With the news that the injured Ben Spies would miss not only the Australian GP, but the Valencian GP as well, the American MotoGP rider’s miserable MotoGP season was abruptly ended after his fall at Sepang.
Set to ride on the Ducati Junior Team next season, Spies’ run with Yamaha now seems to have concluded, and the attention has shifted as to whom would ride in his place at Valencia, if anyone.
Despite a twitter campagin to get American Josh Hayes back on a Yamaha YZR-M1, Yamaha Racing have instead chosen test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga to replace Ben Spies on the factory Yamaha.
Although there is a trend of MotoGP test riders being significantly slower than their racing counterparts, Nakasuga-san had an impressive result on the 800cc Yamaha YZR-M1 when he finished sixth at last year’s Valencian GP, replacing the then injured Jorge Lorenzo.
On the 1,000cc machine, Nakasuga-san finished ninth at this year’s the Japanese GP, racing with the Yamaha YSP Racing Team.
Ben Spies is currently in the US, recovering from his surgery this week that repaired torn ligament damage in his right shoulder. He will need a recovery period of eight to ten weeks in a sling before he is fit to ride again.
Source: Yamaha Racing; Photo: Yamaha Japan
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