Ben Spies announced his decision of leaving the factory Yamaha team in MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season, during the Laguna Seca GP last month. There were rumours of him going back to the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) to ride a factory BMW S1000RR alongside Marco Melandri.
However, we hear that the British rider Leon Haslam has been offered a new deal by BMW to continue riding as their factory rider in WSBK next year while Spies is in talks with the Gresini Honda MotoGP team for the 2013 season. If the deal works out, Spies will replace Alvaro Bautista in the Gresini team and may get to ride a factory spec RC213V machine with full support from HRC.
Along with that, Spies is also discussing the possibility of working with Suzuki for the development of their 1000cc GSV-R MotoGP bike. It will involve a few wild races for him next year and maybe the entire 2014 season as a factory Suzuki rider.
