There's No Place Like Home for Superbiker

By SHAV GLICK

April 4, 2003 12 AM PT

Four years ago, Ben Bostrom stunned the motorcycle world by winning the U.S. round of the FIM World Superbike series at Laguna Seca, riding a Ducati for the independent Vance & Hines team.

Bostrom was rewarded by Ducati with a factory ride on the world superbike circuit. In three seasons, he won six races and came within a broken shoulder of winning the championship in 2001. Then this year, two unrelated things happened, altering his career.

A native Californian who recently moved from Granada Hills to Las Vegas, Bostrom, 29, got homesick. About the same time, the world superbike circuit lost most of its manufacturers and, consequently, most of its better riders, Bostrom among them.

“I wanted to come home and this year the AMA is the top superbike series in the world, so I was fortunate to hook on with Honda to ride in the U.S. this year,” he said. “I wanted to be able to race against my brother again.”

Eric Bostrom, two years younger than Ben, rides for Kawasaki and was runner-up to Nicky Hayden of Owensboro, Ky., for the AMA superbike title last season.

“We’re brothers, and he’s a great training partner, but he’s my enemy on the racetrack,” Ben said.

Ben Bostrom won the AMA superbike crown in 1998 on a Honda and missed in 1999 by only 10 points to Mat Mladin, an Australian who lives in Chino Hills and rides a Suzuki.

“It’s like I never left,” Bostrom said. “I even have my old mechanic back, but the American riders stepped up the level while I was gone. I can’t believe how much they have improved. I need to recalculate my brain for American tracks. To tell the truth, I’m having such a good time I feel like I’m on vacation.”

Bostrom is off to fast start, having barely lost the prestigious Daytona 200 to his Honda teammate, the veteran French-Canadian Miguel Duhamel, in the season’s opening race.

Starting the final lap, Duhamel was third, but he passed Kurtis Roberts, also on a Honda, on the high banks in the third turn and slid underneath Bostrom coming out of Turn 4. The winning margin was 0.069 of a second.

“Since Daytona, I have been replaying that last lap in my head about a hundred times,” Bostrom said. “I wish I had eyes in the back of my head, because I would have done the chicane a lot differently. Miguel wouldn’t have gotten by me. It’s a bummer.”

Eric Bostrom finished fifth in the Daytona 200.

The second and third rounds of the 18-race AMA season will be run Saturday and Sunday at California Speedway. Qualifying is scheduled today on the 2.3-mile infield road course for the two Yamaha Superbike Challenge 100-kilometer (28-lap) championship races.

“I’m looking forward to getting out on the track,” Bostrom said. “I tested at Fontana one day, but we couldn’t learn much except where the track went because it was so windy and sandy. It seemed to be a little bit of a stop-and-go type of a course, but it provides room for passing.

“For such a small area to work with, they did an excellent job laying out the track. Courses here are difficult to compare with the European ones because over there they are so much longer and more flowing.”

Duhamel is also riding in the 600 supersport race, a class he has won five times. The production-based 600s are a little smaller than superbikes and have less horsepower, but often put on more competitive races.

“Miguel is always the man to beat but, I think, by riding two classes he is taking a little of his focus away from superbike. There are so many good riders here now, it’s tough to pick a favorite. The best two series in the world are definitely AMA superbike and MotoGP.”

Anthony Gobert, an Australian living at Lake Elsinore, won the Saturday race last year and is back, but with a new bike. He has switched from Yamaha to Ducati.

Gobert set the track record of 97.126 mph last year, but a rule change by the AMA may put it in danger. For the first time, 1000cc four-cylinder bikes will be eligible along with old-style 750cc equipment.

Hayden, winner of last year’s Sunday race en route to the AMA title, is one of four Americans riding this year in MotoGP, the world Grand Prix series. Others are former champion Kenny Roberts Jr., son of legendary rider Kenny Roberts, on a Suzuki; Colin Edwards, two-time world superbike champion from Texas who is riding for the Aprilia factory team; and John Hopkins, 19-year-old rookie Suzuki rider from Ramona, Calif.

