W’d like to apply the Latin phrase Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) to Ben Spies 2009 World Superbike Championship title.

The Texas Terror arrived in World Superbikes series a three times AMA champion, with three wildcard appearances in MotoGP on a Rizla Suzuki with a 14th place at Donington Park, an eighth at Laguna Seca and a 6th place at Indianapolis and a will to conquer the racing world at an international level.

Spies who has never seen 90% of the circuits, amazed one and all and at the end of this 2009 racing season in WSBK his stats are even more amazing.

Fourteen race wins, two second places and a third place in 24 rounds, places Spies in 14th place as one of the most victorious riders in Superbike history. He’s ahead of Aaron Slight, 13 wins (but in 229 races) equal to John Kocinscki, 14 wins (48 races) and Scott Russell, 14 wins (118 races).

Eleven pole positions in fourteen races. Saturday’s Superpole at Portimao’s broke Doug Polen’s 1991 record of pole positions in a single season.

Spies will be switching to MotoGP in 2010 and debut with the Tech 3 team at the Valencia season finale.

Ben Spies:

“I’ve got to thank Yamaha for giving me the bike I need to win. We had a really good first race, in the second we did what we had to do to win. It was quite difficult to keep it in check as the pace was pretty fast, I saw I had a couple of people behind me and I knew that if Nori won I had to be in sixth and that’s where I was so I tried to get a bit of a gap on them and stay out of trouble. Max came through the inside of me and ran off a couple of times which really freaked me out so I went to get past him and then settled in for some nice fast laps to the end. It’s been a spectacular day and I can’t thank those people enough that have been behind me. It’s been incredible to do it for Yamaha, and especially in my first year here. I don’t think I really realize what’s happening right now but I’m sure it’s going to hit me in a couple of days!”

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