Spies takes Miller Pole

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies secured his fifth AMA Superbike pole position of the year today at Miller Motorsports Park on his very final lap, edging rival Mat Mladin for the position by less than a tenth of a second. The Texan’s 1:49.405, which narrowly beat the Australian’s 1:49.484, earned the reigning class champ his 12th career AMA Superbike pole, moving him into a tie with the legendary Scott Russell for seventh all-time.

When asked what he did to pull out that spectacular lap at the last possible moment, Spies shrugged his shoulders and said, “Nothing really different, we just pushed a little bit harder. We went out on our race set-up and got a tire pretty early -- about 14 minutes to go -- and did a couple laps and went as quick as I could at that point. I saw that (Mat) had gone quicker and I was actually going to pull in before I saw that. I took it a little bit easier to cool my tires down. I was going to at least ride the first split hard and give it a go and see if I hit it pretty good. I did and just kept going.”

Spies’ wet win at Road America along with today’s pole have allowed him to reclaim and (slightly) extend his points advantage over Mladin, bumping the difference up from two points to three. Still, Spies understands that the six-time champ is the man who has done the majority of the winning this season, and despite his current championship position, Spies needs to step it up during the second half of the season.

“We definitely have to,” he admitted. “We’ve been getting our butt kicked all year, so I have to do something different. We just need to ride harder and try to get some more wins, that’s obviously what it’s going to take. Pole points are good but unless I win the title by three points it probably won’t make a difference at all. We have to do whatever it takes to win. It might not happen but I have to ride 110% the whole time.”