AMA SuperBike - Spies takes pole at Laguna Seca

AMA SuperBikes: Spies takes Laguna Seca Pole

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies came through during the AMA Superbike qualifying session at Laguna Seca on Saturday afternoon to claim his ninth pole in eleven tries this season. This was unquestionably the most important qualifying triumph yet for the 23-year-old Texan, as it has major championship implications for tomorrow’s dramatic season finale.

Spies’ record-breaking 1:23.105 lap moved him to within two points of six-time AMA Superbike king Mat Mladin (616 vs. 618), meaning that if either man wins tomorrow’s race (and the two have combined to win every single race this season), he’ll be crowned the ’07 champion regardless of what the other one does.

Afterwards, the reigning series champ said, “It took a lot of pressure off for tomorrow. We can just go out and win if we can do that. There was just so many different scenarios; if he got pole and led the most laps then he wouldn’t have to win and he could still win the title and I knew that coming in. He’s obviously riding really good right now and we needed the pole. So if we can win, that’s all we need.”

Commenting further on the session, Spies commented, “This morning didn’t go too good for us, but I got my head clear. I just went out and clicked off some good laps. The wind was blowing pretty hard for sure but it was the same for everybody. We made some changes to the bike for this afternoon and it seemed to work out pretty good.

“I saw that he went quick this morning, so I figured there was a couple tenths in it. We just went out and got down to some decent times and put in a pretty good lap. I just sat up and knew what I had done and knew what he had done. I figured he was going to put in a last ditch effort for it. I saw him come him around and let him by and was going to gear up for one last lap. We blew one corner but still did a pretty good lap. We couldn’t better it so that’s all we had today. It was a pretty good lap for us.”

Looking ahead to what’s promising to be one of the most dramatic and important single races in series history, Spies said, “It’s on now. It’s just whoever wins the race and that’s the way it should be. Hopefully I’ll end up on top but it’s going to be a tough 28 laps, that’s for sure…"

“I downright needed the point to secure what we need to do tomorrow to make it simple basically. We did our job today and hopefully we can do our job tomorrow.”