For AMA champ, life is best on a bike
This was what Ben Bostrom gave as his reason for risking life and limb taking corners at over 100 mph and throttling down straightaways at close to 200 mph.
The fact that he has broken roughly 30 bones in his body, he jokingly admitted, is no deterrent. "It's all part of riding."
Bostrom is the returning champion in the AMA Supersport class and will be one of the featured riders in this weekend's superbike championships at Miller Motorsports Park.
The American Motorcycle Association's superbike class and the HANNspree World Superbike Championships, which is the worldwide tour, are slated to race. This will be the first time in four years the world event has raced on American soil. They were drawn here, in part, for the opportunity to run on Miller's track, which Bostrom called "the very best track in the United States and comparable to the best tracks in Europe."
Bostrom, in fact, raced for four years on the world tour before becoming a permanent resident in the American superbike series.
"There are 25 riders who fly around the world, and their jobs are to win or get fired. So, these 25 riders are within two seconds of each other, fighting for position," he said.
"On the American circuit there are maybe 10 riders who are fast and 30 who are coming up. Things will be different next year. They want more NASCAR-type racing, where more of the bikes are equal, which means races will be closer."
Superbikes are, as the name implies, super-fast and high-performance motorcycles. Riders will hit close to 200 mph on the long straightaway at the Miller track. They will then hit a series of turns that are at the very heart of superbike track racing.
Bostrom said racing will be even more exciting on the Miller track because it is fast, "and we don't have a lot of fast tracks here in the U.S. On most tracks we ride at 100 percent because you know if we go harder we could crash and run into a wall.
"The Miller track is fast, but it's also safe. There are runoffs and safety features, so when we ride there we don't feel our life is threatened, so we ride at 110 percent. We'll draft on the straights, and going into the turns you'll see five guys side-by-side going into the corner. It's spectacular. And you'll see it in their body language. Drivers in a car can't express themselves. You'll see riders out there who are more aggressive, pushing themselves and their bikes, sliding all over the place, and you know that guy is aggressive and angry."
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