Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The silver lining on the postponement of the AMA season finale at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) may be that several riders who would have missed the original race will be able to ride and riders who would’ve had to ride hurt will be able to ride at full strength this weekend.

Ducati Austin’s Eric Bostrom would have missed the event scheduled for September 17-19 at VIR due to shoulder and rib injuries he suffered in a crash at Road Atlanta September 4, but due to the extra three weeks of healing offered by the postponement, Bostrom will race this weekend.

“I’m definitely not 100 percent, but I’m strong and I’ll be alright,” said Bostrom, who said that the cartilage and ligaments which hold his right shoulder in its socket were damaged but not to the point enough of requiring surgery.

Damon Buckmaster hasn’t been able to ride his Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 Superstock racebike since fracturing his left scaphoid bone in May, but, “it’s getting better all the time. I just got an X-Ray last week, and there’s not much improvement but I’ll still try to ride both (Superstock and Supersport) bikes this weekend,” said Buckmaster.

Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking will also try to ride his Supersport YZF-R6 (in addition to his Superstock racebike) for the first time since he was injured in a crash during testing at Mid-Ohio, prior to the Laguna Seca round in July. “I wouldn’t have been able to ride it if we had run the race last month,” said Hacking.