Super Ben does it again – Superpole, Miller | World SBK
- From: TRS House | Published: May 30th, 2009 - 8:05 pm
Where to start? For sure, congratulations to Ben Spies for breaking Doug Polen’s Pole record with his seventh consecutive Superpole. It’s really unbelievable what he’s accomplished right out the gate in World Superbike. Not to take anything away from his accomplishment, but the third Superpole session was a bit quirky.
The weather didn’t cooperate…rain started to fall on part of the track. It was the worst kind of rain for several reasons; first it only rained on part of the track and even then only hard enough to make it slippery. The drama really started in the second session when Max Biaggi crashed on the exit of the ‘Attitudes.’ He got right up and was able to get back to the pits and jump on his back-up bike but wasn’t able to go fast enough to get through to the third session. Haga had a big get off in the second practice session today and although he got up and looked okay he didn’t go fast enough to get through to the third session either. So now for the third session we’re really down to three heavyweights… Checa the double winner from last year, Fabrizio, who’s been hot lately, and Spies.
Checa was fast out of the gate, literally trying to outrun the rain as it looked like it might get worse, and a lot worse. He looked fast and indeed he was running a fastest lap of the weekend 1:48.908…awesome for sure. Fabrizio never seemed (at least from my vantage point) to get his rhythm together and would end up in fourth right behind Kiyonari with a fastest lap of 1:49.648. As I’m writing this I feel bad for not including Kiyo in the fast guy statement but anyhow, Ben Spies came out and ran only one flyer, a lap of 1:48.344 and then went in. Not quite fast enough to break Checa’s lap record from last year but fast enough to beat Polen’s Pole record. Spies never came back out.
Not to overlook Jamie Hacking. He has had an amazing weekend so far. He also came through to the third Superpole session. It would have been the best performance by a Kawasaki for some time were it not for the fact that Jamie’s teammate, Brock Parkes, also came through and in the end just nicked Jamie by a tenth. Brock would finish in seventh and Jamie in eighth. Congratulations to both of them but Jamie gets the extra kudos because maybe he’s partly responsible for lighting the spark under Brock…maybe not, but I think so.
At the end of it all Spies really looked like he could have gone faster if there was someone pushing him but we’ll never know. He got the job done and that’s really all that matters.
So the top eight in Superpole look like this:
1- 19 Ben Spies
2- 7 Carlos Checa
3- 9 Ryuichi Kiyonari
4- 84 Michel Fabrizio
5- 96 Jakub Smrz
6- 67 Shane Byrne
7- 23 Brock Parkes
8- Jamie Hacking
Later,
Yamaha’s Take:
Seven-time Spies breaks the all-time Superpole record
Yamaha World Superbike phenomenon Ben Spies made it seven Superpoles in a row today at the Miller Motorsports Park, he is now the only rider ever in the history of Superbike to take seven consecutive poles in a row. Spies had spent the first qualifying session and free practice working and fine tuning the set-up of the bike, as the Superpole heats started, it was clear his hard work with the team had paid off as he laid down the fastest lap of each session to comfortably end on pole position for tomorrow’s races. It was a fitting scene as thunder and lightning broke dramatically over the circuit as the ‘Texan Terror’ showed everyone how it should be done.
Team-mate Tom Sykes had struggled with his set-up during the morning practice and following qualifying session, ending with a 22nd position start on the grid for race day. After making several changes Sykes went out again for the afternoon free practice session and found the set up he was looking for. Finding another second and a half on his earlier times he was running in tenth for the free session. Although not an ideal start position the new settings will give him a good race pace and the opportunity to fight through the pack.
Ben Spies, Yamaha World Superbike Team (1st, 1′48.344)
“It was a good set of sessions for us, the last few minutes of Superpole there was some drops coming down and I was pretty nervous but we had worked hard in free practice and qualifying on the tires we were on and just went into Superpole and stuck to the plan and everything worked out. I think we’ll have a good race pace for tomorrow, I think there’s a few guys who have good pace as well so I think the race is going to be pretty interesting. ”
Tom Sykes, Yamaha World Superbike Team (22nd, 1′50.807)
“In qualifying we really missed out, we didn’t find the right direction fast enough and unfortunately didn’t get to Superpole which was a big shame. For the final free practice we found an area of real improvement, the time was good enough for Superpole. So hopefully we can forget today and although we’ve got a bad starting position we can come out tomorrow focused and make the most of what we’ve got.”
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
“One more pole for Ben, seven in a row is fantastic. The pace is really good and for sure we are able to fight for the race win tomorrow. I think there are two or three guys who will be tough so it should be a good race. On the other side of the garage Tom improved this afternoon with a better set-up in free practice, he made up almost a half second so this will give some motivation to push very hard tomorrow and fight to make up positions. In the end it’s all about race day so lets see what happens.”
