Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Bostroms make motorcycle series racing a family affair

Friday, Oct. 2, 1998 | 11:47 a.m.

Ben and Eric Bostrom hope to make this weekend's AMA Superbike Series season finale a family affair.

In fact, they're planning on it.

Ben Bostrom, 24, comes into Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway tied for the points lead with three-time champion Doug Chandler. Eric Bostrom, 21, has won two of the three Superbike races he has run after replacing the injured Miguel Duhamel on the Factory Honda team.

As much as Eric would like to make it three wins in a row, he would rather see his older brother capture the championship in his first full season on a Superbike.

"I want Ben to win the championship more than anything," Eric said. "I obviously want to win just as bad as anybody but more importantly, if there is anything I can do to help Ben, I would. It's a team thing ... plus, it's a brother thing, too.

"The ideal situation is that we finish 1-2. I don't care who wins and who gets second, but I'd like us to finish 1-2."

Perhaps because of the unexpected nature of their respective situations, there clearly is no sibling rivalry in this family.

"I didn't expect this at all," Ben said of being locked in the tightest points battle in the history of the Superbike Series. "My goal at the beginning of the year was just to finish in the top three in points and maybe win a couple races toward the end of the season.

"As it turned out, about halfway into the season we were running up front. There were five of us within about 16 points at one point ... and now it's down to myself and Chandler. I'm just really, really fortunate to be in this position -- I don't know why I got so lucky."

Neither does Eric, who inherited Duhamel's Honda two months ago when Duhamel crashed his Superbike and broke his leg.

Eric moved over from the 600 SuperSport series and finished a respectable fifth in his debut on the purpose-built road racer, then posted victories at Brainerd, Minn., and Colorado Springs, Colo.

"It definitely has surprised me," Eric said of his sudden success in the premier motorcycle road racing series. "I've really got to hand it to Miguel and the whole team ... because they are the ones who got the bike capable of winning so it was pretty easy for me to jump on it."

Ben Bostrom realizes he will have his work cut out for him if he is to beat Chandler for the series championship.

Chandler, who rides for Kawasaki, has won the past two poles on the 2.5-mile LVMS infield road course, the past two Superbike championships and won the race here in 1996.

"I don't really have anything to lose and everything to gain," Ben said. "If Doug's ahead of me, I'm going to try to chase him down. I would literally rather fall down than lose (the championship)."

Before it gets to that, however, Ben said it is imperative he accomplish one more goal.

"I'm really, really hoping to set the pole and get that one (bonus) point, just that little bit of added cushion that I'd like to have," he said.

"This is a hard track to pass on, that's why to set pole position here, to be on the front row, is going to be super important to get a good launch off that starting line."

Although he is in his first full season on a Superbike, Ben Bostrom insisted he isn't nervous going into the final race of the season with the championship on the line.

"The nerves should be kicking in, but it honestly feels just like another race except I'm just a little more pumped up," he said. "As funny as it sounds, I really like the feel of being tied because this is it.

"This feels like the grand finale to me, this feels like I'm in the main event. I feel like I've made it through the heat races and semis to the main and this is it."

* NASCAR: The owners of three Chevrolet Winston Cup teams announced a collaborative agreement aimed at helping them improve their cars' aerodynamics. Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Andy Petree Racing have hired Automotive Aerodynamics Inc. to handle aerodynamic engineering for their Winston Cup, Busch Grand National and Craftsman Truck teams. The pact calls for each team to have full access and share all information developed by AAI, including results of wind tunnel and track tests. The alliance could end up aiding six Winston Cup teams; Childress already fields two teams, and DEI and Petree plan to follow suit.

* CART: Although Las Vegas Motor Speedway president Richie Clyne said he had been holding talks this summer with CART officials about holding a FedEx Championship Series race at his 1.5-mile superspeedway, it won't happen next year. CART announced its 1999 schedule earlier this week and an August visit to the new Chicago Motor Speedway was the lone addition. ... Don't look for Indy Racing League car owner A.J. Foyt to be attending this weekend's inaugural CART race, which will be run in the streets of his hometown of Houston. "It's not really Indy-car racing," Foyt said of the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. "That's actually Formula One racing. And to me, (CART) is just a secondary Formula One racing they're running. We (the IRL) are a different league of racing; we're actually oval racing. And I don't mind a good road course -- a "good" road course. But this stuff of running downtown ... that ain't racing."

* IRL: After a disastrous race two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, Goodyear apparently has worked out its tire woes. Las Vegas resident Davey Hamilton, who had five right-rear tires either blow out or shred in the race, tested at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Tuesday and Wednesday and reported no tire problems. Next weekend's Las Vegas 500K at LVMS will be the first time the IRL cars have hit the track since the Lone Star 500. "I know the tires we'll be running here are different than the Texas tires," Hamilton said. "These tires seemed to hold up really good. (The Texas race) was kind of a freak deal, actually. I think it caught everybody by surprise -- how hot it was, how fast it was -- and Goodyear just wasn't quite prepared for those conditions, I think. So far, we've had no tire problems whatsoever." Hamilton comes into the IRL season finale in Las Vegas trailing series leader Kenny Brack by 31 points while defending IRL champion Tony Stewart is 10 points behind Hamilton. Race weekend kicks off next Thursday at 5:30 p.m. with a pit-stop contest between six IRL teams at the Fremont Street Experience.

* BACKMARKERS: Las Vegas' Rob MacCachren finished the 1998 Championship Off-Road Racing Series with a victory in the Pro-4 division at the 17th annual 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals in Indianapolis. MacCachren had two wins this season and finished fourth in the championship point standings. The CORR Series will visit Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a non-points event Dec. 4-6.

Formula One president Bernie Ecclestone plans to sell $2 billion of Eurobonds in coming weeks, a sale he expects to pave the way for a share sale in the next two to three years. The planned sale comes a month after Ecclestone postponed plans to sell $2.2-to $2.8 billion worth of shares to the public. A local group's attempt to bring a Formula One race to Las Vegas failed earlier this month when another group was selected to develop a parcel of land at the south end of the Strip.