It’s funny, but just a few years ago you would never have thought a 21-year-old kid should be thinking about MotoGP when he has yet to win a major National championship. With the “youth movement” well underway in MotoGP, however, you have to think Suzuki (and other manufacturers) are taking a hard look at Ben Spies as a MotoGP candidate. Spies indicated as much in the press conference following his win at Infineon yesterday.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Spies has tied the AMA record for consecutive superbike wins (tied at six with Miguel Duhamel). He not only leads the most prestigious roadracing championship in the United States, he is dominating it, and consistently beating the guy we expected to continue to dominate it, Mat Mladin. Pretty impressive stuff.
Although he has won the AMA Formula Extreme championship (as an 18-year-old, as I recall), Spies is an American prodigy that didn’t seem destined to follow another American prodigy (John Hopkins) into MotoGP. Of course, now he does.
First things first, however. Spies needs to win the AMA championship this year, and he still has a long road ahead of him with 12 races left.
