Is Spies for Real?

By: Abel Lin - Apr 6, 2009

Spies completes the doubles at Losail

It's been a great start to the motorcycle road racing season - well technically MotoGP dosen't start until this weekend. If you've watched the first three rounds of WSBK, then you know that all the talk has been about rookie Ben Spies. The reigning AMA champion has taken every Superpole this season and won three out of six races. I know its only been three rounds, but Spies is definitely looking like Haga's main opponent for the championship. Between Spies and Haga, nobody has even come close to the top spot of the podium.

Considering the remaining rounds, he already has experience from testing at Kyalami and Portimao. He rode Donington as a MotoGP wildcard and Miller in AMA (thought admittedly not in the WSB configuration). Assuming he rides those tracks well, that really leaves the remaining European tracks (Monza, Misano, Brno, Nuerburgring and Imola). Most, including Spies, will tell you that the subtleties of those tracks are harder to learn than Phillip Island, Losail, and Valencia. Consistency looks to reign supreme this year. While Spies crashed out of two of the three races that Haga won - Haga finished 2nd in every the race that Spies won. Assen in two week will be a telling race.

Another suprise is the strength of the new R1. While, it's clearly not the fastest - that honor probably goes to either Suzuki or Aprilia - it has great mid-corner speed and Spies definitly used it to his advantage. If the folks at Yamaha can squeeze a few more top end KPHs out the bike, Spies will be hard to track down.

Keep your DVR ready - Between WSB and MotoGP we have six straight weeks of racing.