Ben Spies, James Stewart and Valentino Rossi are among the finalists for the 2009 SPEED Performer of the Year award. The three Yamaha motorcycle racing champions are up against a field of 12 automobile racers for the award and the Mario Andretti Trophy. The award is the top prize for SPEED’s fourth annual awards program, with the winner selected by a panel of racing experts. Nine additional awards are open to fan voting.
Spies captured the 2009 World Superbike Championship, the first for . Spies set a record with 11 poles in a single season and won 14 races in 28 starts for an impressive 50% winning percentage. These achievements are even more impressive considering they come in Spies’ first WSBK season, making him a nominee for the SPEED’s Rookie of the Year award as well.
Spies is also up for the Best Rivalry award with Ducati rider Noriyuki Haga. The two riders were a class above the rest of the WSBK field in 2009. Their rivalry presented a number of storylines: vs. Yamaha, Japan vs. America, veteran vs. rookie. The season-long battle came down to the final weekend with Spies overcoming a 15-point deficit to win the championship.
Rossi’s ninth Grand Prix World Championship makes him a candidate for the Mario Andretti Trophy. The Yamaha rider won six races and fought off his teammate Jorge Lorenzo to win his seventh premier-class title and second in a row.
Rossi’s last-lap pass of Lorenzo at the Catalunya Grand Prix earned a nomination for the Best Finish award.
Lorenzo is a nominee for the Best Comeback award for the U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. Lorenzo crashed during qualifying at the Monterey, Calif., circuit’s famous Corkscrew. Lorenzo injured his right shoulder in the crash but overcame the pain to finish third on race day.
The Speed Performance Awards will be presented in a televised special in February.
Has to be Spies for me.
Not many rookie's get results like that.
Rossi's year was a bit inconsistant - lol, by his standards.
And most of these awards seem to go to road racers.
Rossi is still awesome though - you gotta admit - even when he's not at his best !!!
His poor performances are still better than a lot of other rider's best ones!
please don't copy and paste from other websites, it takes the formatting, web links, etc which I don't want in the forums.
Please first copy it into NOTEPAD which will convert it to plain text. Then copy it from there into BM. Make sure all the formatting and links are removed.
Thanks
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