Paul Carruthers | July 25, 2010
MONTEREY, CA, JULY 25 – Ben Bostrom ended a six-year winless drought in AMA Superbike racing with a hard-fought victory over championship leader Josh Hayes today at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, now the site of two of Bostrom’s career AMA Superbike victories and three of his World Superbike wins. The win was also the first ever in AMA Superbike history at Laguna Seca for Yamaha.Bostrom led early, pushing under Hayes in turn two to nail down the holeshot. From there he looked set to pull away, but he blew the Corkscrew on the second lap, running off on the dirt and motocrossing down the hill to rejoin in third behind then-leader Jake Holden and Hayes. Hayes took over at the front shortly thereafter and it took Bostrom until the seventh lap to get around Holden. From there he took off after Hayes, turning a 1.6-second deficit into .19 of a second by the 13th of 23 laps. On the 15th lap, Bostrom dove under Hayes on the entrance to turn five and made the pass stick.Hayes didn’t get to the lead in the Superbike title chase by being a rollover and he continued the fight to the bitter end, coming up .440 of a second short as he made Bostrom earn his third career AMA Superbike win. Bostrom’s last win came on July 11, 2004 at Laguna Seca as a member of the factory Honda team. The Californian won his first AMA Superbike race in 1999 at Brainerd on a Ducati.Third place today went to Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden. Hayden was close early on, but was never really a factor in what was a two-man race. Still, he ended up well clear of Holden and the M4 Monster Suzuki, with Holden’s gaffe in turn 11 on the 11th lap allowing Hayden through.Foremost Ducati’s Larry Pegram rode to fifth, getting the better of National Guard Suzuki’s Jake Zemke. Then came Cycle World/Attack Suzuki’s Eric Bostrom, the younger brother of the race winner starting slowly but progressing through the field for the entire race. He topped Michael Jordan Motorsports’ Brett McCormick. BMW-mounted Chris Peris and Buell’s Geoff May rounded out the top 10.Hayes’ consolation was the fact that he extended his lead over Hayden in the championship chase. He now leads the Suzuki rider by nine points, 311-302. Zemke is third with 260 points.
Superbike Final
1. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
3. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Jake Holden (Suzuki)
5. Larry Pegram (Ducati)
6. Jake Zemke (Suzuki)
7. Eric Bostrom (Suzuki)
8. Brett McCormick (Suzuki)
9. Chris Peris (BMW)
10. Geoff May (Buell)
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.
