From a press release issued by Norm Viano, Lawdog Sports Management:

It is with great pleasure that Ducati Austin’s Superbike rider, Eric Bostrom, is following up his exciting qualifying performance with an equally exciting announcement today of new commercial and lifestyle partner, Von Dutch. The new partnership will not only see the Von Dutch branding on his Alpinestars leathers, but also on his factory Ducati 999 Superbike. In addition, a dedicated Eric/Von Dutch line of high end clothing that reflects Eric’s unique style and character will be unveiled shortly and become available to fans everywhere.

A Von Dutch spokesman had this to say,”We whole-heartedly welcome Eric to our Von Dutch family through our strategic sponsorship program. We feel that Bostrom is a natural fit for the Von Dutch brand – his exceptional racing skills and enigmatic personality truly represent our company and all that it stands for – “freedom, style, sex, power, and motion.”

Having partnered with outside-industry sponsor RedBull four years ago in what has become an incredibly successful long-term commercial and (more importantly) personal relationship, Eric is entering into this new partnership with the same hopes. “It was really cool to get to know my new friends at Von Dutch because we quickly learned that we had so much in common; in lifestyle and interests. And this is really a nice match for me personally because the clothes are bitchin’, the people there are great, and they are real motorcycle enthusiasts. We give them a strong connection to the motorcycle industry and they give me a strong connection to the Hollywood fashion industry. We’re going to do some really cool things together. And by reading what they think about me, we definitely are on the same page!”

And judging by Eric’s electrifying qualifying performance, shattering the lap record at Daytona and earning pole position for the 63rd Daytona 200 to be run this Saturday, the relationship is off to a good start.

Von Dutch Originals is a Los Angeles-based clothing company specializing in fashions inspired by nostalgic vintage-styled clothing and denim. Launched in its present form in 2001, the company is named after legendary hot rod “Kustom Kulture” king, the late Kenneth Howard, who under his professional name “Von Dutch” is credited with being the first to paint hot rod style pin stripes and flames on cars and motorcycles in the ’40s and ’50s. Modern day enthusiasts identify themselves with “Kustom Kulture” – a lifestyle that appreciates everything vintage – from classic threads to custom hot rods and motorcycles. Von Dutch Originals reintroduces this lifestyle in clothing, Kustom Cycles, Von Dutch Collectibles and Toys for all ages. Von Dutch Flagships stores are located in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, California, Miami, Las Vegas and Chicago, and specialty clothing retailers across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. For more information, please visit http://www.vondutch.com/.

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

DORNA Sports, which promotes and owns the commercial rights to the MotoGP World Championship as well as a Spanish National Championship, is buying the promotion and marketing rights to the British Superbike Championship.

In an interview published in the Spanish magazine Motociclismo last week, DORNA boss Carmelo Ezpeleta said that DORNA had been approached about buying the series and was doing the deal because the British market is important and it did not want to see the top British Championship decline.

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Yamaha/Graves Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking and Damon Buckmaster are both feeling better physically Thursday at Daytona International Speedway after problems on Wednesday.

Buckmaster was stricken with a stomach illness Tuesday night, which led to vomiting, the inability to eat and weakness during Wednesday’s practice and qualifying sessions.

Buckmaster reported to Roadracingworld.com after practice Thursday morning that he was feeling better.

Hacking crashed in practice Wednesday morning, injuring his back to the point where the British-born racer couldn’t walk to his YZF-R1 for Superstock qualifying Wednesday afternoon. Hacking’s crew carried him to and from his bike for that session.

After qualifying third in Superstock with one, single, flying lap, Hacking was carried into a chiropractor’s office Wednesday. Although he was able to walk out of the office, Hacking said he is still unable to ride his Yamahas the way he wants to due to the effects of the injury. He said he now needs to use more handlebar input to turn his bike, forcing him to make new, corresponding set-up changes.

Hacking and Buckmaster will run the 12-lap Superstock race on their Graves Yamaha YZF-R1s Thursday afternoon.

