After fourteen race wins in World Superbike, American Ben Spies clinched the world championship on Sunday in Portugal. Yamaha Team Manager Massimo Meregalli stands with him on the podium. image by geebeeimages.com

SuperBikePlanet.com interviewed new World Superbike champion Ben Spies this week in a long interview that will be published here in multiple segments.

A Yeah. I'm back at the house in Italy.

Q What have you been doing since you won the championship?

A Oh, man. Really, it's funny, man. As soon as we clinched the title, when I got off the bike, it was interview after interview, picture after picture. It did not stop 'til we were done with the dinner, the Infront dinner at midnight. And then went straight to sleep. The next day all the journalists were riding the bike, so I was there. Questions, answering some of their questions. Really, today's been the first day we've kind of ... we flew in yesterday and didn't do much, and then today I started my training back up again for this last race, and then we'll take some time off after that.

Q House said you seemed nervous before the final round. Was that an understatement? How was it?

A That I did seem nervous?

Q Yeah.

A No. Actually, it was quite funny. Chaz Davies came and stayed the week before the last round, and we actually had a lot of fun. We went cycling, and just a bunch of stuff. Really wasn't too nervous. It was quite weird. Just getting ready, and doing what we needed to do, and I just was approaching that last round that we just needed to win. It's all we could do. It was kind of funny. I never got really nervous before the races. In the middle of both races, I had these adrenaline surges that felt like I could've rode 80 laps at the pace we were running. It just wasn't getting tired at all, and it wasn't really nervousness ... I wasn't making any mistakes ... I was just pumped with adrenaline. It was kind of crazy.

And then it was over. The weekend went by really quick, and it was a solid weekend for us. We worked a lot in practice on the race setup, and didn't really show our full hand until the races. We had very comfortable pace in the races, and knew what we could do, and that was it. It was quite funny. It was actually, with all the fans we had there and old friends from back home that were there supporting, and all the people that were behind me - it seems like everybody else was a little bit more nervous than I was.

Q The WSBK television guys were putting forth that in race two, you had some sort of technical issue. Evan and I kind of laughed about it, but for the record, did you have a technical issue in race two?

A No, not at all.

I was just staying out of trouble. The plan was to get a good start, ride at the front, try to get the holeshot, put my head down for a couple laps, or at least get with somebody and get pulled away a little bit, and just stay out of trouble. Shakey got the lead and I got in behind him, and that was about it. I heard a four-cylinder coming up behind me, so I knew it was Rea, and nodded him past, and I thought he had some good pace to try to win the race, so I let him by. And really tried to put the brakes on everybody, because I knew Biaggi and Fabrizio—I took a glance over and saw those three were behind me, and Haga—so I really tried to let Rea and Byrne get away, because I knew Nori had to win the race, and then if he'd won, we had to finish sixth. So I wanted to make the gap as big as I could, so I was holding everybody up.

That was pretty much it. And then when Nori came past, I just jumped on the back of him. He was in fifth, I was in sixth. Just got pulled away from seventh place, and really just rode my race. It was really comfortable, and it actually flew by. It was the fastest, one of the fastest races I've been in, for the type of situation it was.

Fabrizio, me and him, we've had a couple run-ins this year, and he's definitely a loose cannon on the track. And Rea was going for the win for sure, and Haga was going to do anything it took to win. So I knew everybody had their agenda, and they were all kind of riding for it. Last race of the year, they wanted to win, and I definitely didn't want to be mixed up in that battle, because I didn't care to win, and didn't need to. So I just kind of sat around by myself, and stayed close enough where I could let them pull me away and just kind of ride behind there, but I just didn't want to be up with anybody and battle with nobody.

Q House and I were talking. It seemed that this season was easier for you. It probably wasn't, but it seemed easy from the perspective that because you weren't half-dead from a mysterious stomach ailment and pissing blood all season long, and having to deal with Mat and his guys for the championship. Do you agree?

"I was thinking about it on the plane on the way home. That's when it hit me, when I was on the plane just kind of looking out. I just started laughing. For the first year with Yamaha, the first year in the series, it was the first year the Yamahas won a title, and all the races that we've won, and through all the - the biggest deficit, I think, in history that we come back and still won the title."

A Yeah. It was the first year where I haven't really had a problem during the year. But then again, when you look at it, we actually had a lot of - I mean, I made a couple mistakes, for sure, and then we had two mechanical failures in races, and then we had two other mechanical problems in the race that, one kind of led to me crashing, and the other one, when the clutch went, we had to do whatever we had to do to finish, I think it was ninth or tenth or something like that. We had a lot of hardships during the year.

But when everything was on all four cylinders and everything was clean, we had quite a good year and not many problems. And just not many other headaches. Through the past years we've had, I wouldn't say it was easy, but it was a lot - there was a lot less stress throughout the year. It was a lot of fun. Like I said, there was a couple days when I wanted to go beat my head on the wall just because of bad luck and just racing incidents, but that was just how it was. But it was quite a fun year, with traveling and setting some of the records that we were able to set. Because it was - I've said this in a couple of interviews, and now that I've really - I was thinking about it on the plane on the way home. That's when it hit me, when I was on the plane just kind of looking out. I just started laughing. For the first year with Yamaha, the first year in the series, it was the first year the Yamahas won a title, and all the races that we've won, and through all the - the biggest deficit, I think, in history that we come back and still won the title.

There were so many things. With learning the tracks, and learning the European culture. Everything was different. The only thing was the same was working with Tom and having my support group that's always been with me, there, but everything else was completely different, and we were able to overcome a lot of odds and be able to be there.

Q Having House and Woody there as your crew helped a great deal.

A Yeah. Me and Tom, we know each other. We've known each other for years, and we've been working with each other for years. Now we've lived together for basically a year, and he's seen exactly what I put into my racing, how hard I train, and through eating, and everything - what I do to try to be better, all the time. Just being around him, it was easy - not easy, but easier ... coping with things. When Woody came over, I felt we needed some changes to try to make the team better, and we brought him over, and a lot of things were quite different once he was here, and better. That's what you need, and that's what we needed this year, and we were able to do it.

To Be Continued