| Laguna Seca AMA *SPOILER*
Originally posted on ducati.com
Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom was victorious at Laguna Seca on Saturday, winning the AMA Superbike race held in front of a record crowd at the 2.2-mile circuit. Bostrom took the lead at the start and officially led all 28 laps of the race to take his 14th career AMA Superbike victory and his second of 2005. Bostrom won over the highly competitive field by a margin of 5.91 seconds for the Ducati 999's third triumph in the last four AMA Superbike contests.
"It was a fun race," said a jubilant Bostrom, also a winner at Pikes Peak this year. "Everyone was unsure with what the tires would end up doing because no one was able to do race distances (in practice). The whole race strategy was a question mark. Usually, around halfway, you can guess where the set-up is going to go for the rest of the race, but I didn't know if I was going to finish the race in the 1:29s or the 1:25s. Everything stayed consistent with the Ducati 999 and it worked out really well."
Bostrom's only challenge of the race was when series champion Mat Mladin tried to pass Eric in the slow turn 11 early in the race. Mladin was not able to keep Eric behind him on the exit. "He wasn't able to quite stick to the inside so I was able to square him up and get him right back," said Eric after the race.
From that point, Bostrom expertly controlled his Ducati 999 through the corners to pull out his winning margin over the next 25 laps.
"We couldn't be happier! It feels fantastic for the entire team when we are winning races," said Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin team owner Terry Gregoricka. "With the time issues this weekend because of the limited practice, there was a lot of pressure on every member of the team to get things done quickly. It was great for Eric to win in front of all the Ducati fans at the track today. It's a shame Neil's day ended early because he might have been right up there with Eric."
Neil Hodgson saw his race last only half a lap when another rider knocked him out of the event at the Corkscrew. "I'd cycled thousands of miles between the races getting ready for today ... it's so frustrating. The team had put in so much effort to get ready for the race. We'd been having a few problems this weekend and we'd just gotten through them and we were looking forward to having a good race, like Eric's. We felt confident. I tipped it into the Corkscrew on the first lap and then it was out of my hands."
Hodgson said he felt no ill effects from the crash apart from a sore ankle.
Bostrom, Hodgson, and Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin will race next at Mid-Ohio on July 22-24.
Race Results
1. Eric Bostrom (Ducati)
2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
4. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
5. Jake Zemke (Honda)
6. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
7. Kurtis Roberts (Honda)
8. Steve Rapp (Suzuki)
9. Jacob Holden (Suzuki)
10. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki)  | 
Linear Mode
