“I am very impressed by Spies’ time, because he has never tested here before,” said Max Biaggi, four-time 250cc World Champion and recently departed Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati 1098 RS 08 World Superbike rider.

Biaggi, now the pilot of the Aprilia RSV4, was referring to the opening day of World Superbike testing that commenced at Portimao in Portugal on Monday. And as far as his comments centered on Spies, Biaggi, had his eye trained on the 2008 AMA Superbike Champion who was riding a variation of the Yamaha R1 he will perch upon in the 2009 World Superbike Series. Spies, throwing down a lap that flashed up at 1:44.0 on the Portuguese timing monitors, the American impressed all those present in the garage area.

“The most important thing for me to do was to learn the Pirelli's and Öhlins suspension, and it was my first day for a new bike, new track, new team,” said Spies of his outing on the 2008, race-proven R1. “The track was awesome, a real fun place to ride, even though we lost some of the morning because the track was damp and there was water running across it. After lunch we got going and it answered a little question inside the mind a bit, and I was happy with that. Tom [Sykes] got going really well too and he is really good to work with. We tried to work through a lot together. The crew, the team, everything is just a great package and I am looking forward to next year.”

While the first day of testing in Portugal was dedicated towards getting Ben settled with the R1 and obtaining a baseline of information off of the 2008 WSB bike, the second day of the test allowed Spies to get his head wrapped around the brilliant new 2009 Yamaha WSB R1. A 998cc mill purposely based off the M1 MOTOGP engine, the 2009 production R1 crossplane crankshaft engine and a unique uneven firing order giving linear torque and greater traction rider Ben Spies was capable of riding within two tenths of race lap times of race winner Troy Bayliss.

“The whole Superbike weekend has been great for me. Having my own crew chief here from the US joining the team is good, he really understands me and it’s great to see him working well with the Yamaha Motor Italia Technical Chief Silvano Galbusera. Getting out on Nori’s bike we made a couple of changes and got going, it answered a lot of questions for me on the different tyre manufacturer and riding new circuits. The 2009 bike is at the beginning of its development, but for where it’s at now compared to where we will be when we line up at Philip Island it’s hugely exciting. The team worked really hard on the bike this weekend and it’s just going to get better and better. I’m really looking forward to next year.”

Eric Johnson