Title achievement hasn’t yet sunk in for Spies
Added on Monday, October 26th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Spies: Champion in his rookie year.
Ben Spies admitted that he did not know what had hit him as he was crowned World Superbike Champion at Portimao yesterday in his first and last season in the championship.
Spies secured Yamaha’s first ever WSB rider’s title with a first and a sixth place finish in Portugal, with Noriyuki Haga’s crash in race one meaning that he only had to coast around in sixth position in race two.
And Spies opted for the cautious approach in the season finale, opting to stay away from trouble and eventually finish in fifth position whilst Haga worked his way up to second, to become the fifth American to win the WSB title and the first since his teammate for next season, Colin Edwards, won it in 2002.
“I’ve got to thank Yamaha for giving me the bike I need to win,” said Spies. “We had a really good first race, in the second we did what we had to do to win.
“It was quite difficult to keep it in check as the pace was pretty fast, I saw I had a couple of people behind me and I knew that if Nori won I had to be in sixth and that’s where I was so I tried to get a bit of a gap on them and stay out of trouble. Max came through the inside of me and ran off a couple of times which really freaked me out so I went to get past him and then settled in for some nice fast laps to the end.
“It’s been a spectacular day and I can’t thank those people enough that have been behind me. It’s been incredible to do it for Yamaha, and especially in my first year here. I don’t think I really realize what’s happening right now but I’m sure it’s going to hit me in a couple of days!”
