Marco Melandri’s in excellent shape! His second place and a victory on American turf have allowed him to climb to second place in the overall standings, which are still dominated by Max Biaggi.

Miller Motorsports Park near the Great Salt Lake in Utah hosted the sixth round of the Superbike World Championship. Akrapovič can once again take great proud in the results of the riders with machines equipped with our exhaust systems. First of all, there’s the outstanding performance by BMW Motorrad team member Marco Melandri, who took second place in the first moto and won the second race—demonstrating the winning combination of an Italian racer, a German machine, and a Slovenian exhaust. The end of the second race was especially exciting: Marco beat second-ranked Jonathan Rea by only 0.195 seconds.

“It’s amazing,” commented Melandri happily after the event. “My team and BMW did an awesome job. Here at Miller it was my worst weekend last year, and it was the worst for BMW, too. So going home with two podiums, a win and a second place, is like a dream. In race one, I was pushing like in the qualifier from the first lap until the end. The tire was working very well until the end. Yesterday we were struggling a bit too much, but today fortunately the weather was better for us. And I was feeling even more comfortable on the bike with less fuel in the tank. I tried to make life not too easy for Carlos, but in some corners I couldn’t go his line with the four-cylinder bike. I tried to catch him, but on the last lap I tried not to push too much because it was easy to make a mistake, and a second place and the podium was good after such a tough qualifier. In race two, I obviously had a little bit of luck with Carlo crashing. I was struggling a bit at the beginning, and when Johnny passed me I lost my concentration. It took me some time to catch him. But again, when the fuel level dropped down I felt so much better on the bike and fortunately I could pass Johnny on the straight because my BMW engine was so powerful. Otherwise it would have been really difficult for me to try to make a pass. I’m happy because the bike’s working well on different types of tracks. But now we have to stay focused, we can’t think that we’re going to be on top every Sunday, so we have to keep working. But my team did a great job, thanks to everyone, to all the guys back in Germany. I’m so happy and proud to be with BMW. This is the best team I’ve ever worked with.”

Aprilia team member Max Biaggi also delivered an excellent performance in the U.S. This year he’s constantly been racking up enviable results one after the other. After two third places at Miller Motorsports Park, he still maintains the overall lead, 18 points ahead of Marco Melandri. This means two competitors riding bikes sporting the red scorpion on their exhausts are at the very top of the world championship!

On 10 June the caravan returns to Europe, to the Misano Adriatico circuit in Italy.

Photo: BMW Motorrad, Aprilia Racing