Ben Spies: Sh*t this thing is going fast!

MotoGP News
Date: 25/August/2011

A former American and World Superbike champion, Ben Spies is no stranger to 1-litre motorcycles, but even he was blown away by the performance of the new 1000cc Yamaha MotoGP bike.

Spies, like team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, made his debut on an early version of the 2012 M1 during the recent Brno test, when the Yamaha turned heads by getting within a fraction of Casey Stoner. 

While Spies and Lorenzo hadn’t ridden the new Yamaha before, the Brno test marked Stoner's third day on the RC213V - yet the 2011 title leader was only 0.085sec quicker than Lorenzo and 0.138sec ahead of Spies.

But it wasn't the lap time that impressed Spies as much as the 'raw power' compared with the present 800cc bikes.

"I pulled out of pit lane and was straight on the rev limiter in every gear because the RPM is lower than with the 800," recalled Spies.

"Finally I started shifting the thing correctly and that's when you're like, ‘Holy sh*t, this thing is going fast now!' You get to your normal brake marker for an 800, and you realize you're going way too fast.

"It's fun and it's got the raw power. And you cannot make any big mistakes, but if you make a small mistake, you can get out of trouble a whole lot easier. I can't wait to ride it more.

"Yamaha did a great job for the first time rolling the bike out. We were quite fast on it without changing much, and hopefully there's a lot more to come."

Spies was speaking on the eve of this weekend's Indianapolis MotoGP, his second home race of the year and a track where he finished second, from pole, last season.

Now in the Factory Yamaha team, and with a race win under his belt, expectations are high for this weekend.

"It's a huge race," said Spies. "And it's great to have a lot of support from the crowd, family, friends. "We have a couple new pieces which will hopefully make the bike a bit better and the new track surface is definitely different. We'll just attack every session and see how we can do on Sunday."

Unfortunately for the 27-year-old, doubts remain that the arm numbness he struggled with in the Czech Republic - caused by a trapped nerve - have been fully cured.

"I've done everything possible in the last week, and it's definitely better," said Spies. "Coming into a weekend knowing you're not 100 percent on top of everything is frustrating, but it's not going to stop us from trying.

"It didn't in Brno, and I'll be giving 100 percent of whatever I've got. I can't say what that'll be right now because I honestly don’t know. All we can do is we get on the bike and try to go as fast as we can."

Spies is presently sixth in the world championship, but within easy reach of fourth place Valentino Rossi (Ducati) with seven rounds to go.