AMA Road Racing June 5-7, 2009 | Elkhart Lake, WI Results

Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom captured his fourth podium of the season aboard his 2009 YZF-R1 in a rain-soaked Superbike race at Road America at Elkhart Lake, WI. on Saturday, June 6. He charged to the front of the pack early in wet conditions, and then sparred with several other riders during the 13-lap contest before settling into a strong third-place finish. Then under better conditions on Sunday, “BBoz” took his R1 to a solid fifth-place finish to add to his points in the American Superbike championship, where he climbs to third place with six of 11 rounds completed. After leading the first practice on Friday, teammate Josh Hayes rode aggressively and set some of the quickest race laps, but crashed out on both Saturday and Sunday.

Superbike... Superpole qualifying on Friday saw Hayes in third and Bostrom in fifth aboard the new crossplane crankshaft R1. Then on Saturday, the Yamaha duo gave the bike its rain-race debut. Full of confidence and with his machine shod with rain tires, Bostrom dove into the lead under braking for the first turn on lap one, although he soon relinquished the position to Larry Pegram, eventual race winner Mat Mladin, and second-place finisher Michael Laverty. Fortunately Pegram eventually dropped through the order somewhat, and Bostrom was able to reclaim third spot during the middle of the race. The rain, combined with cold temperatures only in the 40s, made the conditions extremely difficult, and the R1’s rider-friendly YCC-T throttle-control system definitely helped Bostrom achieve such a strong result.

So what’s it like racing in the rain at nearly 180 mph? “It was radical, honestly,” Bostrom admitted afterwards. “The scary part is that one of the straights has a big bend in it with a wall on the outside and it’s really gnarly. Fortunately I was on an R1 so it had great traction, and with the crossplane crank it was also very controllable. I feel like we have a winning machine and I never should be off the podium.” Road racing team manager Tom Halverson added, “We do have a good bike and the team and riders know it, and we also have two riders who can win. Anywhere we go we have a real chance of winning, and the riders are fighting real hard to get there. It didn’t go exactly like we wanted this weekend but we’ll be fighting hard for the win at he next race at Laguna on July 4th weekend.”

Superbike Results - Race 2  1 Larry Pegram     2 Mat Mladin     3 Aaron Yates     4 Geoff May     5 Ben Bostrom - YAM     6 Neil Hodgson     7 Tommy Hayden     8 Blake Young     9 Jake Holden     10 David Anthony

Standing After Round 6 of 11  1  Mat Mladin 325   2  Tommy Aquino - YAM 215   3  Ben Bostrom - YAM 187   4  Larry Pegram 180   5  Josh Hayes - YAM 164   6  Geoff May 161   7  Aaron Yates 152   8  Blake Young 143   9  David Anthony 120   10  Taylor Knapp 97

Superbike Results - Race 1  1 Mat Mladin     2 Michael Laverty     3 Ben Bostrom - YAM     4 Larry Pegram     5 Blake Young     6 Aaron Yates     7 Ryan Elleby     8 David Anthony     9 Tommy Hayden     10 Mark Crozier

Daytona Sportbike Results - Race 2  1 Martin Cardenas     2 Jake Zemke     3 Jason DiSalvo     4 Chris Peris     5 Danny Eslick     6 Taylor Knapp     7 Michael Barnes     8 Chaz Davies     9 Jamie Hacking     10 Christopher Fillmore - YAM

Standings After 6 of 11  1  Martin Cardenas 255   2  Jamie Hacking 204   3  Danny Eslick 199   4  Jason DiSalvo 179   5  Josh Herrin - YAM 152   6  Chris Peris 141   7  Jake Zemke 128   8  Chaz Davies 121   9  Steve Rapp - YAM 112   10  Tommy Aquino - YAM 104

Daytona Sportbike Results - Race 1  1 Chris Peris     2 Roger Lee Hayden     3 Martin Cardenas     4 Taylor Knapp     5 Damian Cudlin     6 Danny Eslick     7 Shawn Higbee     8 Jamie Hacking     9 Michael Barnes     10 Fernando Amantini

Supersport Results  1 Leandro Mercado     2 Ricky Parker - YAM     3 Joshua Day - YAM     4 James Rispoli     5 Russ Wikle     6 Bryce Prince     7 Tyler Odom     8 Robert Tinagero     9 Clint Shobert     10 Lloyd Worrell - YAM