First weekend on his new Yamaha MotoGP machine and Ben Spies finishes seventh in the race. At the test immediately following, on Day 2 (the last day Yamaha participated) Spies posts the fourth quickest time. He did 61 laps that day, and throughout most of the day was third quickest (behind only Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo).
All the while, Spies was taking “baby steps” and being smart . . . not pushing it. Wow!
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MD Readers Respond:
- Just read your article about Spies on pace. Yesterday I watched the
video made by GPone.com and Actioncameras.it showing Wayne Gardner
testing several 2009 superbikes. And what realy made me think was that
he figured the Yanaha R1 was not the easiest one to ride. In fact, it
was a rather difficult machine when it came to cornering, easily beaten
by the Aprillia ans even (!) the BMW. Gardner says this made even more
clear how talented Spies must be to ride it at a winning level! Maybe
most of the audience (including myself) watching the races tends to
think “If you got the best bike, you’ll win”, marginalizing the riders
skills (too much). But watching Ben Spies changes that thought,
especially after the Valencia race and -test followed by Gardners
comments. Link tot the video:
http://www.motomatters.com/news/2009/11/16/
wayne_gardner_rides_and_rates_the_2009_w.html. Sandor.
