Former World Superbike champion Ben Spies has revealed that the excitement of closing h🌌is 2009 deal w🎃ith Yamaha was almost too much for team manager Massimo Meregalli.

Spies, who had just won his third successive AMA Superbike title for Suzuki𝓰, looked set for a full-time 2009 MotoGP ride after finishing sixth as a wild-card for Rizla Suzuki at Indianapolis.

But a MotoGP deal was never 💞done and instead Yamaha was able to tempt the Texan away from Suzuki and into WSBK.

It was an inspired move and Meregall✨i's excitement certainly proved justified, with Spies going on to win 14 races and Yamaha's first ever WSBK title in his rookie season.

"When I flew over to sign for Yamaha World Superbike [for 2009], I thought team manager Massimo Meregalli was going to faint!" Spies told the official Yamaha Indonesia website at the recent J﷽erez MotoGP round.

"He was so excited about the possibility to w🗹ork with me. It was an honour to gi💟ve him the championship."

The WSB🐲K success enabled Spies to land a Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP seat for 2010, and then a full factory M1 ride for 2011 - where he has once again teamed up with Meregalli, who became team director of the Factory Yamaha outfit this season.