Early career Born in
Memphis, Tennessee, and growing up in
Longview, Texas, Spies started riding motorcycles at the age of five and racing with CMRA at the age of eight in 1993. In 1994, he won a YSR championship followed by an 80cc championship the following season. At age 12, he started riding 125 Grand Prix bikes, traveling to WERA races outside of Texas. At age 14, Spies started riding 600s, winning more championships. He signed with Suzuki in 2000 at the age of 15, and began his AMA career.
AMA Superbike Championship in 2005 riding Suzuki. In 2000, Spies raced with the Valvoline Suzuki team. He took a season-best 5th-place finish at the Pikes Peak International Raceway round of the AMA 750 Supersport series, won the
Nicky Hayden Award (then known as the AMA Horizon Award; it was renamed in 2017) for road racing. In late 2000 he qualified on the front row for his debut in the
AMA Supersport Championship series. Again with Valvoline Suzuki in 2001, Spies won the Pikes Peak round of the AMA 750 SuperStock Championship, and took four additional series podium finishes. American Suzuki then removed him from the team and placed in with Attack Suzuki. For 2002, Spies joined the Attack Suzuki team, paired with Jason Pridmore. He earned three top-five finishes in AMA Supersport, and four top-five finishes in AMA Formula Xtreme. He was troubled by a knee injury for much of the season. Now with American Suzuki team, Spies won the 2003 AMA Formula Xtreme Championship with five wins and two additional podium finishes. He also contested the AMA Supersport series, earning a win at Road Atlanta and taking two additional podium finishes. His best AMA Superbike result this year was seventh-place at Daytona Intl Speedway Again with American Suzuki team in 2004, Spies raced in the AMA Supersport Championship, earning a win at Infineon Raceway and taking two additional series podium finishes. He earned wins in the AMA Superstock Championship races at California Speedway and Road Atlanta, and earned two additional podium finishes in the series. In 2005. Spies won the AMA Superbike race at California Speedway and earned 13 additional podium finishes. He was runner-up for the AMA Superbike title, and raced in AMA Supersport, earning five top-five finishes. Spies joined the Yoshimura Suzuki team in 2006. He won the AMA Superbike Championship title with 10 wins and seven additional podium finishes. Spies took six successive wins early in the 2006 season, and went on to win the title over his teammate, 6-time series Champion Mat Mladin, by 649 points to 641. In total he took 7 poles and 17 podiums, and lead the most laps 10 times. Spies also raced in select AMA Supersport events, earning a podium finish at
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. produced the tightest championship battle in the history of the series, with Spies winning a second AMA Superbike Championship by a single point over Mladin. Spies collected seven wins and 12 additional podium finishes during the season. He captured Superbike pole position at nine events, and also won the AMA Superstock title with seven wins and seven pole positions. In 2008, Spies won his third straight AMA Superbike Championship to become only the fourth rider in the history of the series to win the title three consecutive times (after Reg Pridmore, Fred Merkel and Mat Mladin, who accomplished the feat twice). This included an AMA Superbike record of seven successive wins.
MotoGP World Championship (2008–2009) Spies started as a wild-card in place of injured
Loris Capirossi at the British GP on June 22, 2008. An outing that saw him qualify in 8th on the grid and finish in 14th place, scoring his first MotoGP points. This was in addition to two pre-planned rides at both U.S. rounds. He tested for Rizla Suzuki at Indianapolis on July 2, 2008, in preparations for the new U.S. Grand Prix. Top ten finishes followed at both Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in 8th and in 6th at
Indianapolis. Spies was not offered a full-time ride by Suzuki for 2009 with all the success he gave to Suzuki and had an option year in his contract. The decision was made by Mel Harris who now is no longer with Suzuki. Masayuki Itoh retired because of the departure of Spies.
Superbike World Championship of the season. On October 1, 2008, it was confirmed that Spies would join the
Superbike World Championship for the 2009 season, riding for the factory Yamaha Italia team. He took pole position for his very first race meeting. He ran off the track on the first lap in race one (recovering to finish sixteenth despite a second incident) but was victorious in race 2 to become the first American to win a WSBK race since
Colin Edwards in 2002. Spies further impressed the world motorcycle racing community by winning both races of the second round in Losail, Qatar. En route, he again secured pole, the subsequent race wins, the fastest lap and the outright circuit lap record. Spies made history on May 30, 2009, at
Miller Motorsports Park. Winning his 7th consecutive pole position during Saturday's
Superpole qualifying, Spies broke the long-standing record of 6 consecutive poles set in 1991 by fellow Texan
Doug Polen. The pole set a number of records, including most consecutive pole positions in a season, most poles to start a season, and most in a row by a rookie. On October 24, 2009, at Portimão Circuit in Portugal he set a new record securing his 11th pole of his rookie season. This despite having no previous experience at the majority of circuits on the WSBK calendar. . On October 25, 2009, at the final round of the Championship at Portimão, Spies was crowned the 2009 Superbike World Champion after winning Race One, in conjunction with a fall from title rival Noriyuki Haga, and a solid 5th place in Race 2.
