AMA Superbike and Superstock Champion Ben Spies has been nominated for the prestigious AMA Pro Racing SPEED Athlete of the Year award.
The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 rider, who retained his SBK title this year after a season-long battle with team-mate Mat Mladin, is amongst five hopefuls in line for the award, which will be presented this Sunday at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
Said Spies: “I was nominated for ‘Athlete of the Year’ for the first time last year and I’m really excited to be nominated again. Out of all the racers in the AMA, only a handful is nominated. This year I won the AMA Superstock title and I backed that up with my second AMA Superbike Championship so I had about as good-a-season as I could have possibly had. Even though I would definitely like to win the award, I’m also very proud just to be nominated. “
The other nominees are: AMA Supermoto rider Mark Burkhart, Flat Tracker Ken Coolbeth, AMA Formula Xtreme Champion Josh Hayes
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