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Provisional Thursday Morning AMA Superbike Practice Times:

1. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:48.545
2. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:48.975
3. Ben Bostrom, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:49.090
4. Eric Bostrom, Ducati 999F04, 1:49.291
5. Miguel Duhamel, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:49.518
6. Jake Zemke, Honda CBR1000RR, 1:49.858
7. Geoff May, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:50.483
8. Pascal Picotte, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:51.028
9. Larry Pegram, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:51.484
10. John Haner, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:52.413
11. Lee Acree, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:52.772
12. Chris Caylor, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:52.975
13. Josh Hayes, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 1:53.245
14. Jeffrey Tigert, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:54.066
15. Eric Wood, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:54.288
16. Scott Jensen, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:54.462
17. Jack Pfeifer, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:54.489
18. Scott Carpenter, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:55.057
19. Anthony Fania, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:55.265
20. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:55.531

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Provisional Combined AMA Superbike Qualifying Results:

1. Eric Bostrom, Ducati, 1:46.835
2. Ben Bostrom, Honda, 1:47.318
3. Mat Mladin, Suzuki, 1:47.639
4. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:47.639
5. Jake Zemke, Honda, 1:48.257
6. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 1:48.333
7. Larry Pegram, Yamaha, 1:50.727
8. Eric Wood, Suzuki, 1:51.430
9. Josh Hayes, Kawasaki, 1:51.653
10. Geoff May, Suzuki, 1:51.864
11. John Haner, Suzuki, 1:51.997
12. Jordan Szoke, Honda, 1:52.073
13. Lee Acree, Suzuki, 1:52.089
14. Jeffrey Tigert, Suzuki, 1:52.295
15. Chris Caylor, Suzuki, 1:52.344
16. Jack Pfeiffer, Suzuki, 1:53.391
17. Mike Sullivan, Yamaha, 1:54.121
18. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki, 1:54.384
19. Frank Trombino, Yamaha, 1:54.596
20. Anthony Fania, Suzuki, 1:55.092

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

AMA Pro Racing Director of Timing & Scoring Ken Rogers met with members of the media Wednesday evening at Daytona International Speedway to explain some of the timing & scoring problems and discrepancies noticed by teams.

The most noticeable problem occurred in Superstock qualifying. At the end of the session, after all bikes had come off the track, Graves Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo was listed as having the fastest time. In fact, DiSalvo did his time mid-session and parked his YZF-R1 waiting for someone to eclipse his time, which he thought no one did based on the monitors.

DiSalvo then proceeded to do several interviews, including one with track announcer Richard Chambers, in which he spoke about the importance of getting pole. In the middle of his third or fourth individual interview DiSalvo noticed that Ben Spies was elevated to the top of the qualifying order with a faster time, which greatly upset DiSalvo and his team.

Rogers’ explanation for this situation was lengthy and somewhat complicated. Essentially due to a “synchronization problem,” the timing & scoring computer took it upon itself to move the checkered flag in front of Spies, and automatically disallowed his time.

The computer is programmed to automatically disallow any laps that occur after the checkered flag is thrown.

AMA Timing & Scoring noticed “within 30-40 seconds” that the checkered flag had been moved, according to Rogers, and his staff made the appropriate corrections, which resulted in Spies’ time being posted on the monitors late.

Rogers said Spies’ time was confirmed by checking that he had hit all of the segment timing loops around the track correctly and by replaying and timing Spies’ lap with the new, super-high-speed finish line camera.

“We do record all of the times for all of the laps by all of the riders. All the data was there,” said Rogers, adding that there was no question that Spies had done the fastest time.

As for some riders appearing on the monitors twice, as they did Wednesday, Rogers said this was because some riders took out two different bikes with two different transponders in the same session. The riders only appeared on the screen twice for a short period of time, said Rogers, until his crew manually removed the slower of their two times.

As for riders on the track not appearing on the timing monitors at all, Rogers said this was a matter of logistics. Registration and tech inspection are open after practice has already started, explained Rogers, resulting in some riders who haven’t been entered into the timing & scoring system going out on track and not appearing on timing monitors.

