Bostrom's Team All Set, Ready To Ride

Paul Carruthers | January 18, 2010

The team that has been discussed for months is now a reality. Ben Bostrom will ride a Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha R1 in the 2010 AMA American Superbike Championship and he hopes to throw a leg over the bike today and tomorrow at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the team’s first shakedown.”Driving to Las Vegas Speedway and hoping to ride my bike, but the weather looks awful,” Bostrom said this morning. “I’m so stoked on the team. It’s very cool. The bikes are directly from Yamaha and they’ll be built there – right out of the same shop. We will maintain them a bit, and then give them back to them. I guess they will go back and forth, I’m guessing. Not quite sure how the deal goes, but maybe we don’t touch the engines or something, you know.”Bostrom will be teamed with team owner Pat Clark’s 18-year-old son Chris, with both riders set to compete in the American Superbike class on factory backed R1s.”It worked out awesome for me because it got me a great ride and a great teammate and now I have someone to train with,” Bostrom said. “The last couple of years I’ve been by myself, but with Chris [Clark] we go dirt bike riding and bicycling and stuff. I wasn’t even going dirt bike riding by myself. The team is good. They really want to do well. They hired the right guys, and we have some good sponsors coming on board that you don’t normally see in the paddock.”Bostrom’s crew chief will be former AMA 250cc racer Robbie Petersen, a South African who also worked with Kenny Roberts and raced for Roberts in both AMA and Formula USA. Petersen has also managed road racing teams in South Africa. The team will also feature former Honda team manager Ron Heben.”I think my crew chief is Robbie Petersen and I’m meeting him today for the first time,” Bostrom said. “Today is going to be a wash, but tomorrow might be okay – 20-30 percent chance of rain. Today I think it’s going to rain all day. It’s already pretty bad out here right now; might be a good indoor gym day. And we’ve also got a giant indoor warehouse out here where we can ride TTRs and do some flat tracking. At least have something to stay fresh.”As always, Bostrom is upbeat and positive about his chances and the prospect of working with a new teammate he can help groom.”I know the results will be there and I plan to step it up and it gives the kid [Chris Clark] a chance to shine as well,” said Bostrom, who finished fifth in the Superbike Championship last year. “I want to see the kid do well. I like having a protégé. I’ve seen his will-power already just on the training side and I think it’s good we have another young American coming up. He’s a super down to earth kid and he’s got his head on. He reminds me a lot of Ben Spies in his demeanor and work ethic. We just have to get him some seat time and if he finds it in his heart, he can do it.”Bostrom even put a positive spin on the lack of entries thus far for the American Superbike class.”I think there will be like 10 of us on the track – should look like a MotoGP out there,” Bostrom said with a chuckle. “They might have to stagger us on the start – put three on a row so it looks like a bigger field.”

Bostrom’s Team All Set, Ready To Ride