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The pole gives Spies, the 25-year-old World Superbike rookie and three-time American Superbike Champion from Dallas, the upper hand over points leader Noriyuki Haga going into Sunday’s final pair of World Superbike races. He trails his Japanese rival Haga by 10 points with the championship battle going down to the final event. Haga, riding a factory Ducati, had a sub-par qualifying outing and will start tenth in both races Sunday.
Spies improved his qualifying time in each of the three Superpole sessions. In the first session he was third with a 1:43.532, behind Brit Jonathan Rea and Max Biaggi of Italy. In the second session Spies moved to the top of the charts, chopping nearly a second off his time, turning a 1:42.58. In the final session Spies waited until the closing lap before blazing around the 4.4–kilometer (2.7-mile), 12-turn circuit in a record-setting time of 1:42.412.
“I’m glad I was able to take the pole, it’s a good first step,” Spies said. “The team focused so much on race set up this weekend, that we were a little behind at first in Superpole. It took me a session to really get focused on holding the thing wide open. Once I got up to speed everything felt great on the bike. My pole lap wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to get the job done.
“Winning the record for the most poles in a season is a great accomplishment, but I really can’t enjoy that right now. I’m looking at having to win both races tomorrow [Sunday] to win this championship. That’s where my focus is right now.”
Doug Polen, reached by phone, said he was happy for Spies even though his record was broken.
“That pole record held for 18 years, it was about time someone broke it,” said Polen, who like Spies also grew up in the Dallas area. “If anyone was going to break the record I’m glad it was Ben. I’ve watched him since he was racing mini-bikes and I’ve never seen a rider with the kind of work ethic he has. Ben has amazing talent on a motorcycle no doubt, but he got to where he is by working harder than his competition. I don’t feel bad at all losing a record to a guy like him.”
In addition to his single-season pole record Spies also moved into seventh on the all-time World Superbike pole wins list.
Spies explained the strategy for Sunday was simple.
“I’m hoping for a couple of clean races tomorrow,” he said. “Ideally I’d like to get out front early to avoid any problems, but that’s always a tough thing to do. I’m in a little better position with Nori having a bad qualifying session, but he’s good about getting through the field early in a race, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him working up to the front. I’m very focused on what I need to do. I’ve been in pressure situations before and I enjoy the challenge of riding my best when everything is on the line.”
When asked how the pressure of tomorrow’s races compares to 2007 when Spies trailed Mat Mladin going into the final race and the AMA Superbike Championship amounted to a single-race showdown.
“There’s no comparison,” Spies said somewhat surprisingly. “I felt much more pressure in ’07 than I do now. I’m not sure why, but I really haven’t felt much pressure at all coming into this weekend. I think coming in here as a rookie and accomplishing what I’ve been able to accomplish, knowing where I’m going next season, being very comfortable with my team, the motorcycle, this track, all of that has made me a lot more relaxed now than I was then.”
This could be the final World Superbike race for Spies. He recently signed a two-year contract to race with Yamaha in MotoGP.
In the U.S. both legs of World Superbike from Portimao will be shown back to back tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 25) starting at 3:00 pm Eastern on SPEED.
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