SuperBikePlanet.com columnist Ben Spies enjoyed a succesful weekend at Daytona. image by keith patti

I don't know how to start after that Daytona. What a week. We showed up to Daytona a couple of days early and bicycled a couple of days with Josh Hayes and James Ellison, and just kind of got loosened up a little bit after driving out there. Then we just started the racing week off, and everything was going pretty good.

Then it definitely turned into a weird weekend for us. Everything seemed to go really well. The bikes worked good, but every session we had some little problem- like in Superstock when I got on pole, my fast lap was kind of blocked up a little bit in the chicane, which was nobody's fault. But I thought it almost cost me pole. Then in Superbike, we got on pole there, but never put a lap together. Each lap I made kind of a big mistake and then just had to drill the rest of it to get the most out of it possible. But we squeaked it out and got both poles there.

The Superstock race went kind of like how I thought it would. I got a good start, we got out to the lead, but made a couple of really big mistakes on the first lap. I don't know if it was me, being the first race back, being kind of nervous or what. I'd get into a rhythm and made a couple of big mistakes. I led the first laps and Geoff and Ben were behind me. Then I kind of rolled out of the throttle coming onto the Horseshoe and let Geoff and Ben pass me, and just kind of sat back there. The big question was, were the Pirellis going to go the race distance? I know Geoff's a fast rider, and he was riding great. I just kind of sat back there and got pulled around for the majority of the race. I was watching my lap numbers because I wanted to get the point for most laps led. So we had to pass on the lap I did. From then on I was just going to go but I really didn't try to break. I was just going to elevate the pace and make sure I led every single lap on the way in, to get the most laps led. Eventually I was going to try to break away.

As soon as I went to the lead, I just did my normal pace, and with me leading in a couple of spots instead of following, the pace automatically dropped a second and we kind of got a gap on everybody, and when I saw that, I just went ahead and keep my head down and kept going, and got the race win. That was a special race, because we'd never won at Daytona before, always got sniffed at the line.

I knew that Superstock win was going to give me more confidence in the Superbike race. It's a different race, but just having the pressure of winning at Daytona off my back was a huge relief.

In the Superbike race, I got out and was just a little bit flustered from morning warm-up. We had, actually, some bike problems in the morning. The team did a fantastic job in diagnosing everything and getting it back straight line. But the Superbike race didn't go really how I thought it would. Eric got out to a jackrabbit start. I knew what was going on, but I knew I was comfortable running the pace. I was following Mat, and I could see Mat was kind of having some problems in some places, and he looked like he was just pushing the front hard. He was braking a little too deep going everywhere, and I could see Eric was getting away.

I don't know if he was a bit flustered or what, but he was trying to catch him, and was kind of running off line in some places, and stuff like that. So I thought to myself, "I'm just going to pass Mat." Mat obviously knows - I hope he knows - I'm not a ridiculous rider or do things stupid. I went to pass him on the straightaway, and I was thinking, "Since I'm passing him, he probably knows that I'm not wanting to battle, and I think I can pull us back up to Eric." So, as soon as I passed him, I led through Turn One, and was already starting to make some inroads on Eric, Mat passed me back in the Horseshoe. For me, a teammate's first race, I thought it was a pretty hard pass.

I was like, "All right. Well, I guess that's how it's going to be." I made a mistake, because I was trying to get right back up to him, and I was going to return the favor in the next lap. But I made a mistake out of the chicane and lost my drive, and lost a couple positions. When that happened, I just knew what I had to do. "Let's just regroup and calm down and see what we can do." I got past everybody, and I saw Mat coming out of the infield. He looked back and saw that he had about a second gap on Eric, and I was behind Eric. I figured he was going to see that and try to go for it and break the draft. So I got by Eric. As soon as we got back on the front side of the track, going into Turn One, that's where I passed Eric--on the outside. And I was like, "Okay, I've got to catch Mat now, or he's going to try to go."

I pretty much closed the gap pretty quick. But, right when we got on the back of Mat, all of a sudden he was right in front of us--on the ground! I couldn't believe it.

I saw that Eric had kind of faded, with what looked to be a little front tire issue just the way the bike was working. Then Mat's, obviously, right on his shoulder, and I'm thinking to myself, "Okay. Big points day. Two of the big guys are out - fading with tires or out." And I was that obviously the front tire is an issue in this race. So from then on I tried to be as careful as I could on the tires, and go as fast as I could with saving the tire and keeping Miguel off me. Because Miguel was coming, and you know how Miguel is at Daytona. He's going to give it everything he's got. He's the guy I really don't want to battle with the last lap at Daytona, because he knows what to do to win. So I just kept the gap and tried to take it easy on my tires.

It was a very strange race with Jamie and Aaron getting tangled up with Geoff May in the Horseshoe, and Roger crashing. So I was trying to stay out of trouble, and in doing that, we got off with the race win.

So it was a picture perfect weekend for us. We led most laps, got pole and won both races. Probably that won't happen again this year. But to start off, it was just good for me and my team. My team's been working so hard and trying everything they can to give me the bike I want. To show up with the No. 1 plate and get most laps led and pole and winning the Superbike race was a big confidence boost for me, and I can see my riding only improving. Last year, I know how hard I had to ride to be with Mat at Daytona. And I feel like my riding might've gotten a little better. The team's working better. The confidence is building. We're liking it, so we're going to keep going with it.

Daytona did a lot of damage to me a couple of years ago with the big crash and hurting myself, and hopefully that was a little payback it gave me with the weekend I just had. It was a pretty special weekend, and now we're just going to go home and really start to train hard and get ready for the big races that are going to matter toward the end of the year.

One thing - the fastest lap in Superbike was actually the lap Mat crashed. It was a :38.30. It's so hard for a manufacturer to bring a Superbike tire that's going to last for 17 laps around Daytona. But Dunlop is doing that. The tires could have gone :37s for sure, but there's no need to when you've got a couple second gap and you're stretching away. So the Superbike race, I just only went as fast as we really needed to. In Superstock, when you think about it, with two to go, I did a : 38.9, and that would've been one of the fastest laps in the Superbike race. That's just amazing that the Dunlop tires can do that. Six tenths of a second a lap off, with two to go. And I did that on the third lap of the Superbike race. The Superstock tires were just unreal. I was really happy with that.