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
4 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
5 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
6 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
7 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
8 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
9 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
10 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)

Championship Standing after six rounds:

1 Troy Bayliss 194
2 Carlos Checa 166
3 Max Neukirchner 144
4 Fonsi Nieto 126
5 Nori Haga 122
6 Troy Corser 121
7 Ruben Xaus 92
8 Michel Fabrizio 87
9 Max Biaggi 85
10 Ryuichi Kiyonari 80

SB