A Chat With WSB Eric Bostrom
Monza is one of the most important events in the SBK world championshipcalendar but that clearly did not interest whoever sits up there withhis hand on the rain taps. A week of pounding rain did not promise toomuch traction and a nicely flooded track welcomed the teams pulling inThursday. Luckily, the heavy rains stopped this morning and allowed asemi dry free practice session. Though, with Monza being the ultra fastroller coaster that it is, it really separated the men from the boys.
Ona drying track only Edwards and Hodgson posted times that were withinthree seconds of real race speed with the rest of the field spread outbig time. Poor newcomer, Eric Bostrom (standing in for injured Izutsu)for instance was stuck almost seven seconds back in 19th place…
Afternoon brought some much better conditions. With a fully dry track,Hodgson, riding essentially Bayliss’s 2001 bike, lowered the outrightlap record by a nice margin with Colin Edwards right on his tail.Typically, twins filled up the first six spots but none of them was anAprilia. Haga San looked pretty desolate while discussing hisperformance with his team and a Dunlop technician after practice.
On the other end of pit lane, Ben Bostrom looked much more relaxed whileexamining his lap times printouts. Fourth provisional position, just 16thousands of a second behind Bayliss is nice going indeed.A serious boon of the World Superbike series is the accessibility of theriders by the public. None of the rarified air that surrounds thecurrent crop of inaccessible GP riders. In the open paddock areaautograph hunting kids could be seen running after Haga on his scooteror pestering Too Tall Rueben Xaus. Me? Just came across one quiet EricBostrom and here is what he had to say to the nation.
MO: Hi Eric got some minutes for Motorcycle Online?
EB: Yes sure just let me put my leathers in the front of the truck.
MO: It’s your second time in a WSBK round outside the US, how do youfind it?
EB: (sigh) It’s tough man, but it’s good fun, the riders are great and wehave to step right up and quicken the pace.
MO: How is it compared to the AMA Superbikes series?
EB: Well…its very very competitive, especially the depth of the field, so many fast guys …and the fast guys are really fast… as you’d expect.
MO: How do your US bikes compare to the WSBK ones?
EB: They are pretty close, we are trying some different things here but otherwise they’re close.
MO: Have you brought any stuff from the US?
EB: No, those are their bikes, Eckl’s bikes.
MO: How is it like at your new team?
EB: It’s good, they treat me well. Its different, at first you don’t havea complete understanding, but its working out well.
MO: Is it your first time in Monza? How is it?
EB: Well yes. It takes some balls to get around here. There are some realfast turns (in the Curva Grande and Parabolica turns speeds reach about 140mph) and you just need a lot of concentration. In the morning it was still wet and in the afternoon it was like…well I have to qualify. Were not yet there with setup but we put the qualifying tires…. I didn’t go near limit like I could have… but you have to draw the line… we couldbe faster but we also could be in the gravel trap. (Eric ended up in 10th position in the afternoon’s qualifying)
MO: How do you feel for the race?
EB: I just hope it stays dry for tomorrow and Sunday 'cause these guys are good and very competitive in the rain and I wasn’t very competitive in the morning. It was coming along better in the end but still…
MO: Good luck Eric
More by Brent Avis
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