Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Lockh art-Phillips USA Form ula Xtreme The Honda rider gets a muchneeded win in Laguna FX cameo By Scon ROUSEAU P HOTOS BY HENNY RAy ABRAMS n a re ce nt Cycle News inte rview, American Ho nd a's Be n Bost ro m spoke cand idly of find ing himself, of re turni ng to the "Captain America" Bostro m of old who captured the hearts of race fans aroun d the world . Dur ing the Lockhart-Phillips Formula Xtreme event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, it wou ld seem that he took a step in the right direction. O n a racetrack that has delivered some of the brightest moments of his career, the 30-year-old Bostrom scored his first AMA Nat ional road race victory in nearly five years. It was his first time aboard a Formula Xtreme machine since the series opener at Daytona, but I he rod e we ll and took advantage of th e breaks that came his way in the redfl agged event to score - amazing as it so unds - only his third car eer AMA Nat io nal victory and his first since his AMA Superbike victory at Braine rd, Minnesota, on August I, 1999. "Well, yeah, in AMA it has been a while," Bostrom said. "I'll tell you, it was strange stepping up there on that podium . Even crossing the checkered flag was different. It feels great to be up here." Truth be told, it wasn't really Bostrom's race to win. Early on it appeared as though the pole sitt er, Erion Honda's Jake Zemke, would run away 32 JULY 21,2004 • CYC LE N EWS with the race after he took the lead away from the series points leader, American Honda's Miguel Duhamel, on lap two and began putting nearly a second per lap on the 36-year-old Fre nch Canadian, who was in turn pre ssured by Bostrom over the next six laps. Bostrom passed Duhamel in turn five to take over the seco nd spot o n lap seven , and Duhamel imme diate ly began to fade. It turned out that he was battling both a loose shifter and a poor tire choice . Unfort unately for Zemke, who had turned a couple of high I:27s early in the race and continued to build a lead of nea rly seven seco nds, smoke began pouring from the be lly pan of his mac hine, a clear sign of an oil leak. He trailed the smoke for nearly half a lap before pulling off the track just past turn six. ''A little piece cracked and caused a pretty huge oil leak, as you could probably see, " Zemke said. "Probably two or three laps before it was red-flagged , I could feel it on my boot, and I looked down and saw the stuff just misting out of my fairing. I thought, 'O h man, this 40th A nniversary isn't good .' I was just tipping the thing into the corners real easy, but finally I guess it just had enough and oiled the tire pretty good . I had a pretty big moment there. It was too bad because I had a pretty good cushion there." Cognizant of the championship batt le between Duhamel and Zemke, Bostrom slowed and attempted to communicate with Duhamel via hand signals, the race taking on a strange air when it appeared as though Bostr om wasn't su re what to do under the circ umstan ces. Upon his run past the pits, he also mo tioned to his team as if to ask, "What should I do?" "That' s not the way th at I wanted to win ," Bost ro m said. " I didn't know what to do . Jake was o ut, and I saw Miguel's bike breaking down . I didn't want to interfere with the cham pionship, and I tho ught it was wrong if I just go out there and w in th is race . I didn't know what to do , and I think my hand up [when signaling to his team) actually caused the red flag because they thought there was oil on the track, so it all kind of worked out." The AMA threw the red flag on lap nine. The race would be restarted as a

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