Spies sets a record with latest superpole victory

TOOELE — In just a short time competing as a World Superbike racer, Ben Spies has shown unparalleled mastery at claiming pole positions. Now that ability to crank out high-speed laps has landed him in the record books.

Spies set a new world record by claiming his seventh consecutive superpole position during superpole qualifying for the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at Miller Motorsports Park on Saturday afternoon.

The 24 year-old series rookie eclipsed the previous best mark of six straight poles set by fellow Texan Doug Polen in 1992.

Spies posted a top lap time of 1 minute and 48.344 seconds to beat out Spanish rider Carlos Checa to claim his record setting superpole position. Checa finished second overall with a top lap time of 1:48.908.

"We had a pretty good race pace and knew that the qualifying would be good," Spies said. "Then, the (bad) weather started coming, so there was more nerves. Lots of adrenaline."

Storm clouds gathering to the south of the track and the occasional lightning bolt flashed across the sky did nothing to slow Spies' pace. His first split time was more than four seconds better than Checa's pace and he trimmed off another second in his second split.

Spies steadily showed improvement on his overall lap time while advancing through three 12-minute knockout rounds of superpole qualifying.

Jaime Hacking took the first superpole round with a time of 1:49.216, which put him just barely ahead of Spies and his top lap time of 1:49.330. In the second round, Spies shaved off enough time to actually post a top lap time of 148.319 — his fastest of the three rounds.

No racer besides Spies has claimed a Superpole position through seven rounds of World Superbike racing this season.

"We got this one and now the pressure is off. But we still have to plug away," Spies said, noting his focus is now turned to garnering race victories. "It's going to be tough because Carlos is obviously fast here. There's about four or five guys that have a really good race pace, so it's going to be good."

Earning a front-row position could certainly be a boon for Checa. He knew a good showing on Saturday would be crucial to keep alive his hopes of emerging victorious from Tooele once again.

"We tried to fight for the pole," Checa said. "Conditions were not so easy with the rain. We didn't know what was going to happen with that from the beginning. Then I saw my time and it was very fast."