Spies stepping up the chase on Haga
Added on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Spies chasing the number one spot.
Ben Spies will be heading to this weekend’s World Superbike Championship full of confidence following his success in Salt Lake City three weeks ago.
The championship heads back to Europe for round eight in Misano with Spies back on the trail of championship leader Noriyuki Haga following his double win at his home circuit, the Miller Motorsports Park, aided in no small part by Haga’s ninth and eighth place finishes.
That moves Spies back to second in the championship and to within 53 points of Haga at the top and the American is relishing the trip back to Europe as the season crosses the halfway mark.
“It’s great to be back in Italy again,” said Spies. “It was awesome to be home for the Miller race last month, and a dream come true to win in front of my home crowd. Everything felt right at the weekend, I couldn’t have been happier.
“I’m excited about getting on the track at Misano, it’s another new circuit to learn which is cool. The Italian fans are amazing which will also make this a special race for us as a team. We need to do well here to keep the championship challenge alive, and I’m confident we can.”
But whilst the trip to the States was a delight for Spies, his British Teammate Tom Sykes had a less than positive experience.
The man from Huddersfield finished a lowly 13th in race one in the US and a marginally better ninth in race two but is happy that the problems that affected them at Miller have been addressed.
“I’m very happy to put the US behind me,” he said. “There’s no denying we had a couple of issues but I think we’re past it. We know everything works well on the bike and we have the pace to run at the front.
“I’m very much looking forward to Misano now, we’ve got a couple of things we want to try on the bike so let’s hope it works and the track suits my riding style.
“I’m going in to the weekend feeling confident. I know the team can do a good job so if we can crack it we can get up there. I think this weekend will be the turning of the corner and setting me up for Donington and the rest of the season.”
