Certainly a badly kept secret, it was recently announced that three-time and 2008 AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies will be leaving the United States of America to contest the spectacularly competitive World Superbike Series in 2009. According to press reports, Spies has inked a one-year contract with the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB team. His teammate will be British-born rider Tom Sykes.

“I’m very excited about joining Yamaha in World Superbike,” exclaimed Spies in a Yamaha generated press release. “This is a positive step for the direction of my career. I’ll have a great opportunity to race on many of the top road racing circuits in the world. Riding with a company as passionate about racing as Yamaha is going to put me in a good position to contest for a world championship right from the start.”

Spies will now say good-bye to the Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki team, a team for which he won three AMA Superbike number one plates and 28 AMA Superbike Nationals. “Superbike racing originated in America, but it’s been a while since we’ve had an American world champion," Spies explained. "There’s a great tradition of American riders in World Superbike and I hope to put my name alongside great champions like Fred Merkel, Doug Polen, Scott Russell, John Kocinski and Colin Edwards."

Interestingly, to many roadracing enthusiasts around the world (and certainly in the United States of America), it was assumed that Spies, who started three races on a full-on works GSV-R for the highly competitive Rizla Suzuki team, was poised to race the MotoGP World Championship Series in 2009. However, at least as far as the Suzuki MotoGP organization was concerned, the idea was scotched when current riders Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi were signed for 2009.

“After considering my offers it became obvious to me that Yamaha would be a great home” Spies said. “Yamaha was excited about the possibility of me joining them and they just made me feel like I was coming into a great family. You look at how Yamaha treats its riders and how, even after their careers are over, they’re always part of the Yamaha family. That was really important to me. I’m looking forward to the challenge at hand and to work with Yamaha to produce a winning team and ultimately a World Superbike Championship.”

Spies will know become a globetrotter, learning many of the world’s finest racetracks on the new Yamaha R1.

The announcement of Spies’ signing also thrilled members of Yamaha’s World Superbike organization. Yamaha World Superbike team manager Massimo Meregalli said: “We’re really enthusiastic to have signed Ben Spies for the 2009 team. He’s proved to be a very skilful and successful rider in AMA Superbike, he has been one of the riders we have followed closely this year. We are sure he will be a great combination with Tom Sykes, the team are looking forward to starting with them both next year. There will be a lot to learn with new circuits and new bikes but we also have new motivation as a fresh team and will give 200% to help the riders win in 2009.”

Eric Johnson