Press Release | June 20, 2009
The following is from Ben Spies’ publicist…One of the historic streaks in World Superbike came to an end Saturday in Misano when Yamaha’s Ben Spies qualified off the pole for the first time this season – this after having earned a record seven consecutive Superpoles. Spies qualified third on the 2.6-mile Misano World Circuit. Czech rider Jakub Smrz and Britain’s Jonathan Rea qualified ahead of Spies, taking the first and second grid positions respectively.Spies’ qualifying time of 1:35.631 is less than two-tenths of a second behind Smrz’ Superpole run of 1:35.435.In spite of missing the pole, Spies made it comfortably into the final Superpole session, qualifying fourth in the session one and second in session two before ending up third in the concluding Superpole session.Spies was surprisingly upbeat in spite of not starting from the pole for the first time in his young World Superbike career.”We have a great race set up and that’s the most important thing,” said Spies, who comes into the race ranked second in the world standings. “We were right there in Superpole, but I just never put together a great lap. I think even had I hit everything perfectly I probably wouldn’t have bettered Jakub’s time. He was really flying today and I give my congratulations to him.”Spies said it was great to see new riders up front in qualifying.”It would be good to have some of these guys running up front,” Spies said. “I’m trying to chase down Nori [Haga] in the points and it never hurts if we can have a few more riders up battling for the lead. Ideally in the races I can finish ahead of Nori and a few of these guys get in there between us.”This marks the first ride for Spies at Misano. He admits more time on the track might have helped.”It’s a great circuit,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s any harder to learn that any other track, but I would have liked to been able to run a few more laps.”Spies turned few laps at speed in the second qualifying session because of wet weather.”A front row start is fine,” Spies added. “The big thing is how we do in the races tomorrow and the team has done a really good job of finding comfortable settings for the race. I’m sure it’s going to be a tough race. A lot of new people are hoping to run up front and of course there will be the usual suspects up there I’m sure.”Misano marks the kickoff of the second half of the season. Spies is trying to narrow the 53-point lead Haga has in the series standings.Ben Spies is sponsored by Yamaha, HJC, Alpinestars, Specialized and Parts Europe.
