Ben Spies may not have delivered a knock-out blow, in terms of securing a 2009
MotoGP ride, at the US Grand Prix - but the reigning double AMA Superbike champion certainly proved he could hold his own amongst the premier-class field.
The Texan, who finished 14th on his last-minute MotoGP debut in place of
Loris Capirossi at
Donington Park, arrived at the familiar Laguna Seca circuit with the further benefit of MotoGP track time at the recent Indianapolis test.
Riding a third Rizla Suzuki alongside Capirossi and
Chris Vermeulen, Spies qualified tenth out of the 18 riders, but had slipped back to 13th - just in front of fellow wild-card Jamie Hacking - by lap eight of 32.
Hacking later said that Spies "looked back (and) as soon as he saw it was me he upped the pace". Whatever the catalyst, Spies overtook fellow American
Colin Edwards and Alice's
Toni Elias on the following lap, and was up to ninth by lap 12.
"I didn't get the best of starts," Spies explained. "I got shuffled back a little bit early in the race and then got things sorted out and start getting by some guys. It felt good to start working my way up through the field. That's what I hoped I'd be able to do."
Spies remained in ninth until overtaking both
Shinya Nakano and
James Toseland on the 30th lap - but a last lap braking pass by Elias put Spies back down to eighth.
"Toni rode a great race and made a good pass on me on the last lap," Spies said sportingly. "I would have liked to have held on to seventh, but he made a really good move."
Spies was pleased to learn that he had set the sixth fastest lap of the race, a 1min 22.96secs, on lap 27. That lap time was bettered only by
Casey Stoner,
Valentino Rossi, Vermeulen, Elias and
Nicky Hayden.
In terms of his Suzuki team-mates, Vermeulen finished in third place (15secs ahead of Spies) while the injured Capirossi was 14th (20secs behind Spies). Hacking, making his MotoGP debut for Kawasaki, finished eleventh (four seconds behind Spies)
