Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies and crew chief Tom Houseworth (Photo: Brian J Nelson) » More Photos

“Mat and I have a lot of respect for each other and pretty much from the start of the year we knew how it was going to be. It was going to take a whole lot of hard riding and a little bit of luck to pull it off. This season was different than every other season I’ve ever raced because every time I got on the bike I had to absolutely ride the wheels off of the thing.”

Even though he had just fulfilled his childhood dream of winning the AMA Superbike for the first time a year earlier, Spies claims the second title is even more satisfying than the first.

Ben explained, “Going into the season it was like ‘if I can win it again maybe I can shut everybody up who thought I got lucky the first time.’ To win it again and the way it came down with whoever won the final race was going to win the title -- there’s not been too many times that’s happened. And to win two titles in the same season… and the way it came out was just perfect.”

Asked if he was ever haunted by self-doubt late in the season when his rival strung together six consecutive wins and reclaimed the title advantage heading into the finale, Spies said, “No. There was only one race all year where I was really caught off guard by how fast he went. When he won he was just a tick better. When one of us beats the other, it’s just that little bit here and there that makes it happen. It’s nothing to feel ashamed of.

“There were days I finished second where if he hadn’t been there, I would have won the race by twenty or thirty seconds. But you can’t look it at like that; you’ve got to beat who you’ve got to beat.”

There’s no denying that the storybook season would have been an ideal way to round out what’s already proven to be a legendary AMA Superbike career. As noted in issue 101 of Racer, Spies has finally come around to embrace his MotoGP destiny, but he didn’t come to that realization early enough to realistically pursue a slot on the 2008 grid.