The American rookie closed the gap on Haga at the top of the championship after the Japanese veteran crashed out after four just laps of race in the British round of the World Superbike Championship.

The result means that the Yamaha rider is right behind Haga with just five rounds of the season remaining although crucially Haga, who seemingly walked away unharmed, now has four weeks to recuperate from the knock as the WSB championship heads into the summer break.

In truth, it was a comfortable weekend for Spies as he romped home 7.156 seconds ahead of Max Biaggi in race one, with Haga third.

It was a similar story in race two although Biaggi finished a lowly 21^st after an early crash. This time, Spies finished 6.622 seconds ahead of Haslam, with Michel Fabrizio taking third.

There were strong performances from the British riders, with four regular riders and three wildcards all three wildcards taking to the grid.

Haslam’s fourth and second place finishes were the highlight whilst Shane Byrne secured fifth and fourth place finishes. Spies’ teammate Tom Sykes retired in race one but recovered to finish fifth in race two whilst Jonathan Rea finished seventh in race one before a disappointing 15^th in race two.

Of the wildcards, Leon Camier finished 13^th and 6^th on his BSB-spec Airwaves Yamaha, teammate James Ellison was two places behind in race two whilst Kawasaki’s Simon Andrews earned a top ten finish in race two.

But the centre of attention was Spies with the title race now blown wide open ahead of the summer break.

“It was a picture perfect weekend,” said Spies. “It was a tough race, Max was there the whole time but we were able to do quick laps to stay ahead, the last three laps I rode as hard as I could just to make sure of the win.

“In the second race I knew Nori had a big crash and I hope he’s OK. It’s not the way we want to win it but you have to take the points when you can. It was a good second race for us though.”

Spies also paid tribute to home favourite Leon Haslam, who was cheered on by the Donington crowd as he crossed the line in second.

“The track was hot and a bit slick so we made some changes to the bike which made it better from race one. It was a good job for Leon, getting on the podium at his home round was great, I know how that feels.

“It was tough being out on my own, I had to focus lap to lap to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes. I can’t thank the Yamaha guys enough we changed a lot of things around and they came and delivered me two really good bikes to win on.”

In the World Supersport, Cal Crutchlow increased his lead in the championship with a win on his home circuit.

Just two points were salvaged after Parkes finished 14th in race two.

Both Parkes and Hacking started in low positions, after poor qualifying sessions. Race one saw Hacking running in last place, with Parkes struggling to fight his way through from 22nd to 18th place at the flag. Race two was a better roll of the dice for Broc Parkes, who was in the top ten at one stage, but gearbox problems relegated him to 14th at the end.

Hacking meanwhile struggled to make progress at the back of the field and slid off in race two, feeling he never really learned the Donington circuit, which was brand new to him.

Team owner Paul Bird was obviously a bit fed up, but is now looking ahead to testing at Imola and the return of Tamada from injury.

The Donington races were both won by Ben Spies, with Leon Haslam, a Donington specialist, top British rider with a 2nd and 4th place result. Ruben Xaus managed to put the new BMW S1000R in 9th place in race two by the way.

No less than four riders will be flying the flag for Great Britain at Donington in the ninth round of the WSB championship this weekend whilst a fifth, Cal Crutchlow, will be representing the nation in the Supersport category.

Expectations will be high on the home contingent, with Jonathan Rea, Tom Sykes, Shane Byrne, Leon Haslam and Crutchlow all expected to make the most of home advantage and a wealth of experience on the East Midland’s circuit.

For Rea, expectation would have heightened following his impressive win at Misano last week although the Ten Kate Honda rider has been playing down his previous record at the circuit.

Of course, it felt amazing to get that first win under my belt and I think it all bodes well for the remainder of the season,” said the 22-year-old. “To be honest, I’ve never set the world on fire at Donington, but it was that same at Misano before I went there last week so I hope it’ll be good.

“We need to keep making progress to have a good Friday and Saturday to set us up for the race on Sunday. I hope it’s good racing, too, because the British fans will only get one World Superbike meeting this year.

“We’ll just try to make more progress with the new suspension. The wet setting in race one at Misano wasn’t spot on, so we’ll need to find something there if the forecast is anything to go by.”

For Leon Haslam, home advantage should be an even factor at Donington with the Stiggy Honda rider having a bigger connection than most with the venue.

Haslam lives just a stone’s throw from the circuit where his father Ron operates a race school and the 26-year-old is looking to make up for the harsh disappointment of last season.

The then BSB rider, running as a wildcard at Donington last season, Haslam was caught out by a difference in signals between BSB and WSB, costing him second place in race one before being taken out of fourth place in a crash three laps from the end in race two.

“I know Donington well and I was running second there last year as a wild card before being taken out, so we know our pace is good there,” he said. “The last four rounds have been tough for me because they have been held on some circuits that I have never been to before, and that just added to us not having been on top of a few issues as well. I’ve had three no finishes in those four rounds.

“There should be a big crowd at Donington and it will be their only chance to see us at a British race this year as well.”

Yamaha rider Tom Sykes is also calling on experience from last season when he secured a second place finish as a wildcard for the Rizla Suzuki BSB team in race one.

