Ben Spies

All you want to know about Ben Spies

Ben Spies

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Nationality Flag of the United States American
Date of birth July 11, 1984 (1984-07-11) (age 24)
Place of birth Germantown, Tennessee, United States
Website BenSpies.com
AMA Superbike Record
Current team Yoshimura Suzuki
Bike number 1
Championships 2006, 2007, 2008
Race starts 0
Race Wins 0
Podium finishes 0
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
2008 Championship position 1st (378pts)

Ben Spies (IPA: /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 will race in the Superbike World Championship series for the Yamaha Italia team. He started racing on 125cc bikes in Texas as a teenager. Spies currently lives in Longview, Texas.

Contents

Racing history

AMA

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 huch of this season [2]

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 fo2 006. 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 [3], 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, [4] 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.[5]

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

MotoGP

Spies started in the place of injured Loris Capirossi at the British GP on 22 June and finished in 14th place scoring his first MotoGP points. He tested for Rizla Suzuki at Indianapolis on July 2, 2008, setting slow pace

Superbike World Championship

On October 1 2008, it was confirmed that Spies would join the Superbike World Championship for the 2009 season. He will ride for the yamah motor t aliamotor italia teamwsb-move.htm</ref>

Grand Prix career statistics

Races by year

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

Year Class Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Pts
2008 MotoGP Suzuki QAT
 SPA
 POR
 CHN
 FRA
 ITA
 CAT
 GBR
14		 NED
 GER
 USA
8		 CZE
 RSM
 IND
6		 JPN
 AUS
 MAL
 VAL
 19th 20

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ben Spies Interview", SuperbikePlanet.com. Retrieved on 21 July 2008. 
  2. ^ "Ben Spies: The next Texas Sensation?", AMAProRacing.com. Retrieved on 10 February 2007. 
  3. ^ "2006 AMA Superbike Results", SuperbikePlanet.com. Retrieved on 10 February 2007. 
  4. ^ "Spies Wins Laguna Seca Classic and Championship", SuperbikePlanet.com. Retrieved on 16 September 2007. 
  5. ^ http://www.rockstar69.com/athlete.php?ath=142

External links

Preceded by
Mat Mladin		 AMA Superbike Champion
2006-2008		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
This biographical article related to American sports is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Spies"

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