Yamaha USA's Eric Bostrom (Photo: Brian J Nelson) » More Photos

Bostrom Headed in Right Direction

Eric Bostrom's year-plus Superbike career with Yamaha USA has been something of a perpetual struggle to find that elusive magic set-up that will allow him to once again show his race winning form.

The Californian may be headed in that direction, building on a successful test in Utah by qualifying on the outside of the front row for this weekend's twin 100k AMA Superbike finals at Infineon Raceway with a fast lap of 1:35.901 aboard his YZF R1.

He explained, "We made some pretty good changes to our bike in the last test at Miller and we just seemed to have found a balanced bike -- the bike goes up and down together now whereas all year it was pitching back and forth. I'm really happy with the direction of the bike and it makes it a lot more fun to ride. It's much more fun coming to the races when the bike puts a smile on your face.

And his lap could have been even better. "I didn't put together the last split like I needed to. We put the first part of the track together pretty good, but I kind of tensed up and blew the lines on the second half -- that happened on like three different occasions.

"I'm pretty happy with the bike set-up. It's important to start on the front row at Sonoma because passing is pretty difficult. I'm looking forward to getting off the line good and racing with these boys."

Bostrom added that teammate Jason DiSalvo's recent successes have given him a bit of added motivation. "You always kind of try to put your teammate behind you and more than anything, lift the whole team up. Jason has done a good job of that recently. His performances have been motivating for the whole team and especially myself. We're trying to bridge that gap and go racing with him."

DiSalvo, who was sitting just a few feet to Bostrom's right at the time, quipped, "My inspirational DVD will be out later this season."