Spies best rookie by far in WSB history
World Superbike
Press Release
How does Texan Ben Spies shape up against the other top rookies in World Superbike history? The 24-year-old from Yamaha World Superbike rider has certainly taken the championship by storm this year, winning three of the first four opening races in Australia and Qatar, then adding seven more to his total of ten so far, a tally that includes three double wins at Losail, Miller Motorsports Park and Donington.
Not counting 1988, the first year of WSB racing when quite literally everyone was a rookie, the best win performance by a man new to the series was in 1991, when Ben's fellow-Texan Doug Polen stormed to 17 victories on the Fast by Ferracci Ducati 888. But even Polen can't be considered a rookie in the true sense of the word, as he had already competed in four races in the three previous years of the championship.
The triple AMA Superbike champion on the other hand turned up at Phillip Island in March never even having seen the place, an occurrence that has been repeated on numerous occasions this year.
Three-times WSB champion Troy Bayliss's rookie year was 2000 on the Ducati Infostrada machine, and in it he scored two wins, but before that Troy had already competed in six WSB races, including the two at Phillip Island on the Ansett Suzuki in 1997 that started off the Australian's illustrious career.
Not even the four-times champion Carl Fogarty had such a successful introduction to the world of Superbike racing, the Lancastrian lad ending up winless and with a seventh place overall in his first full season on the Silkolene Honda Britain machine in 1991.
Current points leader and Spies' chief rival Noriyuki Haga is probably the man who comes closest in this particular ranking, the Japanese rider scoring five wins in his first full season in 1998, but Haga had already wild-carded in the Japanese Round of the championship in the previous four years.
