Leon Haslam (Suzuki Alstare) and Carlos Checa (Althea Ducati) have taken a win apiece in the opening round of the World Superbikes at Phillip Island on Sunday. In dry conditions and in front of 65,500 fans, the action was intense in each 22-lap race, with the leading three riders finishing within 0.769 seconds of each other in race one and the leading four within 0.837 seconds in race two. It was a photo finish in the opening race to split Haslam from his rival Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox). After the officials spent some time examining the footage, the win was eventually given to Hashem by 0.004, the first of his career.

Defending V8 champion Jamie Whincup continued his perfect start to 2010 with his fourth consecutive victory in Middle East on Saturday night. Whincup, who won race one of the Desert 400 in Bahrain from start to finish, again started from pole but found himself back in fifth place at the first turn. But he was back in front by lap eight and fought it out with Mark Winterbottom for the victory. The TeamVodafone driver held on to extend his early championship lead to 57 points with Winterbottom claiming second place. "That certainly wasn't my perfect performance," Whincup said. "The start was ordinary; I ran wide and had a wheel lockup which I got away with.

Jamie Whincup continued his perfect start to the 2010 V8 Supercars Championship with his third consecutive race win in the Middle East on Friday night. The defending champion led the opening 200km race of the Desert 400 in Bahrain from start to finish to add to his earlier wins in Abu Dhabi. Starting from pole, Whincup was never really tested as he took the chequered flag 3.5 seconds ahead of Mark Winterbottom and 12 seconds in front of team-mate Craig Lowndes. "We have had a great run," Whincup said. "To win in Abu Dhabi was huge but to come here and win is really something else." "I know it looked easy, but we were working hard.

Spain's Carlos Checa topped the timesheets at the end of first qualifying for this weekend's opening round of the FIM Superbike World Championship in Australia. The Althea Racing rider cut the timing beam at the 2.76-mile Phillip Island circuit in one minute 32.155 seconds, good enough to edge out the Ducati Xerox of Michel Fabrizio by seven-thousandths of a second. It was a good day for the British riders, with Leon Haslam, fastest in the earlier free practice session, finishing third and Checa's team-mate Shane Byrne in fourth.

Jonathan Rea has set his sights on winning what he freely acknowledges will be a very difficult FIM Superbike World Championship. The 23-year-old from Ballymena knows some of his toughest competition will come from the other six British riders who are contesting the 13-round series which gets under way at Phillip Island in Australia this weekend. Four British riders finished in the top nine of the standings last season and Rea, the highest placed in fifth, aims to begin in winning fashion during Sunday's two races. The Hannspree Ten Kate Honda rider said: "My aim, my goal is to win the championship. It is also the team's aim, but this a very hard championship.