The Yamaha factory rider is the only Brit in the paddock yet to secure a podium finish but the Yorkshireman is nevertheless determined to go one better than last year.

“After Misano I think we’re definitely heading in the right direction towards getting the right balance on the bike for me,” said Sykes. “I should know what I need from the R1 for Donington from previous track experience.

“I had a good run last year as a wildcard so if I can improve on race one where I finished second I’ll be happy.

“There are a couple of set up options to try, I already understand the circuit so I should really get to grips with the changes we make quite easily and hopefully we can do well. I want to come away with a perfect base setting for the remainder of the season and a podium or two and some decent points.”

In the Supersport class, championship leader Cal Crutchlow is fully confident of extending his lead in the standings.

“It’ll be good to go to my home race,” said Cal Crutchlow. “I’m really looking forward to it. I can’t wait to be getting in front of British fans and doing my best for them.

” I’m not treating this round any different from any other race though as we want to win them all with no exceptions. Having said that, to win at home would be nice!”

Team media man Tom Stewart, part of the original squad who went racing with the late Howard Lees in the 70s and 80s, told insidebikes that he was `delighted’ that Team Bike finished as top Brits in the two day event, held at the historic Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

Team Bike/MCN raced at Spa many times in the past, with famous names in road racing like Mat Oxley, Brian Morrison, Steve Hislop and Paul Lewis all posting fantastic results for the privateer outfit, which was legendary for its `never give up’ attitude. It was an emotional return, as several former Team Bike riders have sadly died over the years, but as many of the old Team Bike crew as possible were reunited for the Spa weekend.

“We had a job to refurbish the CB1100R Honda after a 23 year lay-up,” said Stewart, and the organisers made us change the front discs from modern fully-floating type stoppers, to more old-fashioned items, but apart from that, the bike was pretty much as it was when it posted 12th at Mugello in 1986. We originally had Ian Martin and Herwig Lemmens to ride at Spa this weekend, but Herwig crashed at the track on Thursday so at the last moment Stephane Mertyens came in as our rider. Amazing piece of luck getting a world champ at short notice.”

Mertens is twice World Endurance champion, and renowned for his GP and WSB exploits - he also raced production BMWs at one point - but even the famously versatile Belgian racer could not catch the Moto Guzzi 1050 of Team Moto Bel, who won the 4 hour race. Team Bike were 5th and fellow Brits, Team Glam Racing on a Kawasaki were in 7th place.

“I was nervous riding with Stephane,” admitted Team Bike rider Ian Martin, who originally joined the crew back in the 80s as mechanic to Roland Brown, the freelance journalist who was then a competitive endurance racer, “but what a top bloke and happy to race for the fun of it all really. ”

Ian added; “He started in 21st place and was leading at the end of lap one, yet despite his world class ability he was really proud to be part of the team, and said some nice things about our professionalism after the event. I am very chuffed to be part of it all, and considering I was wearing a novice racing jacket a couple of seasons ago, I am still stunned to have ridden with a champion in the last few days.”

Meanwhile Team Rosbif on the Offenstadt Kawasaki had a tough time at Spa. Maria Costello MBE, was sharing the riding with Mike Edwards from the Wirral, and although the team got the experimental 70s Kawasaki up to 12th at one point, a combination of mechanical gremlins and a slippy, oily track put them well down the finishing order.

“It was slippery out there,” said Mike Edwards, ” and sometimes I was just hanging on hoping the bike would get back on line, after some scary slides. Spa is a long, fast, seven kilometre track in the Ardennes, and not the place to have a crash, but the atmosphere is incredible. There’s nothing quite like gunning a bike down the dip and through Eau Rouge.”

Classic collector and team backer Chris Wilson, who brought the Offenstadt bike to Spa, alongside some very rare machinery like a Suzuki XR14 500 GP bike, and a TR750 triple F750 class Suzi from the 70s, to the Spa Bikers Classics 2009, was all fired up to bring a full-on, restored Honda RCB1000 for 2010.

The Bikers Classics organisers told insidebikes yesterday that the event was a success, with attendance steady despite the heavy rain on Sunday. No serious injuries were reported from those who fell off during the weekend and the salute to Luigi Taveri, the GP parade and F750 machines from the 70s, were among the highlights of this celebration of classic road racing, backed by Arai Helmets, Yamaha Europe, alongside Classic Racer and many other European magazines.

The main theme for 2010 will be the early years of Superbikes, so anyone with a passion for the legendary Honda RC30, Yamaha OW01 750 or Kawasaki ZXR750RR should get their ferry tickets booked for July 2010.

Both Parkes and Hacking showed promise in qualifying, but ended up starting in 19th and 20th places on the grid. Race one began wet and Hacking left it too late to switch to dry tyres, dropping down the order to finish in 16th position, one place ahead of Parkes.

Race two wasn’t much better, with Parkes starting badly and fighting his way to 17th spot, whilst Hacking ended up colliding with another rider and going off track, eventually finishing 22nd. The team left Misano without scoring a single point, its first such result in five meetings.

