Spies claims first Superstock win

Spies claims first Superstock final

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies picked up his first-ever win at Daytona International Speedway this afternoon in a masterful performance in the 2007 AMA Superstock season opener.

The polesitter sandwiched himself between mid-race leader Geoff May on the Team M4 EMGO Suzuki and Yamaha USA’s new Superstocker, Ben Bostrom, for the bulk of the race before making a late move that his rivals had no answer for.

With just over three laps remaining, Spies finally slingshot his ’07 GSX-R1000 alongside May, storming past just before the two hit the stripe. Once through, May and Bostrom could do little more than watch the #11 machine eek away at the front.

Bostrom also eventually worked past the Georgian, seesawing by him after a spirited battle on the front straight and then entering Turn 1 on lap 11 of 13.

While Bostrom then proved capable of dropping May himself, he had nothing for Spies who kicked off his prospective double 1000cc title season with a Superstock triumph.

After finally winning at Daytona, Spies commented, “We’ve always been so close -- (Jason) Pridmore got me and then Mat (Mladin) got me. The race just played out kind of like I thought it would. I got the holeshot and got the lead and thought I’d try to check out. But I rode like a provisional novice the first lap-and-a-half and made a bunch of mistakes. I don’t know, I just didn’t have my head together.

“Geoff came by and pulled us around and that’s kind of how I figured it would happen. I let him pull us around and waste his tire; when you’re pulling the train you work your tire a whole lot harder. Geoff was riding really good and Ben was too. I saw him lurking back there and one time coming out of the horseshoe I pointed at him like ‘I know you’re back there but I don’t know what you’re up to.’”

“With about three to go I wasn’t really going to try and check out. I was just going to go to the front and lift the pace up to the ’39 flats and see what happens. I wanted to see if I had a gap before I got to my pitboard to see if I had to really charge the next lap. I led into 1 and came out of the infield and saw I already had about a second. Then I knew I had to hammer down and keep going.

“Awesome tires, awesome bike. Just a picture perfect race really.”

Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates did well to claim fourth in his first ride for the basketball legend after being bumped off track in the early going. The Georgian recovered and ran a lonely race several seconds in front of the dogfight for fifth, eventually won by Matsushima Suzuki’s Danny Eslick over Team RoadRacingWorld.com Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich.

MPT Racing’s Blake Young, HALOF Racing’s Scott Jensen, Govnors Bridge Motorcycle’s Tristan Palmer, and Millenium Technology KWS Suzuki’s John Haner rounded out the top ten.