Being fourth is normally a bad day for two-time and defending AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies, but considering what he’s went through over the last 10 days he’ll take it. Just 10 days ago Spies was admitted into a Dallas, Texas hospital with nausea, fever and abdominal pains. Finding symptoms of an infection, doctors made three relatively small incisions into his left lower abdomen and removed his appendix, but the organ did not show signs of appendicitis. Doctors then continued to poke, prod, explore and rinse out his entire abdominal cavity with antibiotics, before closing his incisions. Spies lost several pounds and a lot of strength during his four-day stay in the hospital. Then, after a weekend at home, he packed up his motorhome and started driving to Mid-Ohio. On Friday morning, Spies, moving very slowly and stiffly, climbed onboard his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and managed seven laps in a session that saw most of his competitors do close to 20. His time was 10th-fastest. Spies, moving just as slowly, remounted his Suzuki Friday afternoon and completed 11 laps in provisional qualifying, ending up with the fourth-fastest time. Spies had never been lower than second in any qualifying session so far in 2008. “I can’t throw the bike into the corner like I want,” Spies told Roadracingworld.com. “I can’t change directions like I want. I can’t brake as hard as I want. It sucks because the bike is working really great, but I can’t ride it as hard as I want to or need to.” Asked what his doctors said when he told them he was going racing, Spies said, “The doctors told me it wasn’t the best idea for me to go racing. They said I could create a hernia where they cut through my stomach muscles. I talked to them, and they finally realized how important this was to me. “They said the normal recovery time is two to three weeks for a normal person to return to normal daily activities. I can do normal stuff just fine, but it’s a different story when you’re talking about throwing a 370-pound bike around Mid-Ohio. I’m getting better everyday, but winning is out of the question. I’m just going for the best result I can get, and we’ll see what place that is.”