Ben 'Captain America' Bostrom Takes the Pole at Laguna AMA Superbike Round

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Ben Bostrom on the #155 Team Honda CBR1000RR races his shadow as he comes out of the carousel during qualifying for the AMA Superbike Series round at Road America in June of 2004. After winning the '98 AMA Superbike Championship for Team Honda on the RC45, BBoz jumped to the Vance and Hines Ducati Team for '99. Racing in Europe for the next few years in the World Superbike Championship, Captain America made a name for himself wherever the series raced. Coming back to America in '03 to Team Honda again, he was paired with Miguel Duhamel as a team mate on the RC51 big twins. In '04, Honda came out with their inline CBR1000RR, and again BBoz and Miguel were teamed up. Ben then raced for the U.S. Ducati team as a team mate to '03 World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson.
By the '07 season, Ben was hooked up with the Graves Motorsports Yamaha powerhouse, and by '08 had captured the AMA Supersport Championship after winning several races during the 2008 season. By 2009, Yamaha, Graves and BBoz found themselves back in the the premier AMA Superbike Series, and team mate Josh Hayes ended up second overall to '09 Champ Mat Mladin. For the 2010 season, Ben hooked up with Pat Clark Motorsports out of Las Vegas, who put him on one of the team's new mounts, a Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike. Ben helped to pay them back today by taking the pole at Laguna Seca for the final tomorrow afternoon. Great job!
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One of the nicest guys in the AMA Superbike paddock took the pole today for the Laguna Seca round tomorrow in Monterey, CA. Ben Bostrom, the '98 AMA Superbike Champion who just early this year hooked up with the Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha team, took his Graves Motorsports Yamaha-built R1 to the top of the sheet in both qualifying sessions for first overall for this event. With outside-the-industry sponsors in The Palm Resorts/Casinos and Las Vegas Speedway on board, BBoz showed his magic in taking a superbike to the top and for his riding background and knowledge of the Laguna circuit to take the pole by .2 seconds over Graves Yamaha teamster and current points leader Josh Hayes.

Jake Holden on the M4 Monster Suzuki, Tommy Hayden on the Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki and Larry Pegram on his Pegram Racing/Foremost Insurance Ducati rounded out the top five, and Eric Bostrom, in his second event after returning last weekend at Mid Ohio to the series on a Cycle World/Yoshimura Suzuki, ended up 6th overall. Other notables for tomorrow's 6:45 P.M EDT final start were Jason Pridmore on the Celtic Racing Suzuki who will start 12th on the grid and former '95 AMA Superbike and 5-Time AMA 600 Supersport Champ Miguel Duhamel who qualified 15th on his privateer Ducati 1098R.

This was BBoz' first pole of the 2010 season and the 8th AMA Superbike pole of his long and storied career. Great news for Captain America and I can guarantee you I will be watching this one on edge on the live timing link tomorrow. Being a LONG time BBoz fan, this is great news to the old guys like me that appreciate and relish the roots of the sport and the best of talent that has come, gone, and returned again to the U.S. shores to contest the AMA Superbike Championship.

Go get 'em Ben and good luck! We'll be rooting for you man!!

You can read the rundown straight from the track by the always excellent Paul Carruthers over at CycleNews.com, the bible of motorcycle racing news online and in print:

http://www.cyclenews.com/articles/road-racing/2010/07/24/bostrom-takes-laguna-sbk-pole
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AMA Pro Road Racing combined qualifying results from Laguna (PDF-version):

http://results.amaproracing.com/pdfresults/rr/2010/07-laguna/sbqcovr.pdf

AMA Pro Road Racing 2nd session qualifying results from Laguna (standard version):

http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/results.cfm?year=2010&eid=2010011035&discipline=rr&class=SB&type=Q&rnum=2
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Nice article from Steve Atlas over at Motorcycle-USA.com about the coming together of Ben Bostrom and the Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha team:

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/748/7523/Motorcycle-Article/Pat-Clark-Motorsports--The-New-AMA-Superbike.aspx
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And here is the official AMA Pro Road Racing Live Timing and Scoring link for tomorrow's races:

http://laptraxtg.racersites-cluster.com/LapTraxTG/AMA/livescoring.html?LAPTRAXID=2010011035

Here's the event info for tomorrow's events on the AMA side of things:

http://amaproracing.com/rr/events/event.cfm?eid=2010011035
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