Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies: The Making of a Champion BREA, Calif., (Sept. 25, 2006) As the final round of AMA Superbike approaches next weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies leads the championship points standings. The 22-year-old from Longview, Texas, has won 10 Superbike races on his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and needs only to finish in 13th position at Mid-Ohio to clinch his first AMA Superbike title. “This has been a great year for us,” said Spies. “Everything just clicked this year. I didn’t have to ride out of my comfort level, my crew has been great and the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 was everything I could want. I’ve been racing Suzuki motorcycles since 1999 and I’ve been with Suzuki for seven years now. I want to stay with Suzuki for my whole career. We’re a good combination.” Spies began riding motorcycles when he was just 5 years old. By the time he turned 10, he’d already won 27 consecutive races and by 1999, Spies had captured three amateur championships. The following year, he was awarded the AMA’s prestigious Horizon Award for road racing after turning Pro. In his first season riding for the factory Yoshimura Suzuki team in 2003, Spies brought home the AMA Formula Xtreme Championship. Last year, in his rookie AMA Superbike season, the young Texan finished second-overall in the premier class. Over a few short years, Spies’ professional motorcycle racing career has skyrocketed and he’s done it all aboard Suzuki motorcycles. 1995 1999 Spies won his first title ever when he was 11 years old a Central Motorcycle Racing Association (CMRA) YSR50 championship. For the next few years, he made a name for himself at first in Texas club races and later in WERA National events. “I won at least one title every year, from 1995 on,” recalled Spies. “I got into road racing when I was 7 and a family friend was doing it. He bought a little YSR and it fit me better than him. I started racing in school parking lots, wearing dirtbike gear and roller blade kneepads. Then I went to a track for the first time and fell in love with it. I did my first race in 1993 when I was 8 and I started dead last. But I was up to second place by Turn Two and then I had my first crash. I ran into the back of somebody I guess I thought he was going too slow. I fell down and started crying, but that’s where it all started.” 2000 2001 Spies turned Pro in 2000 and seriously began his road racing career with Suzuki. The teen signed with the Valvoline EMGO Suzuki support team and raced a Suzuki GSX-R750 to an impressive ninth-place overall in the 750 Supersport class. Such a remarkable rookie performance caught the AMA’s attention and Spies was rewarded with the prestigious AMA Horizon Award for Road Racing at the end of the season. The following year, Spies won his first AMA Pro race at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo., and finished the 750 Supersport season in third-place overall. “I started racing Suzukis when I was 15,” said Spies. “Suzuki’s Jeff Wilson came to some of the WERA races and saw me ride. Shortly after that, I got a call from Valvoline EMGO Suzuki team owner John Ulrich. I signed with John and rode with him for a few years and went on from there.” 2002 After a successful run with the Valvoline Suzuki team, Spies signed with Attack Suzuki and his mentor, long-time Suzuki supporter Jason Pridmore. While racing with Pridmore, Spies branched out into additional classes of racing. Campaigning a Suzuki GSX-R750 in 750 Supersport and a GSX-R600 in Formula Xtreme, the young rider racked up multiple top-five finishes in both classes. This performance had him poised to join American Suzuki’s factory-supported Yoshimura Suzuki team the following year. “That year with Attack Suzuki was one of the most fun years I’ve had racing,” said Spies. “I got the chance to work with some real good guys and having Jason as my teammate was a plus. We built a really close friendship and he taught me a lot about riding, bike setup and focus. I could always go to him for guidance and, as a younger rider, it was great if I was a bit faster and he would come to me.” 2003 Armed with several years racing for Suzuki’s support teams, Spies joined the Yoshimura Suzuki team in 2003. In his first year racing for the factory-supported Suzuki team, the 18-year-old contested AMA Supersport on a Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R600 and AMA Formula Xtreme on a Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. His rookie year with the Yoshimura crew could not have been better. Spies won the Formula Xtreme championship after carding five victories and two additional podiums. Icing on the cake for Spies was picking up a Supersport victory as well as finishing seventh on a Yoshimura Suzuki Superbike in the influential Daytona 200. “It was a really good rookie season,” said Spies of his first year with Yoshimura Suzuki. “That was when I decided to start training more and I got an old injury fixed that I had ridden with for a few years. I’d hurt my knee and that had been holding me back, but I had my knee fixed and I started training and went into ’03 with an awesome crew chief in Tom Houseworth. He had a lot of confidence in a young kid first coming into a factory team.” 2004 2005 Spies carried the momentum from this initial success into the next few years with Yoshimura Suzuki. Aboard the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R600, he continued to pick up victories and podium finishes in AMA Supersport and he contested the revamped AMA Superstock class aboard the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. In the latter class, he celebrated two victories and two additional podium finishes. The following year, Spies made his Superbike debut and won his first Superbike race at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and finished an unprecedented second place in the premier class. “Last year, I finished second in the Superbike series and at the end of the season I knew I needed to move up,” said Spies. “The only way to do that is to go out and win the title. So I did my homework, I knew I needed to work closely with my crew and run every race hard. I’ve also been lucky to work with former Grand Prix Champion Kevin Schwantz. We’re good friends and I look up to him a lot. Actually, I looked up to everybody who raced in the early 1990s, but mostly Kevin and Colin Edwards and Doug Chandler. Kevin and Colin are both from Texas and I got to meet them a couple of times when I was younger. I’ve told Kevin many times that I want to be like him, though I’d like to win a few more championships and not be on the ground as much. But I admire his charisma on the bike.” 2006 Spies followed up his impressive Superbike debut with an even more remarkable sophomore effort. As Yoshimura Suzuki prepares for the final round of AMA Superbike at Mid-Ohio, Spies leads the way in championship points. He has surrounded himself with a strong crew led by Houseworth, as well as his family. He credits his mother, Mary, with much of his success. “I’ve really been inspired in life by my parents and my grandpa,” said Spies. “My dad’s a stand-up guy and a good business man. My mom has gone way beyond herself to get me where I am today. I don’t mean this in a cocky manner, but we knew that I had some talent and that I could be halfway decent at racing but I could never have gotten here if my mom hadn’t given her whole life to my racing. And my grandpa did so much for so many people he started a charity called Love for Kids, and we still do a lot with them. We also support the Roadracing World Action Fund. The racetracks in the United States are working to improve safety in a lot of different ways. But these improvements can’t happen overnight. The only safety-related change that can be made overnight is to install air fences. I think that’s really important and I want to be a part of that.” Final season results notwithstanding, Spies has signed on with Yoshimura Suzuki for two more years. His long-term plans are extensive, ambitious and involve Suzuki. “I would love to break every Superbike record to be broken in the U.S.,” said Spies. “It’s definitely possible. I look at my teammate Mat Mladin and how many races he’s won, and what he’s done and he really didn’t start dominating until he was in his late 20s. I want to be able to break every record Mat has set. I want to be the winningest rider over here. If we have another year like this year, it would be easy to do that by the time I’m 25 or 26. Of course, this was a great year for us and I don’t know if this will be a normal year or not. But we’ll keep on plugging away and keep everything clean.” For more information on Spies and Yoshimura Suzuki, log onto www.teamsuzuki.com.