Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ben Spies will be thrown into the deep end when he makes his MotoGP debut at next weekend’s British Grand Prix at Donington Park. And despite a few initial reservations, Spies isn’t going to pass up this chance of a lifetime.
The two-time AMA Superbike Champion was scheduled to make his grand prix debut at the July 20 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, a track where he’s had repeated success. The Laguna Seca would have come a few weeks after Spies completed a two-day test on the new GP track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. But the plan changed when Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi broke his right hand during last weekend’s Catalunya Grand Prix. Now, instead of racing on a track that he knows, on a motorcycle he would have tested, the 23-year-old Texan will be on an unfamiliar motorcycle, unfamiliar suspension, unfamiliar tires, and an unfamiliar track. But he believes it’s the right thing to do.
“I’m just going to go have fun,” he began, “and at the end of the day it’s a motorcycle, it’s got tires on it, I’m going to ride it as hard as I can. But the fact is I’m not going to be absolutely 100% comfortable on it or up to normal speed by the end of the weekend. It’s just…it can’t happen. But I’m going to have some fun and try to represent Loris (Capirossi) and the team as best I can and just have fun with it.
“I’ve got nothing to prove yet,” he said in a phone conversation from a test at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, “and then when we get to Laguna I’ll have some knowledge, I’ll have a race and another test, and I’ll be comfortable on the bike and a track and a bike I know, so then we’ll be able to start really seeing how I stack up against those boys.”
When Spies first got word on Monday afternoon, he weighed the pros and cons. He spoke with Yoshimura Suzuki team manager Don Sakakura and American Suzuki race boss Masayuki Itoh, both of whom encouraged him to take the plunge.
“They said ‘Go to England.’ You have nothing to prove. You’ve never seen the track, you haven’t been on the new bike. You spent a total of 25 laps on the bike” at the post-Valencia test. “Just go have some fun. And so that’s when I heard about it.”
Spies wanted to show up at Laguna and “come in there with, not a big bang, but it’s a track I know, so I could be competitive or try to, at least. But the fact is the head guys (at Suzuki) were calling, they wanted me over there. They obviously were somewhat impressed with what I did in Spain or thought I could get somewhat the job done.”
Spies’ only previous experience on the Suzuki GSV-R800 came during a test after the 2007 Valencia season finale. His times were impressive, given that it was his first ride on a new bike, tires, and track, and that he made virtually no changes to the motorcycle, which he rode as John Hopkins had raced it the day before.
“They wanted me on the bike and if they believe in me, and they obviously just said, ‘Go learn, go have fun,’ then what are you going to tell the head guys? No? In the end I want to do it. But there were a couple of things I was kind of like…I’m really jumping in the deep end. But they want me over there, they obviously, for whatever reason, want me on the bike. So I’m going to do what I want. And at the end of the day, yes, I believe there’s a whole lot more benefits to running the qualifiers, learning the weekend, the starting procedure, the tires, the bike, working with Capirossi’s guys, just another weekend. There’s a whole lot more benefit.”
Tom Houseworth, Spies’ crew chief, will be making the trip to help ‘translate’ what Spies says to Stuart Shenton, Capirossi’s crew chief.
“He wants to learn for himself and for the future and just be there for me and help me consult with everybody and try to get the possible package out of it in four hours before the race,” Spies said.
The X-factor is the weather. Donington Park is notorious for a few things; bad weather and a slippery surface. Inclement weather would make it more difficult to find a comfortable setting, unless it rains all weekend. Spies said “if it starts mixing back and forth it’s going to create a little bit of havoc. But like I said, what can I expect with going in there blindfolded?”