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Provisional BMW Boxer Cup Final Qualifying Results (all on BMW R1100S):

1. Thomas Hinterreiter, AUS, 2:03.727
2. Sebastien Legrelle, BEL, 2:03.863
3. Richard Cooper, GBR, 2:03.875
4. Gwen Giabanni, FRA, 2:04.099
5. Stephane Mertens, BEL, 2:04.102
6. Brian Parriott, USA, 2:04.231
7. Oriol Fernandez, ESP, 2:04.381
8. Markus Barth, GER, 2:05.031
9. Guillaume Dietrich, FRA, 2:05.072
10. Roberto Panichi, ITA, 2:05.292
11. Klaus Nies, GER, 2:05.587
12. Ricky Orlando, USA, 2:06.006
13. Nate Kern, USA, 2:06.203
14. Javier Valera, ESP, 2:06.354
15. Barry Burrell, GBR, 2:06.878
16. Mike Ciccotto, USA, 2:07.253
17. Cavin Hogan, GBR, 2:07.287
18. Giulio Rangheri, 2:07.403
19. Jose Maria Martin, ESP, 2:07.404
20. Dirk Buylinckx, BEL, 2:07.469

24. Brad Hendry, USA, 2:08.021
25. Greg White, USA, 2:08.028

27. Katja Poensgen, GER, 2:08.200
28. Frank Shockley, USA, 2:08.260

35. John Glaefke, USA, 2:11.141
36. Jon Simisky, USA, 2:12.745
37. Sylvester Lemanski, USA, 2:14.442

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Provisional AMA Formula Xtreme Race Results:

1. Miguel Duhamel, Honda CBR600RR, 17 laps
2. Ben Bostrom, Honda CBR600RR, -0.151 second
3. Jake Zemke, Honda CBR600RR, -4.035 seconds
4. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR600RR, -4.147 seconds
5. Pascal Picotte, Yamaha YZF-R6, -4.338 seconds
6. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki GSX-R600, -4.417 seconds
7. Jake Holden, Suzuki GSX-R600, -31.904 seconds
8. Jeff Wood, Yamaha YZF-R6, -48.137 seconds
9. Corey Eaton, Suzuki GSX-R600, -53.574 seconds
10. Frank Trombino, Yamaha YZF-R6, -62.573 seconds
11. Perry Melneciuc, Yamaha YZF-R6, -75.549 seconds
12. Jason Smith, Yamaha YZF-R6, -75.664 seconds
13. Nathan Hester, Yamaha YZF-R6
14. Marcus Winfree, Suzuki GSX-R600
15. Adam Vella, Suzuki GSX-R600, -1 lap
16. Jimmy Moore, Suzuki GSX-R600, DNF, mechanical
17. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki GSX-R600, DNS, mechanical

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Josh Hayes looked in pain as he limped through the Daytona paddock Wednesday favoring his broken left heel, which is squeezed into a size 11 boot while his right foot wears his normal size 9. The 2003 AMA Superstock Champion says, other than missing a lot of shifts, he is more comfortable on his Attack Kawasaki ZX-10R Superstock and Superbike machines than he is walking but is definitely not 100 percent physically.

Hayes, who has not ridden a road racer since December, qualified ninth in Superstock Wednesday with a 1:50.263 and oddly went much slower in Superbike qualifying with a 13th-fastest 1:53.770.

Hayes’ ZX-10R Superbike is equipped with a race-kit swingarm, a hand-built 24-liter endurance fuel tank with dry-break quick-fill fittings, big forks and brakes.

After evaluating a number of different forks in winter testing, American Honda has settled on using Showa kit forks on the CBR600RR Formula Xtreme bikes of Miguel Duhamel and Ben Bostrom. The forks’ sliders have a green, anti-stiction coating team members called “Friction Down,” which was first developed and used on Honda’s off-road racers.

