World SBK: Spies and Rea Spilt Wins on the Misano Circuit

Olaf Wolff
Sr. Staff Writer

San Marino, Italy – Yamaha you owe me the other half of a Texas style, double-victory, Father’s Day present and you definitely owe Ben Spies a more dependable motorcycle. Granted, the combo of Spies and the YZF R1 are looking more dominate and freakish faster with each race, under everything sort of track condition, and with Ben’s learning curve shrinking at a ridiculously quantum-leap pace. Whew! But get a bigger role of duct-tape and keep his damn motor-scooter running so slow-hand can kick-ass on the world like we all clearly see he’s capable of doing. It’s frustrating as hell to have the championship decided by mechanical inconsistencies. It’s akin to having a ref’s crappy call determine the NBA Final, or getting tongue kissed by grandma.

My wife and daughter claim I have a man-crush on Spies. That’s so wrong, on so many levels, and I won’t give them the satisfaction of reacting. Besides, in the same breath my daughter asked, so dad, can you hook me up with Ben. I’ll say it again; he brings a new, jacked-up level of excitement to the sport, but only when his bike permits him to compete. Heck, even Superbike legend Kevin Schwantz, a fellow Texan, went on record saying he believes Spies has the skills to possibly top many of his own accomplishments.

On the other hand, when a bad clutch handicapped Spies in race two, it did set the stage for some off-the-hook dueling between Haga, Fabrizio and Jonathan Rea, with the Honda rider ultimately breaking up what was nearly an all Ducati party.

Race 1

The first race of the day was ugly - soggy wet with gusting winds. Spies didn’t even get to complete a single warm-up lap on the Pirelli soft/wet tires. And that partial lap time figured in somewhere around 26th. When he got a good start and was able to hold fourth place for the first laps, it was reason to think he’d play it tactical and collect as many points on Haga as possible. Haga was having his own problems with the conditions, hovering back in ninth.

However, as Spies would later say, halfway through the 24-lap race, the rain went away and he could see the dry-line starting to form. He was among the first to go in for the high-speed bike swap and new dry tires. Watching riders race into the pits, jump off one bike and onto another was totally entertaining and ultimately a crucial tactical procedure for the race. Up to that point Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) had been dominating the race. English racers know about racing on wet tracks. As the track got drier and everyone made peace with the bike swap, Spies already had his tires warmed and he was gone, on the way to his eight win, with an 8-second margin over second place Byrne.

Results:
1 Ben Spies (Yamaha)
2 Shane Byrne (Ducati)
3 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)

Race 2

The second race saw another talented young Brit Jonathan Rea (Honda) take his first ever win after a spectacular, race long scrap, between Fabrizio, Haga and himself. Back and forth racing that was so exciting and close that there was contact in the turns on several occasions. Really, really great racing. Rea, riding brilliantly, waited patiently behind a hard charging Fabrizio until the last lap, with Haga pressing from behind, before making his last move to the front stick.

Spies got a good start, running in second place on the first lap, but it became obvious immediately that something was wrong with his bike. He held up his hand in submission by the second lap and dropped back into 20th place. It seemed for a second he was tossing in the towel and would drop even more points to Haga. Forgotten, but not out, Spies figured out a way around his ailing clutch issue, managing to grind out a respectable ninth place finish and gathering as many precious championship points as possible. Haga now claims a 48-point lead of Spies and 55 points over teammate Fabrizio.

Results:
1 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
2 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
3 Noriyuki Haga (Ducati)