Bostrom Takes Laguna SBK Pole

Paul Carruthers | July 24, 2010

MONTEREY, CA, JULY 24 – Pat Clark Motorsports Ben Bostrom dominated today’s American Superbike session at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the Yamaha R1-mounted Californian at the top of his game throughout the session. After leading this morning’s first session, Bostrom went out and did it again this afternoon, going to the top early and staying there – and then putting in his best lap near the end to guarantee his first pole position of the season and the eighth of his AMA Superbike career.Bostrom continues to ride with a badly damaged left thumb that he will have surgery to fix on Monday, July 26 and he banged that thumb his morning when he crashed early in the first session.”I don’t have nerves in that thumb so it doesn’t hurt very bad,” Bostrom said. “I just can’t hold on. It’s just not the same grip, but it doesn’t hurt so I can’t use that as an excuse. We need a pin in the bone and somehow they have to sutcher a tendon back together. I’m sure everyone wants to win, but I don’t think I’m going to let ‘em.”In the end it was Bostrom’s 1:24.367 that led the way – .200 of a second better than Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Josh Hayes, the championship points leader coming into the Laguna round. Hayes lapped at a best of 1:24.567, but dashed any hopes of a final fast lap when he botched the Corkscrew on his last go-around.M4 Monster Suzuki’s Jake Holden continued to fill in nicely for the injured John Hopkins as he rode the team’s GSX-R1000 to the third best time – a 1:24.613. That put him .062 of a second ahead of Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden, the Kentuckian failing to improve on his time from this morning’s session.The second row for tomorrow’s lone Superbike race will be led by Foremost Ducati’s Larry Pegram, the Ohioan cracking into the 1:24s – the final rider to do so.Pegram will be joined on the second row by Attack Suzuki’s Eric Bostrom, National Guard Suzuki’s Jake Zemke and M4 Monster Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich.Buell-mounted Geoff May and Michael Jordan Motorsports’s Brett McCormick rounded out the top 10. McCormick’s best came from the morning session as his afternoon turned into a rather bad day at the office. The young Canadian crashed twice and ran off the track once during the one-hour session.Although he’s riding well and full of confidence, Bostrom expects a race for tomorrow.”I expect to race,” Bostrom said. “I like to race. If they don’t hang on, I will go. But if they get the holeshot, I may have to fight the whole race to try to get by them and that’s very tough. The boys are riding. The boys ride good. I think it’s going to be a great race tomorrow.”

Final Qualifying

1.                  Ben Bostrom (Yamaha) 1:24.367

2.                  Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:24.567

3.                  Jake Holden (Suzuki) 1:24.613

4.                  Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 1:24.675

5.                  Larry Pegram (Ducati) 1:24.613

6.                  Eric Bostrom (Suzuki) 1:25.078

7.                  Jake Zemke (Suzuki) 1:25.454

8.                  Chris Ulrich (Suzuki) 1:25.719

9.                  Geoff May (Buell) 1:26.007

10.                  Brett McCormick (Suzuki) 1:26.021

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.