Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

After three seasons in the Superbike World Championship, Ben Bostrom is back in the U.S., riding for American Honda. Bostrom will compete in the AMA Superbike Championship, and will make one guest appearance in 600cc Supersport, riding the new CBR600RR in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway.

As rain washed out the first day of the Dunlop Daytona tire tests Monday, most of the riders left the track at lunchtime. Bostrom, however, stayed until the end of the day, and Roadracingworld.com caught up with him in the garage area.

Roadracingworld.com: All the other racers have left. Why are you still here?

Ben Bostrom: Because my crew’s still here.


RW.com: What are your thoughts about coming back to AMA racing?

BB: I’m real excited, real excited. It’s nice to be home.

The last couple of months have been so fun. Right now, I feel that I’m in the best shape of my life. I’ve just been training and playing so hard. I haven’t done this in three years. I’ve almost forgot what it’s like to be feeling strong.

It’s good to be back with everyone again. I’m really fortunate that Honda took me back. I’m lucky, lucky to come home.


RW.com: Over in Europe, did you just have to do a lot of stuff in each hotel’s gym or run laps around the racetrack or what?

BB: Yeah, stuff that actually takes motivation to do. ‘Man, I’ve got to go find a gym.’ And that’s not easy to do in Europe. I can put on my running shoes and go for a run, but there’s a lot of cars, there’s a lot of smog. It’s just not easy to motivate yourself.

Here, I’ve kind of got my friends. I’ve got all my toys. The most important thing is to have my brother there – my life-long competitor. We get up, and we’re like, ‘Let’s do something.’ It’s not like you just go and ride your motocross bike. He’s on the track, too. So, all of a sudden, it becomes this race. Go climbing, and it becomes this who-can-get-to-the-top-off-the-rock-first race. Even if you’re surfing, we’re just going for waves. It’s kind of funny. Everything’s been a real competition. It’s good for your mind, body – I’m stronger than I’ve been for a few years. I’m pretty excited.

Daytona is such a long race. That’s why I wish we were testing right now. Daytona’s kind of a classic. I think everyone would like to say, ‘I won the Daytona 200.’ Just kind of something to put on the shelf there. I don’t think there’s any other race like this. If you think about all the races we have, the Daytona 200 is a classic. I’d love to come here and say we won it. I came to America just for this, to get another shot at it. I thought I’d never get another shot at winning this thing.

The track makes me nervous, but I still want to win so bad. You kind of have to (block the danger out), but it’s always still there. I remember in ’99 after testing, it was almost impossible to hold it wide open. I only did it one lap, and that was probably my qualifying lap, pin it over through (NASCAR) turn four. Otherwise, I would just kind of roll it off and roll it back on again. I bet I was giving up a half-second.


RW.com: What do you think about riding a 600 again, the new CBR600RR?

BB: Normally, I wouldn’t be too excited, to be honest. But in this case, I went and tried the bike out. I did about 10 laps on it, and the thing is awesome! It’s really unbelieveable. It’s probably the first time I could say the bike did everything right.

I’ve ridden several different kinds of bikes. It’s like you’re out in the corner, and no matter what, it’s going to walk the front end wide when you get on the gas. It’s just not going to stick. If you got it to where the front sticks good, you’ve got no grip. But that thing just does everything right. It’s pretty amazing, so I’m pretty excited.


RW.com: Some people say coming back here from World Superbike is a demotion. How do you feel about it?

BB: No, there’s only two good options, really. There’s either go to a GP team and be on A-equipment or not go at all, because it’s just not worth it. Either be on A-tires and A-equipment or just don’t go.

Or come to America, because World Superbike’s lost its…the top five guys left. It’s not going to be as much fun next year. I saw the AMA series would be more competitive, and more than that, I wanted to come home.

I was like, ‘God, I want to come home!’ And there was just no way to come home, because I want to come home to a good team and stuff. When this door opened up, I couldn’t wait to put my foot in there.

Plus it’s good to be back with Honda again. It’s a good company. It’ll be really good for ’03. It’s exciting. The last two months of my life are probably the funnest I’ve had in the last three years. It’s a good welcome home.


RW.com: Do you think the World Superbike series is a hollow Championship this year?

BB: Yeah, it is, unfortunately, because a couple of manufacturers dropped out. I think everyone’s going to be racing Neil (Hodgson). Neil’s got the best bike, the best tires. He’s going to be kind of hard to beat. Hopefully, Ruben will ride really well and push him. At least there will be two guys up there. Granted, they’ll both be on Ducatis, but Ducati stuck with it. So they’ll win the title for sure. It’s theirs for the taking.

But yeah, you come to America, you’ve got all the manufacturers, you’ve got several good riders in it. This is for sure the premier Superbike class next year.


RW.com: What were your options for this year?

BB: We had a couple of GP things and some World Superbike things, but nothing sounded better than coming home.


RW.com: Talk about tires, were they an issue last year?

BB: Yeah, that was an issue for about half the guys, really. What happens some times through history, you see one tire manufacturer, more or less, gain speed on the other one. It’s unfortunate. The first two years I was over there, there was quite the balance between Dunlop and Michelin; that made for really great racing. You’d see probably seven or eight different winners. It was really cool. Every race, it was guaranteed three or four guys had a shot at winning the thing. That was really fun. It was good for the crowd. As a matter of fact, I think that’s what kind of built up the whole crowd.

Then last year, unfortunately, Michelin kind of figured something out. They went ahead and did a good job. They did their homework and controlled the series. They had three riders with Colin (Edwards) and (Troy) Bayliss and Xaus. They pretty much (were the) top three the whole series. I mean, they did a good job and deserved it.

The Dunlop boys worked real hard. Every race they were bringing us a couple new development tires, trying to get it going on. We just never hit it. We were just kind of hoping at some point they were going to hit it and then it would be our turn to win, but it just never happened. I know they’re working hard this year, too, to catch back up.