Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

After 28 laps, four starts and one hour and 34 minutes, Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom beat Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin by 0.0001-second in Sunday’s AMA Superbike final at Virginia International Raceway.

The race was stopped after six laps when Nicky Hayden crashed and his American Honda RC51 burst into flames. Hayden actually worked with cornerworkers to put out the fire.

The race was stopped a second time on lap 11 when Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts crashed in between turns four and five, and his RC51 Superbike, which remained on the track, also caught on fire.

Aaron Yates ran off the track to avoid hitting Roberts, fell in the run-off area before hitting inflatable safety barriers, got up, went back to the track and laid down on the racing surface. Yates then returned to pit lane where his crew repaired his GSX-R750 in time to make the re-start.

The race was stopped a third time on lap 20 when Michael Fitzpatrick fell exiting turn six and his Suzuki GSX-R750 caught on fire.

Mladin and Bostrom went straight to the front for the final eight-lap sprint. On the final lap, Bostrom drafted past Mladin to a photo-finish win.

Yates recovered for third. HMC Ducati’s Doug Chandler was fourth, well clear of top privateer Jason DiSalvo in fifth.

After the race, Mladin did not attend the podium celebration or post-race press conference.

Sunday’s AMA Superbike Race Results:

1. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki, 28 laps
2. Mat Mladin, Suzuki, -0.0001 second
3. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, -4.358 seconds
4. Doug Chandler, Ducati, -9.742 seconds
5. Jason DiSalvo, Suzuki, -36.362 seconds
6. Robert Jensen, Suzuki, -41.415 seconds
7. Brian Parriott, Suzuki, -42.978 seconds
8. Brian Livengood, Suzuki, -43.780 seconds
9. Eric Wood, Suzuki, -44.524 seconds
10. Andy Deatherage, Suzuki, -47.936 seconds
11. Thomas Montano, Ducati, -49.579 seconds
12. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki, -49.656 seconds
13. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki, -53.107 seconds
14. Justin Blake, Suzuki, -53.138 seconds
15. John Dugan, Suzuki, -53.798 seconds
16. John Jacobi, Suzuki, -54.931 seconds
17. Marco Martinez, Suzuki, -55.022 seconds
18. Alan Schmidt, Suzuki, -58.514 seconds
19. Scott Carpenter, Suzuki, -59.254 seconds
20. Scott Jensen, Suzuki, -60.310 seconds
21. Christopher Rankin of Texas, Suzuki, -60.409 seconds
22. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki, -61.355 seconds
23. C.R. Gittere, Suzuki, -79.061 seconds
24. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, -1 lap
25. Pascal Picotte, Ducati, -1 lap
26. Michael Fitzpatrick, Suzuki, -8 laps, DNF, crash
27. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki, -12 laps, DNF, crash
28. Kurtis Roberts, Honda, -17 laps, DNF, crash
29. Chris Rankin of Maryland, Suzuki, -20 laps, DNF
30. Nicky Hayden, Honda, -22 laps, DNF, crash
31. Giovanni Rojas, Suzuki, -22 laps, DNF, crash
32. Robert Christman, Suzuki, -27 laps, DNF