With Ben Spies at Monster Yamaha Tech3 this season will be Tom Houseworth, the competitor’s crew chief. Houseworth is united with the set up of Spies’ world superbike championship victory squad last season, and carries his expertise over to MotoGP with the racer.

“I started in AMA in the late 80s and worked my way up, and I’ve been with Ben since 2003,” says Houseworth. “I basically take whatever Ben has on the track and get it to the engineer and our data guys, and try and get the best package for Ben for race day.”

He adds, “For me he is really good. He is one of the few riders I’ve had who will come in and say: ‘It’s me, it’s not the bike: I have to go a little faster before we change anything’. That’s really refreshing. You can have a guy who will go out for three laps and say the bike is a pile of junk, but Ben never does that. He will make sure he is up to speed before he changes anything so that’s a real plus on our side.”

Spies had an impressive Sepang test which has increased expectations following the 2010 season ahead, though Houseworth says the goal focus is on the racer to continue learning with his M1 bike.

“As far as targets go, I know Ben said top ten or top five,” states Houseworth. “Top ten’s going to be good, and obviously deep down we’re going to want to win. Is that possible? I don’t know. We’ll have to wait until the first few races and see where we stand. He’s just been learning the bike. We haven’t really pushed it too hard, we barely changed anything and it’s just a matter of Ben learning the limits of this particular bike, and then we’ll see where it happens.”

Looking ahead and whether Spies may be a future contendor for the World Champion, Houseworth explains, “I don’t see why not. My opinion is that he is as good as anybody out there. As far as getting the right equipment and the right team together, which we’re trying to do, you’ll see what happens in the future.”