Ben Spies has accomplished a great deal in his short time of AMA Superbike racing. In just over three short years Spies has won two-straight AMA Superbike championships. Along the way the 23-year-old Texan has rocketed up the AMA record books. Last month in Sonoma, Calif., Spies passed legendary Superbike champ Fred Merkel for third on the all-time AMA Superbike wins list. He now owns 24-career wins. Just one week ago in Tooele, Utah, he moved past fellow Texan and former AMA Superbike Champion Doug Polen for second on the all-time AMA Superbike poles winners list. Even though Spies is the youngest rider to accomplish many of these mileposts, he is covering ground that has already been explored. This Saturday, June 7, Spies has the opportunity to accomplish a feat never before reached in the 33-year history of AMA Superbike. The rider of the No. 1 Rockstar/Makita Suzuki could become the first to earn seven AMA Superbike race wins in a row. Spies, along with Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin and Honda’s veteran Miguel Duhamel, have all reached the six-straight threshold, yet, for whatever reason, could not keep the string going beyond that point. First a short history of AMA Superbike winning streaks: In the championship’s inaugural season, 1976, Reg Pridmore rode his factory-backed BMW to two consecutive wins at the end of the year clinching the title and becoming the first to establish a winning streak in the series. Five years later Wes Cooley pushed the win streak record to three by taking the final two rounds of 1980 and the Daytona Superbike opener in 1981 aboard the Yoshimura Suzuki. For several years three consecutive wins was the mark no one could seem to break. Eddie Lawson won three in a row twice once in 1981 and again in 1982 on factory Kawasakis before leaving to become World Champion. Finally it was Kawasaki’s next young racing star, Wayne Rainey, who finally established a new mark by winning four straight in 1983. Fred Merkel, a future World Superbike Champion, tied Rainey’s mark during his amazing 1984 campaign, where he won 10 of the 13 rounds aboard the factory Honda. Merkel did four straight again in 1985. Rainey struck back in 1986 and upped the ante to five straight, but then lost the title in heartbreaking fashion that year to Honda teammate Merkel. Rainey’s five consecutive AMA Superbike wins was a record that held for nearly ten years, despite the best efforts of riders such as Kevin Schwantz, Doug Chandler, Bubba Shorbert, Doug Polen and Scott Russell to best the mark. Rainey’s record was challenged and finally surpassed by a young Miguel Duhamel, when he won six in a row en route to his 1995 championship on the Camel-backed Honda. Years later Duhamel, while thumbing through the AMA Superbike Media Guide, instead of being proud of his accomplishment, he looked at the races and bemoaned his second-place finish to then teammate Mike Hale in the final round of 1995. “If only I’d won that race at Firebird,” Miguel said in reference to the season finale in Phoenix he didn’t need for the championship. “I would have won nine in a row!” Nicky Hayden twice had the chance to at least tie Duhamel’s record of six straight in 2002 on the factory Honda, but a loss, first to Anthony Gobert in Fontana, Calif., then to Eric Bostrom at Pikes Peak Raceway stopped him at five each time. As dominant as Mat Mladin was in AMA Superbike during the 2000s, surprisingly he’d never gotten past four wins in a row during his six championship campaigns. Instead it was upstart Spies who shocked racing fans by tying Duhamel’s record, reeling off six consecutive victories early in the 2006 season. Spies’ quest to beat Duhamel’s mark in 2006 came to an end at Road America. Despite a brilliant late-race charge, Spies came up three bike lengths short of winning seven straight AMA Superbike races, after being held off by a determined Mladin. Last year in the epic championship battle between Spies and Mladin, it was Mladin who became the third rider in history to win six consecutive AMA Superbike rounds. The elusive seventh win never materialized for the hard-charging Aussie. Spies needed to win the last round at Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif., to defend his title, and he came through to win the championship by a single point in one of the closest title chases in series history. Now Spies comes to Road America on the verge of making history. A victory would give him a consecutive win record that could hold for years, but he realizes that the scenic four-mile Wisconsin circuit is one where archrival Mladin shines. “With the exception of the rain race there last year where I was able to win, Mat’s pretty much owned Road America the past couple of years,” Spies said. “I’ve got six straight wins going in their just like I did in 2006, but it’s going to be tough to keep it going. Even though Road America is one of my favorites, it hasn’t always been the best track for me for some reason. Hopefully I can change that this year and come through with a pair of wins.” Unlike some riders in the past who have downplayed their runs through the record books, Spies freely admits he wants the all-time AMA Superbike win streak record. “That’s a record I want to win before I leave AMA Superbike,” Spies said without hesitation. “I’m not going to sit here and say records like that aren’t important. Championships are what I’m shooting for no doubt, but it’s nice to be able to look in the record books and see your name up there with all the great riders of the sport.” Much is riding on Saturday’s opening round of the Suzuki Superbike Doubleheader in Elkhart Lake, Wis. The number one rider is chasing that magical number seven. Spies may not just help himself in his quest of winning a third straight AMA Superbike Championship, he could break a long-established record that has proven elusive, even for the best riders in the history of the series. It could put him in a category of his own.