Daytona - How Ben Spies sees it...

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From Superbike Planet

Spies: "The Series Is Jacked Up"
by dean adams
Thursday, March 05, 2009
There was a time when the only thing that American Ben Spies wanted to be was the winningest AMA rider of all time. In 2007, Spies told the media, repeatedly, that he didn't yearn to go to Europe and challenge for world championships the way Kenny Roberts, Kevin Schwantz, and Nick Hayden did before him.

Now he's glad to be gone.

"The series (in the US) is jacked up," Spies said. "I think, on every level, you can see that there are holes in it now, and I wonder how much fan interest there is going to be in 2009."

The AMA sold the series outright to the Daytona Motorsports Group in 2008, and the new regime made many changes to the program for 2009, including making Superbikes easier to build for privateers, changing the Supersport class to a two-division entry series like those in Supercross, and even dovetailing the much-maligned Moto-ST class (now MotoGT) into the AMA Pro Racing weekend of activities.

Spies, a three-time AMA Superbike champion, sees few positives in the series, which has yet to hold a race. "It's a mess," he said, "I'm glad that I got out."

"My fear is that there won't even be an AMA Superbike series in 2010," Spies said. "I think if you talk to promoters, they'll tell you that this was the worst time to have this changeover happen, and they're really scared about trying to sell tickets to it."

While it may be very early to be talking about 2010, many observers are watching the series right now to see how it shapes up.

ENDS