It’s fair to say that the opening round of the World Superbike championship lived up to all the hype. Like any race at Phillip Island it had the potential to be a classic and it didn’t disappoint. However it didn’t all go plan, with the action kicking off earlier than expected.

In morning warm-up the outcome of the races was drastically affected when BMW rider Ruben Xaus slammed into the back of title favorite Noriyuki Haga going into Turn 1. Data from Haga’s wrecked Ducati revealed that he was travelling at 150mph when he parted company with his bike and began tumbling through the gravel. Somehow both Haga and Xaus got up and walked away, but Xaus was later withdrawn from the race by his team. Haga barely complained but was clearly suffering the effects of the crash with a badly bruised arm and lower back.

The opening round, however, will be remembered for two things – Brit star Leon Haslam securing his first ever WSB win and Spanish veteran Carlos Checa being completely unstoppable en route to the Race 2 victory onboard a privateer Althea Ducati.

Back to Haslam, before the race had even started it seemed certain that he would be fighting at the front onboard his perfectly set-up Alstare Suzuki. In the end it was a start to finish race victory, but the final result needed a photo finish with Haslam and Xerox Ducati man Michel Fabrizio charging to the line. On the timing screens they initially gave the result to Fabrizio – probably because his transponder was located nearer the front of his bike, but the result of the photo finish showed that Haslam had actually won the race by 4/1000ths of a second – the closest in WSB’s 22-year history.

Haslam said: “It’s my first ever win and it feels good, but it has to be one of the hardest races of my life. When I came out of the last corner all it would do was spinning and I was shouting in my helmet ‘come on!”

In Race 2 Haslam had to fight from the opening lap with not only Fabrizio but his own teammate, Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli, before having to settle for second to Checa.

Haslam, who revealed that he will marry his long time girlfriend Olivier Stringer in December, will leave Australia a happy man as WSB winner and championship leader.

Despite Checa’s pace in testing and qualifying no one really thought he could run at the front let alone beat the factory Ducati’s of Haga and Fabrizio, but nobody told him that. In a race where tire life was critical, Checa not only came from a long way back but managed to conserve his tire in the process. By using smooth sweeping lines as opposed to squaring off the corners and spinning on the way out Checa timed his run to perfection and in the closing laps clearly had more grip than anyone else. The man that last won a race in 2008 at Miller said: “When I caught the lead group there was still nine laps to go so I wanted to see who exactly was there and where they were fast and where I could overtake them. I then started to ride as smooth as I could and really using my body on the bike to put more weight on the rear and use less throttle. I knew that I needed to help my tire so that I could arrive with some grip in the final laps.

“I played with the ignition mapping to make the traction control more and with my riding I was able to save my tire until the end. That was why in the last two turns I was able to pull a gap on Leon and that gap was enough to make it to the line in first position it all worked out perfectly.”

Not so perfect was the plight of the championship-winning factory Sterilgarda Yamaha team. Toseland rode with a suspected broken bone in his hand following a big crash in Friday qualifying and then crashed again in Race 1. Both crashes have been put down to a new traction control system not being able to cope with the steep torque curve of the more powerful 2010-spec motor. Toseland salvaged tenth in Race 2 but it wasn’t what the double WSB champion expected with or without a broken hand.

Teammate Cal Crutchlow also crashed in Race 1 and finished just ahead of Toseland in ninth in Race 2. The reigning World Supersport Champion isn’t very good at hiding his frustration and told anyone that cared to listen that he’ didn’t come all the way to Australia to finish in ninth place and score a handful of points. It’s clear that Yamaha have some work to do on their new bike, but it’s just a matter of time before their two riders will be fighting at the front of the class in 2010.

2010 World Superbike Phillip Island Race 1 Results
1. Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
2. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
3. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)
4. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
5. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)
7. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
8. Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
9. Troy Corser (BMW)
10. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
11. Leon Camier (Aprilia)
12. Max Neukirchner (Honda)
13. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki)
14. Shane Byrne (Ducati)
15. Andrew Pitt (BMW)
16. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Honda)
17. Matteo Baiocco (Kawasaki)
18. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)
19. Josh Brookes (Honda)

2010 World Superbike Phillip Island Race 2 Results
1. Carlos Checa (Ducati)
2. Leon Haslam (Suzuki) -0.307
3. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati) -0.434
4. Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki) 0.837
5. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)
6. Jonathan Rea (Honda)
7. Troy Corser (BMW)
8. Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
9. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
10. James Toseland (Yamaha)
11. Leon Camier (Aprilia)
12. Shane Byrne (Ducati)
13. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
14. Josh Brookes (Honda)
15. Andrew Pitt (BMW)
16. Max Neukirchner (Honda)
17. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Honda)
18. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)