MotoGP World Championship (2010–2013) 2009 On October 1, 2009, Yamaha officially confirmed that Spies would replace
James Toseland at the
Yamaha Tech 3 team for the
2010 MotoGP Championship. Two days later it was confirmed that Spies would ride as a wildcard for the Yamaha Sterilgarda team, in the final MotoGP race of the season at Valencia in November,. Spies began the race from 12th place, but made his way through the pack, finishing in seventh place.
2010 Spies started the season with fifth place at
Losail, his best ever on a MotoGP bike, before retiring in the next two races with a mechanical problem at
Jerez and a crash at
Le Mans. Spies took his first MotoGP podium at
Silverstone in
Great Britain, taking a third-place finish. Spies took second place from pole at home at
Indianapolis. He finished the 2010 MotoGP season in sixth place, securing Rookie of the Year honours.
2011 Spies moved to the factory Yamaha Motor Racing Team alongside 2010 champion
Jorge Lorenzo, replacing the
Ducati bound
Valentino Rossi in . He started the season with a sixth-place finish in
Qatar, before crashing out of the next two races at
Jerez and
Estoril. After another sixth place in
France, Spies achieved his first podium of the season with a third place in
Catalunya, having held off
Repsol Honda's
Andrea Dovizioso. Spies suffered another crash at the
British Grand Prix, crashing out at Turn 1 in wet conditions. Two weeks later, Spies narrowly missed out on pole position for the
Dutch TT in
Assen; he qualified second, just 0.009 seconds behind
Gresini Racing's
Marco Simoncelli. Spies and teammate Lorenzo jumped ahead of Simoncelli at the start, and took the first two placings into the first corner. Simoncelli and Lorenzo later made contact and both riders fell, giving Spies a 2.5-second lead after the first lap. Spies extended his advantage to almost eight seconds by the end of the race, and took his first MotoGP win in the process. at
Phillip Island; he did not start the race after suffering a concussion and rib tearing after a crash in qualifying. After his win at Assen, Spies finished each of the following five races in the top five, taking fourth places at
Mugello and
Laguna Seca, fifth places at the
Sachsenring and
Brno, and concluding the streak with his third podium of the season – a third place – at the
Indianapolis Grand Prix. Having qualified second, Spies made contact on the first lap with Dovizioso, and as a result, fell to as low as ninth place before making several late braking moves to progress through the order. Sixth at
Misano was followed by fifth at
Aragón and another sixth at
Motegi helped to maintain his fifth place in the championship. At the
Australian Grand Prix, Spies crashed during qualifying at over , sliding into the gravel, resulting in a concussion and tearing to his ribs, but managed to qualify seventh on the grid. However, his injuries forced him to pull out on race morning, and were also a factor in his similar withdrawal from the
Malaysian Grand Prix, having qualified 16th out of the 17 riders and after two further practice crashes. Spies finished the season with a second-place finish in
Valencia, missing out on victory at the line, to
Casey Stoner by just 0.015 seconds, having capitalised on a previous error by Stoner to take the lead. Spies' biography "Taking It To The Next Level" was published by David Bull Publishing and was launched at the Indianapolis Grand Prix on August 26, 2011.
2012 Spies remained with the factory Yamaha team into the season, again partnering Jorge Lorenzo. Spies placed eleventh in the first two races of the season in
Qatar and
Jerez, before taking his first top ten with eighth in
Portugal. After missing out on the points at
Le Mans, Spies finished tenth in
Catalunya before three top-five finishes in succession; he took a fifth-place finish at
Silverstone before a pair of fourths at
Assen and the
Sachsenring. He finished eleventh at
Mugello, falling 119 points behind teammate Lorenzo in the standings. He retired from each of the following three races, before taking a pair of fifth-place finishes at the Grands Prix in
San Marino and
Aragon. An issue with his bike's brakes forced a retirement in
Japan, while he crashed out in
Malaysia; he suffered injuries in the accident which ruled him out for the rest of the season. He finished tenth in the final championship standings, with 88 points. On July 24, it was announced that Spies would leave the factory Yamaha team at the end of the 2012 season, making way for the returning
Valentino Rossi. On September 12, it was announced that Spies would remain in MotoGP for the season, joining the satellite
Pramac Racing Ducati squad as part of a two-rider team alongside Moto2 graduate
Andrea Iannone.
2013 After finishing the first two races of the season with the Pramac Ducati squad, Spies was out of many races due to injury. He made an attempt to return at Indianapolis, but crashed and suffered more injuries, ruling him out for most of the rest of the season. However, on October 26, during the Japanese GP weekend at Motegi, he announced his retirement from racing due to his injuries.
Rahal Ducati Moto team principal On October 18, 2023,
Ducati Indianapolis announced Spies as team principal for the 2024
MotoAmerica season as a Supersport class team. The team will be owned by INDYCAR star Graham Rahal, who owns two Ducati dealerships. The team will be a four-motorcycle team in 2026, with one Superbike and three Supersport Ducati motorcycles. ==Career statistics==