“It’s been really disappointing,” said Team owner Paul Bird, “we’ve gone backwards not forwards. We threw away some potentially decent results, as Broc was running 5th in Friday practice. Jamie Hacking could have done better too. We need to refocus and find a positive direction for the Donington round.”

The next round is at Donington, this coming weekend.

The Ten Kate Honda rider made a final lap move on Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio and successfully held off the Italian to take his first ever WSB win and become the first British rider to win a WSB race since James Toseland won at Brands Hatch back in August 2007.

The 22-year-old from Northern Ireland made up for a disappointing seventh place in race one with the victory and added even more intrigue to the championship fight.

The round started in familiar fashion, with Yamaha’s Ben Spies coming out on top in the season’s first flag-to-flag race after another Brit, this time Shane Byrne, dominated for much of the opening exchanges.

As the riders came to pit however, it was Spies who got his strategy right to finish first, ahead of the second placed Byrne.

It was a good result for Ducati, with the Italian marque making up four of the top five spots, with Fabrizio taking up the final podium place ahead of Jacob Smrz and championship leader Haga.

Race two however was a different story for Spies, with the American visibly frustrated with his Yamaha R1 as he crossed the line in ninth with a reported clutch problem.

Haga finished third behind teammate Fabrizio to leave him 48 points ahead of Spies in the rider’s standings.

Byrne backed up his earlier podium with a sixth place finish leading a British trio of Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam.

Rea wasn’t the only British winner in Misano however, with Yamaha’s Supersport rider Cal Crutchlow taking victory to jump ahead of Ireland’s Eugene Laverty in the WSS rider’s standings.

An early crash in Salt Lake City three weeks ago left Haga to struggle to a ninth and eighth place finish whilst title rival Ben Spies took full advantage to close the gap at the top of the rider’s standings.

The championship returns to Europe this weekend with the San Marino round in Misano, a circuit that Ducati class very much as “home” territory but for Haga, success has been difficult to come by at the circuit.

The Japanese rider has never won at the circuit, a best finish of second coming in 2007 and has only three podiums and five DNF’s to his name at the circuit since 1998. Last season, the best that the then Yamaha rider could manage were 10^th and 4^th place finishes.

Misano has always been regarded as one of the more difficult circuits although Haga still struggled to explain his poor run of results.

“The Misano track is very small and tricky with high-speed corners that require aggressive braking,” he said. “I prefer the new layout but it remains nonetheless a difficult track for me, I don’t really know why. It’s always so hot there too, so the tyre choice really comes into play.

“Anyway, it will be good to be back in front of the Italian crowds, Misano has been the “home” race for Ducati in the last years so I’m sure it’ll be crowded with Ducatisti!”

The championship, leader also confirmed his determination to rebuilt the gap over Spies and teammate Michel Fabrizio in the championship after struggling at Miller Park.

“After a crash and the less than perfect results at the last round of Salt Lake, I plan to be back on form and fighting to win at Misano.”

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 13^th 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.”

With PBM Kawasaki rider Makota Tamada still injured, Jamie Hacking is once again acting as stand-in rider, with Broc Parkes alongside him as team-mate. Both riders are keen to post good, points-scoring results, with Parkes now recovered from a shoulder injury;

“I finished 18th at Miller Motorsports in the USA and want to improve on that position,” said Parkes, “and as I feel much fitter, the whole team is looking forward to a couple of top ten finishes.”

Hacking, a former AMA Superbike winner, is also hoping for a decent result, and although he doesn’t know the track, Jamie is getting used to the Vent Axia, Vodka Kick sponsored ZX-10 race machine, which is boosting his confidence.

For those who can’t make to Italy, the races are broadcast on Eurosport, with practice and Superpole on Saturday 20th June, and the two Superbike races on Sunday 21st June. For more info on the team, please visit www.paulbirdmotorsport.com or www.kawasaki-racingteam.eu

The troubled circuit received the Grade A licence that will allow it to host WSB and MotoGP events following an inspection today by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme.

Circuit inspector Claude Danis was satisfied that Donington had met the licensing requirements, with particular focus being made on the reinstatement of the run-off areas at the area close to McLean’s and Coppice corners, which had previously been affected by the installation of a new tunnel in preparation for the circuit hosting Formula One racing in 2010.

Despite a round of the British Superbike championship being hosted at the East Midland’s circuit in April, the FIM had still to grand a licence to host WSB and MotoGP. The decision means the the British round of the World Superbikes championship will go ahead as planned on 26-28 June, less than two weeks after the circuit hosts the Download music festival. The final MotoGP event to be held at the circuit before the move to Silverstone will also go ahead as planned on July 24-26.

Donington has endured a difficult year of late, with reported financial and construction problems putting the circuit and its promoters, Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd, under the spotlight ahead of the 2010 F1 season but today’s news has given circuit CEO Simon Gillett something to cheer.

“This is great news for everybody at Donington Park and all of the fans,” said Gillett. “The ticket sales for both of our world class motorcycle racing events have been extremely positive and we’d like to thank the fans who have remained loyal and believed in us for committing to buying tickets. We have already sold 50 per cent more tickets than we had at this time last year for World Superbikes and the sales of our MotoGP tickets have remained at the same level.”