by Tracy Hagen

A year and a half into his MotoGP career, former AMA and Word Superbike champion Ben Spies earned his break-through at the Dutch TT in Assen. The Yamaha rider stormed into the lead exiting Turn 1 and was never challenged over the 26 laps to the checkered flag.

Spies’s victory is the first in the premier class by an American in nearly five years. The last American to win in MotoGP was Nicky Hayden at Laguna Seca in 2006.

Indeed, the day was rich in history as Yamaha fitted special livery to mark 50 years in Grand Prix racing and had race bikes from the museum ridden on a demonstration lap by various Yamaha GP champions from the 1960s and ‘70s.

Joining Spies on the podium were the usual suspects: Repsol Honda riders Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovisioso in second and third, respectively. Over the first half of the race the Hondas chipped away at Spies’ getaway lead, but over the second half both Honda riders decided it was better to keep the points they had over taking risks to beat Spies given the track surface was in doubt the whole race following light rain the in support classes.

In Stoner’s case, the decision to accept second was a no-brainer: his closest rival in the championship, Spies’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo, crashed 30 seconds into the race after Honda’s unpredictable Marco Simoncelli converted pole position into a high-side after passing the Yamaha. Both resumed the race and made the tail-enders look like they were on Moto2 bikes.

Stoner now leads the championship with 136 points, followed by Lorenzo at 108 points.

Another rider that made good from a bad situation was Valentino Rossi. The Italian raced the untested Hail Mary Ducati GP11.1 to a strong fourth after struggling through qualifying, and was a perhaps a lap away from pinching a podium spot off of Dovisioso.

Rossi’s teammate Nicky Hayden finished fifth on the GP11, ten seconds behind adrift. The likeable American spent the early laps trying to catch the Monster Yamahas of Cal Crutchlow and Colin Edwards. Crutchlow’s race effectively ended on lap 10 when he pitted for a new front tire. On lap 17 Edwards drastically slowed and finished seventh as Hiroshi Aoyama, riding Dani Pedrosa’s Repsol Honda MotoGP missile, was coming from behind at full-chat.

Simoncelli’s snaggletooth factory Honda finished ninth, just ahead of Toni Elias’s impotent private Honda.

The last rider on the lead lap was Alvaro Bautista on the sole Suzuki. Hector Barbera and wild-card Kousuke Akiyoshi finished a lap down, a rare occurrence in MotoGP.

Last but not least, two riders fell out as everyone was jockeying for position in the opening lap. Karel Abraham was the first to crash out completely after qualifying as first Ducati. Randy De Puniet, who turned heads in 2010 with spectacular rides on a satellite Honda, crashed out one lap into the race. It was the fifth race of the year that the Frenchman has crashed out of.

The season continues in eight days at Mugello.