Ben Spies overcame a mid-race restart to score his fifth World Superbike Championship win of the season in front of his home fans at Miller Motorsports Park.

In a race determined by aggregate results following a red flag period on lap seven, Spies kept his cool on both occasions to romp away from the field and win by almost ten seconds from Carlos Checa.

Spies had led comfortably from the first start, capitalising on his pole position to sling his Yamaha into the lead on the run down to the opening bend, while Shinya Nakano made full use of the lengthy straight to catapult from tenth on the grid to second position behind the American.

Equally impressive off the line was Noriyuki Haga, going from ninth to third, ahead Ryuichi Kiyonari, Broc Parkes and front row sitter Checa.

With Spies already putting considerable air between himself and Nakano in second position, it was already looking like a foregone conclusion as to where the win would go after just a few laps. His cause was certainly being aided by Haga, whose good getaway only brought an apparent lack of race pace into sharper focus.

Indeed, Haga was down to sixth behind team-mate Michel Fabrizio by lap four, while he was then faced with the unusual situation of been swamped by the feisty Kawasakis of Parkes and Jamie Hacking.

Both Parkes and Hacking were providing considerable entertainment in their charge towards the front of the field, belying the bike's lack of pace so far this year to achieve their aims on lap six and get the better of Haga.

Hacking was on a particular charge, making his way past Haga, Parkes and Checa by the end of lap six to suddenly find himself in fourth position.

However, his hopes of progressing further would come to nothing when the red flag was produced following an accident for Karl Muggeridge further back. The Australian had lost control of his Celani Suzuki and with both man and machine stricken on the circuit, organisers chose to stop the race.