Spies takes provisional pole

Spies takes provisional pole at Cal Speedway

(AMA Superbike Release) Ben Spies fought through the blisteringly hot Californian conditions to claim provisional pole for this weekend’s AMA Superbike doubleheader this afternoon at California Speedway. The 22-year-old Texan slid his way around the circuit with a best time of 1:24.117 to head a Friday Yoshimura Suzuki 1-2-3.

Fresh off his Barber Motorsports Park double, Mat Mladin was second fastest, a couple tenths off Spies at 1:24.345. Third works Suzuki pilot Tommy Hayden was right there as well, stopping the clocks at 1:24.513, the last man to break into the ‘24s on the day.

With the hot weather slowing times considerably (Spies’ lap record from a year ago is more than a second faster than today’s mark), the defending AMA Superbike champ focused all of his efforts on setting his '07 GSX-R1000 up for the races, which will likely face similar conditions.

Asked if he was motivated to come out and make a statement today in response to Mladin’s success one week ago, Spies said, “Yes and no. Right now our main point was to go do race set-up. I went out and tried a softer tire in the middle -- and that is what we went fastest on -- but I wasn’t going for qualifying, I was going for race feel. See how the tire felt and if it dropped off after two laps I was going to come in and try the other tire. This was a full race set-up for us today.

“We went out and got on the tires we’re going to race on and put about 12-13 laps together. They were all pretty much as fast or faster than my fastest (race) lap last year. I told the team that there is no sense trying to bang out one lap this afternoon with the temperatures because the track is just slow. If we get in a point battle where we want to do that, we can do that tomorrow. That was just race speed.

“We just kept going when I put the tires on and looking at my clock, we just kept going faster and faster. The bike is sliding around a lot -- it’s hot -- but that’s how I like it. You throw new tires on it and in five laps you’re spinning around in circles. That’s obviously not the fastest lap to do, but that’s how my bike works really well. Hopefully that’s how my bike is going to work at the end of the race.”

Even though the nearby factory teams consider California Speedway to be their home track -- a venue where they do a significant amount of testing -- the contrasting conditions means that it’s not quite as simple as just turning up and racing with perfectly set up machines.

Spies explained, “We definitely know every bump around this place and that’s good, but when we test it’s 65 degrees and today it felt like it was 85-90 today. You would think they are two totally different tracks with two totally different tires, the temperature is so much different. It’s slower right now, but I like it better. I like sliding around and moving a little bit. It’s going to be doing plenty of that tomorrow.”

Satisfied with his machine in race trim, Spies said to watch out for some fast laps on Saturday morning when the conditions are cooler and he and Mladin set about claiming the point for pole.

“As of right now, I’m really happy with my bike and race set-up,” Spies commented. “If we need to go try to do that, we can dedicate half a session just to try to get a fast lap. Today was just a practice session for us. I never went for that fast lap. Over the last year-and-a-half now… I used to be real good at just banging out fast laps. Now we've noticed, my fast laps come within my third or fourth lap out there. That’s good for the race, but it’s hard to get pole that way. I’m happy with the bike. Everybody is struggling with traction and so are we, but I’m able to stay real consistent.”

Following last week’s (relative) disappointment, Spies added that he was grateful for the schedule makers’ decision to line-up back-to-back race weekends in late April.

“I was ready to race the next day,” he commented. “I was (upset). Mat stepped up and he rode really well there. I’m glad we didn’t just get spanked. We had pace but I was making mistakes and riding tight and just wasn’t able to get it done. But at this track I go fairly well at and my bike works really well.”