Historic Cars

Formula One cars, which ran from 1976 to 1983 in the Long Beach Grand Prix, will return for a day April 13 as a side attraction to this year’s CART champ car race.

Among the cars that raced in Long Beach will be Mario Andretti’s world championship No. 5 John Player Lotus 79, Gilles Villeneuve’s No. 2 Ferrari from 1980, Keke Rosberg’s No. 1 Williams from 1983, Niki Lauda’s No. 11 Ferrari from 1977, and Tom Pryce’s No. 16 Shadow from 1976.

Some of the Historic Grand Prix Assn. cars will be on display Sunday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Belmont Shore shopping district, on 2nd St., between Bayshore and Quincy.

And again next Thursday, “Thunder on Pine” will showcase the old cars from 5 to 10 p.m. on Pine Ave., between Broadway and 3rd St.

Dale Jr. and Talladega

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won three consecutive races at Talladega Superspeedway, site of Sunday’s NASCAR Winston Cup race, but don’t ask him about it.

“[Reporters] can say or write whatever they want, but I’m not going to talk about winning four in a row,” he said. “I talked too much at Daytona and it jinxed us. Our record speaks loud enough at Talladega.”

At Daytona, Junior won three races in seven days before a failed alternator dropped him from contention while leading the Daytona 500.

“I keep expecting the rest of the field to catch up to us, but we’re not sitting still,” he said. “The Daytona race still bothers me, but we’ll have a new alternator in the car, I promise.”

Last Laps

The 12th California Racers Reunion will be held Sunday at the Victorville Fairgrounds with Parnelli Jones, Rodger Ward, Jimmie Oskie and Danny Oakes among the guests expected by host Hila Sweet. Details: (714) 963-2409 or (714) 374-7672.

Kasey Kahne and Jason Leffler, former U.S. Auto Club midget car champions now competing in NASCAR series, will return to their roots April 26 to drive in the Mopar Twin 25s for midget cars at Irwindale Speedway.

Kahne is driving in the Busch series and Leffler in Craftsman Trucks.

Auggie Vidovich will try to hold his lead in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series standings Saturday night at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon. Vidovich, who lives in nearby Lakeside, considers Cajon his home track.

Kawasaki motocross rider Ezra Lusk, one of the few able to contest Ricky Carmichael and Chad Reed in the AMA supercross series, will miss the rest of the season after breaking a bone in his left wrist while practicing last week. He hopes to return for the opening outdoor motocross race May 11 at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

Passings

Charlie Weber, 93, a longtime member and official of the Cal Club from La Canada, died March 27 of a heart attack. He and his wife, Marion, owned and operated MG Mitten Co. for many years. Survivors include his wife and daughter, Beverly.

This Week

SUPERBIKES

Yamaha Superbike Challenge

When: Today, practice and qualifying, 8:30 a.m.; Saturday, Yamaha West Regions Dealers 100k, round 2, 2 p.m. (Speed Channel); Sunday, U.S. Supersport final, noon; MBNA 250 Grand Prix, 1 p.m.; USA Formula Xtreme, 2 p.m.; Yamaha 100k, round 3, 3 p.m. (Speed Channel).

Where: California Speedway, 2.3-mile road course, Fontana.

Series leader: Miguel Duhamel, Canada, Honda.

2002 winners: Race 1, Anthony Gobert, Australia, Yamaha; race 2, Nicky Hayden, Owensboro, Ky., Honda.

Track record: 97.126 mph, Gobert, 2002.

NASCAR WINSTON CUP

Aaron’s 499

When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 1 p.m.); Sunday, race (Channel 11, 9 a.m.).

Where: Talladega Superspeedway (tri-oval, 2.66 miles, 33 degrees banking in turns), Alabama.

Race distance: 500 miles, 188 laps.

2002 winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Next race: Virginia 500, April 13, Martinsville.

BUSCH SERIES