Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams 10 ~ :Iii ~. .. III Q :iii Q ... • m g: : MONTEREY, CA, JULYII , a n ce & Hi nes Duca ti 's Be n Bos trom we n t f ro m bei ng a bridesmaid to a brid e today with a stu nning victory in the seco nd leg of the World Superbike Cha mpions hip round at Laguna Seca, and in the process he beca lne a bonafide America n hero who appears ready to take on the world. After finishing second five times thus far in the AMA Superbike Series, Bostrom finally had hi s co m ing-o u t party and he picked a pr etty good pla ce .to d o it: in front of th e world. With a world wide live television audie nce lookin g on - not to mention a su n-soaked crowd estima ted at 69,000 for the threeday meetin g and a host of internation al press, ra ce-t ea m mana gers a n d team owners - Bostrom beat the best the world has to offer. How's this for a who's wh o of su perbike racer s? Troy Corser, PierFran cesco Chili, Ca rl Fo gart y, Colin Edw ards II and Aa ron Slight - they all finished behind Bostrom in both races. The only man to beat the 25-year -old Califo rnian on the day was his teammate Anth ony Gob ert. Th e Au stralian controll ed rac e one from the start, setting the pa ce and maintaining a sli ght ga p over th e battling du o o f Bostrom a nd Kawasaki 's Akira Yana ga wa . Althou gh the first race lacked the excitement of the second one, it di dn't lack in sus pens e, as race-winner Gobert was un der constant threat. Th at co ns ta n t pressure w as th ere agai n in the second race. This time, howeve r, Go be rt su ccu mb ed to it . The 24- yea r-old again led , bu t this ti me the pressu re was even mo re in tens e wit h a ~ pack of six ride rs in the lead group. On ..., the 12th lap, Gobert went d own in tum 6 11 - wi th Yanagawa following suit just a N Round 8: Laguna Seca Raceway few seco n ds later - a n d th at was a ll Bostrom need ed. From th er e he managed to work his way past Ch ili wit h a bold pass going into the Corkscrew, and then he put his head down and pulled aw ay - putting an exclama tion point on his weekend by lapping faster than Gobert had managed to do in the first race, and by comp leting the race distance in a shor ter amou nt of time. . Bostrom simp ly lau gh ed in pressure's face, th e laid-back Ca lifornian sim p ly motoring away, slowing on ly in the final laps to eventually win by 3.012 seconds. Second pla ce went to Du cati Performance's Troy Corser, wh o ended up setting the fastest lap of the day while run ning down and passing Chili - the Italian h a vi ng im p ressed mi ghti ly on th e Alstare Coron a Suzu ki GSX-R750. While Bostrom may still have to live for a w hile lon ger w ith the demon s of not hav ing had the op po rtu nity to bea t Gobe rt in a straigh t fight , no t ma ny in attenda nce d oubted that this would have been Bostrom ' s d a y - eve n if Gobert hadn't cras hed. All you have to do is listen to.Chili, an appropriate spo kes man if ther e eve r was one. Chili, a former 125cc, 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix racer as well as a multi-time World Superbike wi nner, had this to say about young Ben . " Ben today was riding bett er th a n Gobert for sure ," Ch ili said . "Gobert wa s always tryin g to close insid e the line and al ready after seven or eight lap s, it was lik e the last lap . You ca nno t ride lik e this, a n d he fa ll d own. Ben ha d ve ry good exit in the last co rner and he go away from me . He cou ld open the gas earlier than me, an d he had a very good line." In all, it was a ba n n er d ay for th e Va nce & H in es Ducati team, as th e v showed they can com pete with anyone. Na tura llv, crew chief Jim Leonard a nd team owner Ter ry Vance were all smiles - they'd wit nesse d a one-two in the first leg and a first win for Bostr om in the seco n d. And th ey 'd be at en th e fac to ry Ducati Perform ance team in the pr ocess. "It's great," a modest Bostrom said at the end of the da y. "It's funny, because I'v e been tryi ng to win a race for so long and I've got about five seconds in a row now in the AMA circuit. The points are real close and I' ve go t to win some of these things at the end if I want to wi n th is tit le - and th en a wi n ca me here. Hopefu lly, I can carry thi s momen tu m on to Mid -Ohio . There rea lly wa sn' t any pressure and we cha nged some stuff on bike se tu p to tes t so me things for pe rsona l reference, and they just worked so good. The tea m did an unbelievable job a nd I believe I had the easiest hike to rid e ou t th ere. I was fo llowi ng th ose gu ys and they wer e ge tti ng loose with their front and rear quite a bit. My bike was jus t well-bal an ced - it was reall y nice. I was fortunate to have such a good bike tod av." Al though he'd fi nis he d six th a n d third in the two races, Aus tra lian Troy Co rse r was the man who probably d id th e lea st to ta ke ad va ntage of Laguna Seca . O nsa track that he likes and at a place that his ch ampion ship rival Carl Fogarty loa thes, Co rse r simp ly failed to rea p th e ben ef its o f a race th at co u ld h a ve mo ved h im int o cha m pio ns h ip con te ntion . After qu al if yin g o n p ol e positi on , Co rse r appeared to be on the verge of so mething big at Laguna, but he didn't take maximum advan tage and he only ended up ga ining six points on Fogarty . Much to the Brit' s credi t, Fogarty persevered a t Lag u na, fin ishin g ah ead of Corser in race one and on ly two spots behind him in race tw o. Thus his fifthand fourt h-p lace finishes kep t him in his formidabl e p os i tion atop th e Worl d C ha m p io n s h ip point s ta n d in g s, 49 poin ts a head of Corser, 317-268, w ith five races left to run . Here come the Supe rbikes: Akira Yanaga wa (4) lea ds the start of race one at Laguna Seca , with Anthony Gobert (95), Colin Edwards Ii (hidden), Eric Bostrom (91) and Carl Fogarty (1) in tow. No t on ly was Fogarty able to kee p the da mage to a minimum when it came to Co rser, but he also managed to do the sa me with the res t of his pursue rs. Cas trol Honda 's Colin Edwa rds II, w ho si ts th ir d in the cha mpio nship chase, finis hed fou r th an d fift h in th e tw o races to match Fogarty' s point tally, bu t tha t didn't do him an y good in his att empts to run do wn the cha mpionship leader. Of the other AMA racers competing in the World Superbike event, Ame rican H onda ' s Eric Bost rom ended up nex t best to his brother Ben an d fellow AMA racer Gobert. Eric Bostrom finished 10th in the first race and im proved to seventh in the second, but he still ended the day some what d isappointed with his results (see "Briefly...") Yama ha's Jam ie Hackin g was impressive in the first leg, finishing eighth after battlin g hi s w a y around th e likes o f Aaron Slight and No riyuki Haga, but his second race was ru ined by an off-trac k excursion ea rly on. Still, Hacking managed, to circ u la te q uic kly e no ug h to move all the wa y back up to 13th by the end of the second race. Georgian Mike Smith finished 17th in both ra ces in a o ne -off rid e w it h th e Wh it e Enduran ce team o n a H ond a RC45 (see "Briefly..."). RACE ONE With his last World Superbike victory coming at Phillip Island in 1996 and wi th last year's drug-test debacle still fresh in his mind , Gobert was ins pired . And it showed. Initially, it was Yanagawa w it h th e

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