Bostrom says riding the “little” CBR600RR FX is weird on the “big,” 16.5-inch Daytona-spec Superbike slicks. He said the tire is so big he can feel it dragging on the engine and yet so hard that it still spins going out onto the banking. This, says Bostrom, is why the Supersport bikes are turning faster lap times than the Formula Xtreme machines, because the Supersport bikes have more grip and less rotating mass with their 17-inch DOT-labeled tires.

Erion Honda has had some troubles with its Formula Xtreme CBR600RRs at Daytona. Alex Gobert lost half of his Wednesday morning practice session to a problem with his rear brake, and Jake Zemke’s bike suffered a major misfire on the first lap of qualifying, forcing him to switch to a community back-up bike that he had never ridden in order to register a lap time and qualify for the race.

Pascal Picotte is racing in all four classes at Daytona – Supersport, Superstockk, Formula Xtreme and Superbike – on basically Supersport-spec Yamaha YZF-R6s and YZF-R1s. While he is very competitive in Supersport, Picotte says his R6 doesn’t have enough power to stay in the draft of the factory Honda CBR600RRs in the Formula Xtreme race.

Picotte was quick to point out that Wednesday was the first day his Yamahas had been on a racetrack ever and the first time he had been on track in several months.

Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Steve Rapp qualified 18th in Superstock with a 1:51.697, far from where he wanted to be. Rapp said he only did a few laps before fitting his Michelin qualifying tire and doing a low-1:50, but he missed turn one at the completion of that fast lap and AMA Pro Racing disallowed it.

No Limit Suzuki’s Jason Pridmore, however, was very happy with his Superstock qualifying effort, eighth with a 1:50.181. Pridmore pointed out that his 2003 Superbike qualifying time was a 1:50.383, which was good enough for 10th on that grid.

Everything was going well for Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates in Wednesday afternoon’s Superbike qualifying session, that is until he hit the large pylon marking the edge of the track at the exit of the chicane. “I thought I broke my damn arm!” said Yates.

The pain was so great it sapped the strength from Yates’ arm, and he said he was barely able to hold on to the handlebar, especially braking into left-hand turns like turns one, six and the entrance to the chicane. So Yates was very surprised when the next lap was his fastest, a 1:48.478. “I felt like I was going so slow on that lap,” said Yates.

From a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing:

TEAM 23 RACING SUPPORTED BY MICHAEL JORDAN SET TO COMPETE IN AMA CHEVROLET SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 4, 2004) – Team 23 Racing representatives today confirmed
companies affiliated with NBA legend Michael Jordan will sponsor Montez Stewart in this year’s AMA Repsol Superstock and Pro Honda Oils Supersport classes.

The effort is owned by Edward Scott LLC with primary sponsorship from Brand Jordan, a
subsidiary of Nike managed in coordination with the five-time NBA MVP Jordan. The 31-year-old
Stewart will ride the #123 Yamaha R1 in Repsol Superstock and the #123 Yamaha R6 in Pro Honda
Oils Supersport.

“We’re thrilled to see a company affiliated with basketball legend Michael Jordan sponsor a
team in the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship,” AMA Pro Racing Vice President, Director of Communications Kerry Graeber said. “One of our primary business objectives is to provide an avenue for companies like Brand Jordan to reach new markets through sponsorship in our series. This is a perfect manifestation of that vision”

“It’s a blessing to have Brand Jordan and the rest of my sponsors behind me,” team pilot
Stewart said. “I really don’t think I would have the opportunity to race in the AMA otherwise.”
Team officials said Jordan’s willingness to support his friend Stewart and his interest in
motorcycle racing opened the door to the basketball icon’s corporate partners. Additionally, team officials said Brand Jordan saw the sponsorship as an opportunity to support Jordan and his new recreational endeavors, particularly in developing products for official Team 23 Racing use.

“My goals of course include winning, but it’s tough racing against some of the fastest guys in
the world,” Stewart said.

Additional Team 23 Racing sponsors include Gatorade, Alpinestars, Parts Unlimited, Gemini
Technology Systems, Dunlop, PJ1, Ferodo Brakes and others.