Photography Courtesy of Yamaha Racing
The aliens have taken over. They've taken over the pole position. They've taken over the fastest lap. They've taken over the podium. They've taken over the winner's trophy. They've taken over the championship.
In MotoGP there are four aliens. Racers of otherworldly talent who inspire each other to perform on an 800cc motorcycle in ways that others can only dream of. Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa-usually they finish in some variation of that order. Among them they won every race save one (the victory in changing weather and track conditions by Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso at Donington Park). And they win by demoralizing, soul-crushing intervals.
"I mean, those freaks of nature are out there," a disconsolate Colin Edwards said after coming fourth to Pedrosa-Rossi was second, Lorenzo third, Stoner crashed on the warm-up lap-in the season finale in Valencia, Spain. "Obviously, still beat us by 30-something seconds. We've got some work to do."
Ben Spies last rode a MotoGP machine in Hurricane Ike during the 2008 Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. The aliens were ascendant. They still dominated, but not like this. And Spies' Rizla Suzuki was and is a pale imitation of a winning MotoGP machine. He finished sixth, but could easily have finished fourth.
This time on the best machine in the field, Spies had a different take in Valencia, where he made his Yamaha MotoGP debut as a wild card. He could understand what three of the aliens did, but what Stoner uniquely does on the Desmosedici was especially foreign. "This is no disrespect, and I don't think in any way I'm ready to run with Lorenzo or Rossi or Pedrosa or Casey, but when Pedrosa and Rossi and Lorenzo pass me, even when they're going the same speed as Casey is, even when I can't do the speed, I think I can understand it, like I think I can just...it's way faster than I can go, but it just doesn't sit there...I don't just want to come pull in the pits and take my helmet off and give up," he said. "When Casey comes by me, it's just like, wow! I mean, he makes that bike do things it looks like it doesn't really want to do and he's the only person in the world that I think has ever made that bike do that. So it's just hard to explain until you get passed by him.
"Like I said, Rossi can be going that two-tenths quicker than Casey is, but he just doesn't look like it. And that's one thing that Rossi's so good at is making it look smooth and making it look easy, which it's not. But when Casey comes by me, and you can see that he just...I don't know, it blows your mind."
Now, as he moves to the world's biggest stage after toppling all comers in the world's second most important roadracing championship, Ben Spies has to ask himself, "Am I an alien?"
The MotoGP record book is littered with the bodies of World Superbike riders' modest results. Of the hundreds of starts made by World Superbike riders-many of whom arrived as reigning world champions-exactly two have won races, and both were under extraordinary conditions. Chris Vermeulen is the only one to win in the 800cc era with his victory in the rain at Le Mans in '07. Other than that, he had two seconds and three thirds in his four-year Rizla Suzuki career. Troy Bayliss didn't win a MotoGP race until he left the championship. From '03 through '05 he started 43 races and racked up four thirds. His victory came when he returned for a one-off ride in the '06 season finale at Valencia, the final race for the 990cc machines.