Ben Spies upgraded his racing career by moving out of the AMA and into World Superbike. Accordingly, has choosen the number 19 to be his new racing number. Read more for a somewhat crazy explaination why.
Spies’s primary reason to change his number is to pay tribute to his friend Ryan Smith who used 19 as his number, but died tragically in a club race in Texas. If this was only reason Ben gave, we would move along at this point, and think what a lovely tribute this makes in a sport that claims so many rider’s lives.
However, Spies went on to say:
“Beyond that reason, the number nineteen just keeps coming up way too many times for me to ignore it. A couple of my friends noticed it as well. I’m not very superstitious and I don’t do a whole lot of weird things, but my little cousin, that was his number all through high school. My long-time girlfriend back when I was a teenager – we’re still good friends – it was her number in high school too. And things like, when I’m filling up at a truck stop, it always seems to be I’m at island no. 19. Or with my thousands of miles that I do on the road in the motor home, every time I look up at a mile marker, it ends in 19. I figured it was time to put it into action, and hopefully my old buddy can help me out as much as he can, because we’re going to need it this year, that’s for sure.”
Easy Ben, time to step away from the MySpace. That being said, we at A&R look forward to seeing the young two-wheeled phenomenon drag some elbows at some of the nicest tracks in the world.
Source: twowheelblog
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