Ben Spies wins the first race of the SBK at Nürburgring

Rider Ben Spies has taken victory in the first race of the Superbikes held at Nürburgring, while in the second race the win went to Jonathan Rea. Furthermore, Noriyuki Haga’s crash has made Spies the new championship leader.

The first race got off to a rather eventful start, as an incident at the second left-hander forced the session to be stopped and restarted, since John Hopkins and Makoto Tamada had been seriously injured very close to the asphalt.

At the second start Haga took the lead and tried to pull away with an incredible pace for the opening laps, but Rea, Corser and Spies lined up behind him and did not let the Japanese rider build up much of a gap. The Ducati rider managed a one-second advantage, and at that point the Spies machine went to work, since he could not allow the Japanese rider to pull further away, and began his attack for the lead.

Behind this group Carlos Checa was coming through very strongly from the back, reaching Rea’s rear wheel and engaging him in a fine battle, which the Catalan rider resolved by passing him to take third place.

While at the front Spies seemed to maintain a better pace than the championship leader, and it did not take long for him to recover the gap of almost two seconds that separated them. He finally reached the Ducati and began studying Haga, whom he passed after the halfway point of the race.

But the race was not over yet, as this time Haga was not going to let Spies get away so easily. He stuck to the R1 until the end. With three laps to go he made his first attempt to pass the American, but Spies quickly returned the move and began riding at a spectacular pace that left Haga so far off the pace that he could not follow.

And so another victory for Spies in the first race of the Superbikes, undoubtedly the dominant force in this part of the Championship with 12 wins, cutting his distance to Haga to just 2 points.

A good result was Carlos Checa’s third place, although it was not easy, as he had to fight with his teammate Rea for a podium spot. Meanwhile Nieto had to retire mid-race due to technical problems, as did David Checa, and Salom finished seventeenth.

A very exciting race in Germany, although the second race was even more important, since it changed the dominance in the overall standings, with Spies now in control.

We will keep a close eye on SBK.

Source | Motociclismo.es