Ben Bostrom underlined his position as the preeminent force in the 2008 Pro Honda Oils Supersport Championship, utterly dominating the Laguna Seca contest after starting from pole.

The Californian broke free early and pulled clear to a convincing 7.888-second margin of victory in the 17-lap contest. Bostrom added the Supersport win to his earlier triumphs at Monterey in World Superbike, AMA Superbike, and Formula Xtreme.

Bostrom is working to rebuild his title lead that took a serious hit when he finished 21st following a troublesome race in Utah. But his five wins and four poles in seven rounds have allowed him to construct a 10-point advantage over his closest competitor, Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke, who finished second for the fourth time on the season today.

Afterwards he said, “The bike was just incredible. I knew we had the best bike after we tested here recently. I knew what the bike was capable of. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was hoping I didn’t get the holeshot because I knew that would be the end of the race, and we got the holeshot.

“We kind of split and that’s not really usual in the Supersport class. It’s usually the best race of the weekend but that one didn’t pan out. I’m sure the race at Mid-Ohio is going to be on.”

Runner-up Zemke said, “There isn’t much to tell — Ben just rode off into the sunset and that was all she wrote,” Zemke admitted. “I got up into second right when the first lap ended and I was trying to put my head down. I was close enough to Ben that he shouldn’t have been able to pull away but his pace was just too quick.”

Zemke had another nine seconds worth of real estate behind him, but the fight for third-place gave the massive crowd something to keep them interested until the checkered flag.

A three-way fight for the final spot on the podium developed featuring Attack Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp (whose teammate Chaz Davies crashed early when the two came together), Matsushima Suzuki’s Danny Eslick, and Safety First Suzuki’s Bobby Fong.

Previously scrapping for fourth, their battle became all the more important when Zemke’s teammate, Josh Hayes, was forced in for a ride through penalty, dropping him out of third.

Rapp held the spot over the race’s second half but Eslick reclaimed third momentarily as they navigated Turn 11 for the final time. Sideways-riding Eslick got in the corner extremely deep but Rapp smoothly rode through with a cleaner line and got the better drive on exit.

The experienced Kawasaki ace just managed to steal back the position at the flag, nipping past by 0.017 seconds at the flag.

Rapp commented, “That was the same thing as always — if someone comes off the inside it kind of messes up their exit. I set up a little bit wider knowing he had my line blocked. He ran wide — he had a little too much lean angle and the bike looked like it stepped out. I knew at that point that as long as I got a good drive I knew that I’d be able to pass him on the straightaway.”

Fong picked up an impressive fifth right in their shadow, while Hayes charged all the way back up to sixth.

Team M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas picked up seventh in his return to Supersport duty with the Graves-supported trio of Tommy Aquino, Michael Beck, and Josh Herrin rounding out the top ten

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Press Releases, Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.