Spies Wins Valencia Superpole, Third Pole for 2009

Ben Spies lead 19 other riders to Superpole victory in Valencia today. While tactics were mixed, Max Biaggi and Tom Sykes were left behind after the first session, and will have to start from the 5th row tomorrow. Joining them will be Ruben Xaus, who crashed out on a fast lap before he had the chance to set a time good enough to qualify.

Spies set the fastest time in the second session with only a single fast lap. The one lap wonder was due to him running wide and off the track during his slowdown lap. The mistake forced Spies to abandon his bike and run back to the pits. Fortunately for the young American, the lap time was enough to maintain his position, and advance into the third and final Superpole session. Shakey Byrne also had a moment, crashing out while on a very fast lap, which had set the second fastest time at the first intermediate point. In his first Superpole ever, John Hopkins struggled with the qualifying format, and ended the day the 16th starting position on the grid for tomorrow. 

For the final Superpole session, Spies went out for a lap, then came straight back in again. Laconi made the early running, taking pole at the start of the session, while Nori Haga waited for the second half of the session to go out. Haga made a strong showing but couldn’t touch Laconi’s time. With just a couple of minutes in the session left, Ben Spies went again.

At the first sector, Spies was already a quarter of a second quicker than the rest of the field, and by the end of the lap, Spies had smashed Max Neukirchner’s lap record by over 0.6 seconds, to take his third straight pole in a row. Three poles from three attempts is a remarkable record, and with three wins out of four races, Ben Spies is looking virtually unstoppable.

Results From the 2009 World Superbike Valencia Superpole:

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