AMA SuperBike - Spies returns to scene of 06 disaster

AMA SuperBikes: Ben Spies returns to scene of 2006 disaster

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Last season Ben Spies’ epic ’06 season was nearly derailed at Virginia International Raceway. Riding the wave of confidence with 10 wins in 14 tries, including three in a row in the lead up to VIR, Spies entered the 2006 Virginia round well in charge of the series.

With 45 points padding and only three rounds remaining, it was going to take something major to even make the championship race interesting. That something major turned out to be a broken hand suffered during Friday’s qualifying session. While Spies toughed it out and put together a strong enough of a finish to hold on for his first career crown, rival Mat Mladin won the season’s final five races, including the double at VIR, closing to within eight points at season’s end.

While he once again comes into the late-season VIR round leading in the points, Spies can’t allow a repeat of last year’s near disaster. The Yoshimura Suzuki star has only a 17-point advantage over Mladin, and the Aussie is the one doing the bulk of the winning this year, boasting 8 victories to Spies’ 6.

After Mladin’s double at Mid-Ohio, Spies admitted that now is the time to turn up the heat, and he desperately wants to prevent Mladin from claiming a fifth (and sixth) consecutive win in Alton, VA.

“At Virginia last year before I smashed my hand up we had some pretty good speed there. It’s going to come down to crash or win -- it’s got to happen. I obviously don’t want to crash but it’s got to be put on the line if I’m going to win this title.”

Prior to his fall, Spies indeed looked strong at VIR, outpacing Mladin at one of his favored tracks in the morning session. Mladin was considerably quicker than Spies this morning, however, circulating at 1:25.239 to his rival’s 1:26.122.