Ben Spies’ long-time Crew Chief Tom Houseworth has brought in another member from their title-winning Yoshimura Suzuki AMA Superbike squad to bolster Spies’ confidence and smooth operations within the Yamaha Motor Italia team for the final push in the Superbike World Championship. Greg “Woody” Wood, a chassis technician on Spies’ crew from 2004 to 2008 — a period that saw Spies win 28 AMA Superbike races and three AMA Superbike Championships (plus an AMA Superstock title) without a single DNF — is currently en route to join the Yamaha Motor Italia squad this weekend at Donington Park. “Ben was working on getting him over here, and the circumstances came to be where we were able to do it,” Houseworth told Roadracingworld.com via cell phone from England Thursday evening. “Obviously, Woody’s worked with Ben for a few years now. I basically hand-picked Woody, grabbed him from Honda. He was someone I actually wanted when we were putting a team together for Ben [in 2004]. He obviously worked out well. We had no DNFs. So, the chance came up, we were able to get him and he was willing to make the move. He should be a pretty good addition to the team.” Spies has earned six pole positions, eight race wins and 10 podium finishes in the first 16 World Superbike of his rookie season, but his Championship hopes have been damaged by DNFs, some of which have been due to avoidable technical problems. Houseworth, however, flatly denies that the addition of Wood is a result of those problems and pointed out that no mechanics have left his crew. “This change is to keep Ben’s confidence high,” said Houseworth. “And a little bit of this is the language barrier. It gives me someone I can speak with in English clearly. And not just that, he knows the slang. He knows our slang, Ben and me, our slang. Doing this racing stuff, we’re talking in shorthand half the time. With Woody involved, and also [Öhlins technician] Mike Watt, we can all talk in our abbreviated shorthand, our racing shorthand.” Wood, who was an invited guest in Spies’ garage during the races at Miller Motorsports Park, will serve as a chassis technician on Spies’ YZF-R1 Superbikes. In his spare time, Wood restores Volkswagon transporters. He lives in Lake Elsinore, California and several of his sons have raced small motorcycles as amateurs. Wood was able to leave his gig as a member of Blake Young’s Chuck Warren-led AMA crew because he did not have a current contract with the Yoshimura Suzuki team.