Ben Spies
2009 Assen
Nationality		American
Current team		Monster Yamaha Tech 3
Bike number		11
Website		BenSpies.com
Career Statistics

Ben Spies (pronounced /ˈbɛn ˈspiːz/) (born July 11, 1984 in Germantown, Tennessee), also known as "Elbowz" due to his riding style where his elbows protrude outward^[1], is a professional motorcycle road racer who turned pro in 2000. He won the AMA Superbike Championship for Yoshimura Suzuki in 2006 (only the second time since 1999 that his team-mate Mat Mladin had not won it), and successfully defended it in 2007 and 2008.

For 2009 he raced in the Superbike World Championship series for the Yamaha Italia team; winning the championship in his rookie year by six points over rival Noriyuki Haga. He started racing on Yamaha YSR 50cc bikes with the Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association in Texas as a pre-teen. Spies currently lives in Longview, Texas.

[edit] Racing history

[edit] Pre-AMA

Ben started riding motorcycles at the age of five and racing with CMRA at the age of eight in 1993. In 1994, he won a YSR championship followed by an 80cc championship the following season. At age 12, he started riding 125 Grand Prix bikes, traveling to WERA races outside of Texas. At age 14, Ben started riding 600s, winning more championships. He signed with Suzuki in 2000 at the age of 15, and began his AMA career.^[2]

[edit] AMA

2005 Sears Point

In 2000 Spies raced with the Valvoline Suzuki team He took a season-best 5th-place finish at the Pikes Peak International Raceway round of the AMA 750 Supersport series, won the AMA Horizon Award for road racing. In late 2000 he qualified on the front row for his debut in the AMA Supersport Championship series. He then joined the Yoshimura Suzuki factory team in 2003.

Again with Valvoline Suzuki in 2001, Spies won the Pikes Peak round of the AMA 750 SuperStock Championship, and took four additional series podium finishes.

For 2002 Spies joined the Attack Suzuki team, paired with Jason Pridmore. He earned three top-five finishes in AMA Supersport, and four top-five finishes in AMA Formula Xtreme. He was troubled by a knee injury for much of this season ^[3]

Now with American Suzuki team, Spies won the 2003 AMA Formula Xtreme Championship with five wins and two additional podium finishes. He also contested the AMA Supersport series, earning a win at Road Atlanta and taking two additional podium finishes. His best AMA Superbike result this year was seventh-place at Daytona Intl Speedway

Again with American Suzuki team in 2004, Spies raced in the AMA Supersport Championship, earning a win at Infineon Raceway and taking two additional series podium finishes. He earned wins in the AMA Superstock Championship races at California Speedway and Road Atlanta, and earned two additional podium finishes in the series.

In 2005 Spies won the AMA Superbike race at California Speedway and earned 13 additional podium finishes. He was runner-up for the AMA Superbike title, and raced in AMA Supersport, earning five top-five finishes.

Spies joined the Yoshimura Suzuki team as a teammate to Mat Mladin for 2006. He won the AMA Superbike Championship title with 10 wins and seven additional podium finishes. Spies took six successive wins early in the 2006 season, and staved off a late season surge by team-mate Mladin to win the title by 649 points to 641. In total he took 7 poles and 17 podiums ^[4], and lead the most laps 10 times. Spies also raced in select AMA Supersport events, earning a podium finish at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

2007 produced one of the tightest championship battles in the history of the series, Spies won a second AMA Superbike Championship in 2007, by a single point over Mladin, ^[5] with seven wins and 12 additional podium finishes. He captured Superbike pole position at nine events, and also won the AMA Superstock title with seven wins and seven pole positions.^[6]

In 2008 Spies won his third straight AMA Superbike Championship to become only the fourth rider in the history of the series to win the title three consecutive times (after Reg Pridmore, Fred Merkel and Mat Mladin). This included an AMA Superbike record of seven successive wins.

[edit] MotoGP Apperances

Spies started as a wild-card in place of injured Loris Capirossi at the British GP on 22 June, 2008. An outing that saw him qualify in 8th on the grid and finish in 14th place, scoring his first MotoGP points. This was in addition to two pre-planned rides at both U.S. rounds. He tested for Rizla Suzuki at Indianapolis on July 2, 2008, in preparations for the new U.S. Grand Prix. Top ten finishes followed at both Laguna Seca in 8th and in 6th at Indianapolis.

He was not offered a full-time ride by Suzuki for 2009, and plans for him to join JiR ended when their Honda contract was not renewed following a split with their partners Team Scot[1].

[edit] World Superbike (WSBK)

On October 1 2008, it was confirmed that Spies would join the Superbike World Championship for the 2009 season, riding for the factory Yamaha Italia team.^[7] He took pole position for his very first race meeting. He ran off the track on the first lap in race one (recovering to finish sixteenth despite a second incident) but was victorious in race 2 to become the first American to win a WSBK race since Colin Edwards in 2002.

Spies further impressed the World motorcycle racing community by winning both races of the second round in Losail, Qatar. En route, he again secured pole, the subsequent race wins, the fastest lap and the outright circuit lap record.

Ben Spies made history on May 30, 2009 at Miller Motorsports Park. Winning his 7th consecutive pole position during Saturday’s Superpole qualifying, Spies broke the long-standing record of 6 consecutive poles set in 1991 by fellow Texan Doug Polen. The pole set a number of records, including most consecutive pole positions in a season, most pole at the start of a season, and most in a row by a rookie. On October 24, 2009 at Portimão Circuit in Portugal he set a new record in pole securing his 11th pole of his rookie season. (It's worth noting, for non-World SBK fanatics/regulars, that, although there were a total of 28 races, unlike Moto GP, e.g., there are two races per event/location in WSBK. Accordingly, out of 14 events/locations, the vast majority at which Spies had previously had no experience, Spies took 11 poles, or 78%.)

On October 25th 2009 at the final round of the Championship at Portimão, Spies was crowned the 2009 Superbike World Champion after winning Race One, in conjunction with a fall from title rival Noriyuki Haga, and a solid 5th place in Race 2^[8]

[edit] MotoGP

On October 1 2009, Yamaha officially confirmed that Spies will join Yamaha Tech 3 to ride in the 2010 MotoGP Championship ^[9].

On October 3 2009 it was confirmed that Spies would ride as a wildcard in the final MotoGP race of the season at Valencia in November^[10].

"Before becoming incorporated into his the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team on Monday November 9 2009 in the post-race Valencia test American rider Ben Spies did a good job for Yamaha in Sunday’s final MotoGP contest of the year in Valencia, crossing the line in seventh place – just ahead of Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso to help future team-mate Colin Edwards up the standings." | publisher=MotoGP.com |

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] All-time stats

[edit] Grand Prix motorcycle racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

[edit] See also

• List of AMA Superbike champions

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BenSpies.com - Official site
• Ben Spies profile at AMAProRacing.com
• Ben Spies profile at Rockstar69.com
• Ben Spies profile at WorldSBK.com