Ben Bostrom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jake Zemke (98) leading Ben Bostrom (155) and Miguel Duhamel (17) in an AMA Superbike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Ben Bostrom (born May 7, 1974) is an American motorcycle racer.

The son of Dave and nephew of Paul Bostrom, both successful dirt-track racer, Bostrom began his career in the same fashion, winning the AMA National 600 Dirt Track Championship in 1993. He moved to road racing in 1995.

Bostrom captured the AMA Superbike championship as a Honda rider in 1998, without winning a race. A year later Bostrom, astride a Ducati, and still racing full time in the AMA series, won a Laguna Seca World Superbike race (and finished second in another) as a wild card entry.

Bostrom first raced full time in the World Superbike Championship in 2000 on a factory Ducati, following his AMA success. In 2001 he won an unexpected 5 races in a row for Caracchi Ducati, but didn't win a race in 2002, returning to the domestic series the year after. He made a return to international racing for 2005, with the Renegade Honda team in WSBK, but was not successful, qualifying slowest of the 28 international entries in Qatar. Bostrom returned to Ducati as Neil Hodgson's teammate for the 2006 AMA Superbike Championship.

In addition to Superbike, Bostrom races Supermoto- a multi-discipline format involving off-road, flat-track and road-racing in one event. Bostrom won the 2004 AMA Supermoto championship and the gold medal at the inaugural X-Games Supermoto competition. The X-Games race (whose field included European Supermoto Champion Eddy Seel and seven-time Supercross champ, Jeremy McGrath) saw Bostrom win after nearly tipping over five laps from the finish.

His brother Eric is also an AMA rider.