Ben Spies speaks of shock at witnessing Simoncelli crash

Ben Spies has spoken of the moment he had to walk out of a TV commentary box in Sepang when he witnessed the crash that claimed the life of popular Italian rider Marco Simoncelli.

Spies was commentating with Gavin Emmett and Nick Harris for the Dorna world feed in Malaysia after he was forced to withdraw from the 20-lap race with injury.

The Texan hadn’t recovered sufficiently from rib damage sustained in a high speed qualifying crash at Phillip Island and he withdrew in Sepang on Saturday after two further painful crashes in Malaysia.

The factory Yamaha rider said: “For a rider while commentating you can almost see what is happening before it happens and I just had to walk out, it tore me up.  Even though I wasn’t best friends with Marco, I raced him and we had a lot of great battles and I really liked his character.

“A lot people here criticised him but he always came back strong and was fast the next week and put it right back up the inside of somebody when he got the chance. I could never take anything away from him but when you see something like that happen you look at the big picture.

“But for all of us this is racing and it is the nature of the beast that sometimes this happens and unfortunately it has happened twice in a short time.  But you can’t question it too much or run it through your head a lot. 

£Watching it from the sidelines you saw everything happen and now we just have to represent and remember Marco and do the best we can.”

Spies said he doubted whether any of the riders in the paddock were in the right frame of mind to compete in the final race in Valencia and he added: “I don’t think any of the riders are 100 per cent mentally to just go out for everything like they usually do but we try and do the best and I will for Yamaha. It is just that these are hard times for a racer.

“A lot of time people think it is just trophy girls and champagne but it is hard to line up in a race when something like this has happened and give it your all when that is the back of your head. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”