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Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies (Photo: Brian J Nelson) ยป More Photos
Spies Ties Polen for 2nd in Superbike Poles
Ben Spies secured his second consecutive pole of the AMA Superbike season this morning at Infineon Raceway, laying down a blistering 1:34.732 to establish a new circuit record and inch a point closer to his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki teammate, Mat Mladin.
The Texan is now 19 points removed from the Australian in the season tally (178 vs. 159) and could be poised to take another chunk out of the gap this afternoon as Mladin is struggling -- by his standards -- this weekend.
While Mladin may be slightly off his game at the moment trying to get his GSX-R1000 set-up to his liking, Spies knows better than get over confident heading into the races even if there's a hint of blood in the water.
"Obviously he's not very comfortable," Spies said of Mladin, who qualified third, almost a second off pole. "We're usually never that far apart. He hit the deck the a couple times yesterday -- no big crashes -- but due to maybe a problem he's not liking. I'd like to think I could still be faster but obviously he's not gelling with
Spies' pole is the 18th of his AMA Superbike career, catapulting him past Freddie Spencer for third and tying him with AMA and World Superbike legend Doug Polen for second on the all-time list (Mladin is well out in front with more than twice as many poles as any other AMA Superbike rider).
Something of a racing historian himself, Spies is too wrapped up in the fight at hand to be able to keep track of the history he's rapidly making.
"He's one of my heroes and that's another one of those stats I didn't even know," Spies admitted after the factoid was brought to his attention. "It's good, but right now there's no time to celebrate qualifying records or passing guys on the wins list and stuff like that. We've got enough on our hands trying to claw back into this championship and win races right now. That's all were focused on."
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