Superstock... In his first race aboard the new Graves Motorsports-prepared Yamaha YZF-R1, Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom finished an impressive second in the opening round of the 2007 AMA Superstock Series at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday, Mar. 8. The Californian qualified third, ran third for most of the race and then forged into second and finished less than 2.9 seconds behind winner Ben Spies. In doing so, Bostrom proved he is a force to reckon with as the 11-race 2007 Superstock championship gets rolling.
When the green flag waved at the start of the 13-lap event, Bostrom leaped into second place while Spies charged up front. Though he slipped to third behind Geoff May on lap four, Bostrom kept in close contact with the leaders and rallied during the closing stages to steal second from May with three laps to go. The result was especially sweet for Bostrom, who missed a recent test session due to a shoulder injury.
“Ben is a great racer but even so it’s his first race with the team and he hadn’t had that much testing before the race,” said Team Manager Tom Halverson afterwards. “The Graves guys did a really great job preparing the bike and Ben was comfortable on it immediately. It was really gratifying to get that result in the first race, and it showed Ben that the bike is competitive and that he can be competitive this year. All in all, Daytona was a huge confidence builder.” |
