In front of an international MotoGP audience, Daytona 200 winner Ben Bostrom put on a thrilling show to win the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike race at Laguna Seca on Sunday, July 5. Aboard his Graves Motorsports YZF-R6, Bostrom battled for the lead with rival Chaz Davies and then took over for good with just three laps remaining in the 21-lap race. Making things even better, teammate Josh Herrin finished on the podium in third, while fellow R6 pilots Tommy Aquino, Robertino Pietri and Steve Rapp finished fourth through sixth, respectively, to give Yamaha a near complete control of the field. After Ricky Parker’s runaway win in Saturday’s AMA Pro SuperSport race on another Graves Motorsports entry, Bostrom’s win further validated the Yamaha R6 as a powerful force in every class where it competes.
Sportbike... After a crash by early leader Martin Cardenas, Bostrom and Herrin circulated together in first and second during in the SportBike race, but a three-rider mishap in the Corkscrew brought out the red flag for nearly a half hour. After the restart, Bostrom and Davies split from the rest of the field and circulated closely together, with the R6 of Bostrom and the much larger V-twin competitor of Davies trading advantages in different parts of the track. Davies passed Bostrom on the back straight with six laps remaining, but Bostrom reclaimed the lead under braking for Turn 11 and held off his rival for a thrilling 0.225 sec. margin of victory.
“The rules are pretty wild and you have some big motors in the class now,” Bostrom explained afterwards. “Chaz had an advantage on the straights, but I made sure to put my R6 ahead of him and keep at least a small gap. I wanted to make sure we won the thing!” Yamaha road racing manager Tom Halverson added, “Laguna Seca is Ben’s favorite track and I was really glad to see the Graves Motorsports team back on top this weekend. This was also Tommy Aquino’s best race so far with the Graves team and it was really good to see him take another step up the learning curve.”
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Daytona Sportbike Results
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1
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Ben Bostrom - YAM
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2
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Chaz Davies
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3
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Josh Herrin - YAM
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4
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Tommy Aquino - YAM
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5
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Robertino Pietri - YAM
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6
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Steve Rapp - YAM
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7
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Chris Peris
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8
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Danny Eslick
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9
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Jamie Hacking
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10
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Bobby Fong
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Standing after round 7 of 11
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1
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Martin Cardenas
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255
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2
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Jamie Hacking
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216
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3
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Danny Eslick
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212
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4
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Jason DiSalvo
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179
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5
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Josh Herrin - YAM
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173
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6
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Chris Peris
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155
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7
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Chaz Davies
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146
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8
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Jake Zemke
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128
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9
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Steve Rapp - YAM
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127
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10
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Tommy Aquino - YAM
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122
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