Spies takes series finale to win AMA Superbike season title

MONTEREY, Calif. Ben Spies won the season-ending race Sunday
at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to successfully defend his AMA
Superbike championship.

Spies, the 23-year-old Suzuki rider from Longview, Texas, passed
teammate and series leader Mat Mladin on lap 16 of the 28-lap
final and pulled away to a 2.526-second victory. With his seventh
victory of the year, Spies edged Mladin by a point in the closest
finish since 1978, when the title was decided on a tiebreaker.

"That was the longest 12 laps I ever raced in my life,'' Spies said.
"The pass up in the corkscrew was a little tight, but we made and
kept the No. 1 plate. I think I proved to a lot of people today that
I don't buckle under pressure.''

Mladin said his tires let him down.
"I started sliding around about halfway through the race and
couldn't catch up,'' said Mladin, a six-time AMA Superbike
champion from Australia. "Congratulations to Ben. We'll come
back next year and try to get him again.''

Aaron Yates finished third on the Jordan Suzuki. SI/CNN