Spies Out At Yamaha, In At Video Shoot
Paul Carruthers | July 24, 2012
Yamaha’s General Manager of National Communications for Yamaha’s Motorsports Group Bob Starr probably got quite a surprise when he started his annual pre-U.S. MotoGP video shoot today by getting the news via a Twitter feed that Ben Spies won’t be a part of the factory Yamaha team in 2013.
Spies, who made the announcement via his Twitter feed this morning, is at Yamaha’s headquarters in Cypress, California, today taking part in the video session that will include his teammate Jorge Lorenzo and Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso.
“The scene harkens back to the Mercury and Apollo astronauts who became well-known for all driving the same brand of sports car following their space flights,” Starr said in a press release. “Our MotoGP pilots are paying homage to those pilots.”
As for the Spies news, rumors as to where Spies is headed for 2013 are running rampant. One such rumor is that he will return to the Yoshimura Suzuki team in AMA Superbike in 2013 with a return to MotoGP with Suzuki in 2014, though sources in the Yosh team say there has been no communication with either Spies or his management team. The other rumor with some traction is that he’s set to join Marco Melandri on the BMW Motorrad Italia team next year in World Superbike.
Stay tuned…
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
