Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By HENNY RAy ABRAMS PHOTOS BY B RIAN J. NELSON Ben Bostrom is hoping to t urn things around here was a time, not all that long ago, when Ben Bostro m had everything. There was the coveted high-d ollar facto ry Ducati World Superbike ride . There was rock star status. There was the adu lation of race fans worldwi de . There was the stick figure New York fashion model girlfriend . There was a free -spirited lifestyle that saw him playing harder and o n more continents than the Hilton sisters. Ufe was good, maybe too good . In 1998, a lifetime ago in racer years , Bostrom won the AMA Superbike title for American Honda . The next year he moved to the Vance & Hines Ducati team, finishing second . Then he was off to Europe for three T 34 JUL 14,2004 • CYCLE NEWS Y volatile years . There were streaks of despair followed by streaks of brilliance. The high point was the five-race win streak in 200 I that included the double at Laguna Seca. There was an earlier win and several podiums, and it added up this best World Superbike finish, third place be hind Troy Bayliss and Co lin Edwards . The momentum from that seas on was short-lived . The 2002 Ducati proved less ride r-friendly. Other than a third in the opening race at Valencia, Bostrom was never on the podium . It was time to go home . American Honda lost Nicky Hayden to MotoGP at the end of 2002 . Ben Bostrom wou ld take his place but not replace him. The Honda RC-5 I was a fickle race 40th Anniversary bike, not as flexible as it shou ld have been . Aaron Slight, one of the first to test it, famously said that it was a great street bike but not a race bike. Bostrom began his second act with Ame rican Honda by steal ing the pole position at Dayton a in March of 200 3. Part of the Honda trio that would dominate the 200 , it was his race to lose . O n the final lap he led down the back straight, thinking the othe rs were in his shadow. So instead of making a break, he slowed at the chicane while the others bunched up. The mistake was fatal. At the finish, Miguel Duhame l shot from third to first, .069 of a second ahead of Bostro m with Erion Hon da's Kurtis Roberts just . 155 of a second behind in third place. The defeat stuck with him for a long time. A year and a half on I told him my belief that had he won tha t day, he'd have a different career. Success breeds success. Failure does the same . "Y u're probably right," he said on Saturday aftero noon at Brainerd Intemational Raceway. "The re' s something the re. When a rider wins, som ehow he keep s winning. And when he doesn't win, there's some kind of disappointment that shuts something off. Some kind of switch . It's bee n tough . It's bee n to ugh lately." Bostrom was sitting in the back seat of a re nted SUV just in front of the tea m hauler in the pits at Braine rd Inte rnational Raceway whe re the inte rview was con ducted . Jimmy Filice was seated next to him. Filic e wor ks for O MS, Bostrom 's management company. OMS had se nt wo rd to Cycle News that Ben wanted to talk, tha t he wanted his fans to know why he's strugg led this year. When I mentioned this to Ben earlier in the day, he was amused. It was clear this wasn't his idea, but he was Willing to play along. Some at OMS worried the interview would be too negative, that by addressing the disappointment of his second AMA career, he'd regress. Their point is well taken . The beach boy surfer dude rock climber is in there, to be sure, but it' s on ly one facet of his personality. Bostrom is one of the more selfreflective , inward -thinking riders in the paddock. But to now, despite being on the payroll of the largest motorcycle company in the world , racing hasn't been his priority. At least one championship contender said he was going to enter Ben and Eric Bostrom's ep isode of SpeedTV 's "I Wanna Date a Race Car Driver." "T his is the first time I've talked a whole bunch abou t

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