On paper, Ben Spies had a near-perfect weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2008. He earned pole position, set a lap record that still stands 16 years later, finished second to his championship rival Mat Mladin in both races, and left with a 27-point lead in the 2008 AMA Superbike Championship.
Oh, and he did all that only nine days after having his appendix removed.
“That was one of the hardest weekends I’ve had on a bike,” Spies said from the Rahal Ducati Moto truck at Mid-Ohio today.
“This was bad because I also went septic because all that bacteria had gotten into my gut so I was really sick,” Spies said. “It sucks to say it, and not trying to be too graphic, I was literally sh&%ting probably 30 to 40 times a day during that weekend. It was horrible. The only people who really knew how bad it was were the Hackings (Jamie) because I was hanging out with them. If I ate something, it was out. It was the worst thing. I had a hard time eating and drinking and retaining any of it, but it was that part of the season where I had to race if I was going to win the title. It hurt and I had stitches and everything. I was able to get the track record and I didn’t think that would happen. I gritted my teeth, got one fast lap in and I don’t think I even rode the warm-up session on Friday. I got up to speed in the second session and got pole.”
But wait, there’s more. Then came “Coolergate,” the infamous race stoppage in 2008 at Mid-Ohio when a fan spilled the water from his cooler on a track overpass bridge and the water made its way to the racetrack, with both Mladin and Jamie Hacking crashing out of the race.
“When that happened, Mat (Mladin) and Jamie (Hacking) were right ahead of me,” Spies said. “I was always bad about hanging way off over the grass and then Mat went down, Jamie went down, and Jamie was like a foot ahead of me. I hit the water and lost the rear really big, and I caught my knee in the dirt, and it ripped my stitches open. I thought when I unzipped my leathers that there would be guts coming out. It felt like a knife went straight down my abdomen. There’s a replay that shows me literally holding my stomach. I got back to the pits, and it had only ripped open three stitches and we put duct tape on my skin and pushed it all together for the restart. It held together but I was bleeding, and I went back out for the race and finished second. That was real pain.”
Pain or not, Spies got the job done and he ended up taking that 2008 AMA Superbike Championship.
“It was horrible, but at the same time, I’m racing Mat Mladin for a championship and that brings a certain level of will. And there’s a bonus at the end of the year that I always thought could fix injuries.”
