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MOTOGP: New World For Super Spies
Written by: Colin Young   
11/08/2009
Valencia (ESP)
 
Team Sterilgarda Yamaha's Ben Spies (Photo: Yamaha Racing) ยป More Photos

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The MotoGP season finale from Valencia will air on SPEED today at 6:00pm ET, immediately following coverage of the 250GP race.

His eyes wide open, Ben Spies knows what he has got himself into by moving into MotoGP with Yamaha as the new World Superbike champion. But the 25-year-old Texan has set himself no lofty goals for Sunday's Valencia Grand Prix where he will race a Yamaha M1 for the first time.

This is the same bike on which Valentino Rossi has just won the world championship and there could be no better platform Spies to begin his full-time MotoGP career.

Three wild card races last year for Suzuki are now a distant memory, especially after Spies's World Superbike triumph on a Yamaha R1, and really have no relevance here except for giving Spies a bit of experience with the new world he is entering… a world where the legendary Rossi
is the benchmark racer with young guns Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, and Dani Pedrosa hot on his heels.

"I know what it is going to take but it's a matter of doing it like those guys who are the so-called 'aliens' in MotoGP, which they are," Spies said. "I knew what I was stepping into coming here and I'm just trying to take small steps.

"The potential of the bike is there -- you can see that with Rossi and Lorenzo -- but I know I can't do it right now and I knew that coming in. And I can't really set a goal this weekend at Valencia because no matter what I do this weekend the lead guys are in a different class.

"So whatever I do on Sunday will not be my potential on this bike next year. This weekend is just about turning as many laps as I can, get comfortable with the bike, the tires, the brakes and just the style of riding a grand prix bike."


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