Ben Spies To Leave Yamaha

American racer Ben Spies has
announced he will not be renewing his contract with Yamaha's MotoGP
team at the end of this season.
Several reports in recent weeks have indicated Yamaha may be
looking to move away from Spies, who has struggled this year and
sits in 10th place overall in the standings. In an email to
SuperbikePlanet.com, Spies confirmed the rumor that has been
swirling for several months.
"I have chosen to leave Yamaha after this season for a litany of
reasons," Spies wrote in the email. "I will explain more when I
feel it is appropriate. I'm discussing my situation with my
sponsors and they are behind me. There are a few people at Yamaha
who I hate to leave. And they know who they are. I wish Yamaha the
best. I won't make any further comments until the official
announcement comes out."
If Spies does leave, it would pave the way for Yamaha to add either
Andrea
Dovizioso or Cal
Crutchlow to the factory team. The riders currently compete in
MotoGP on the Tech 3 team and have actually outperformed Spies in
2012, despite the lack of factory support.
Meanwhile, it's unknown where Spies will race for 2013, with the
amount of available factory seats in MotoGP quite slim. Some
believe Spies may race for his old team, Suzuki, in AMA Superbike
next year, with an eye on returning to MotoGP with Suzuki for 2014.
Others say Spies will move on to World Superbike, possibly with
BMW.