Fountain – Eric Bostrom remains the king at Pikes Peak International Raceway, winning his sixth AMA superbike race Sunday and fourth in a row with a last-lap pass of Aaron Yates.
Bostrom, riding on a Ducati, took the lead from the start and built an 0.4 of a second lead over Yates. But with 14 laps to go in the 48-lap race around the 1.315-mile course, Yates and Bostrom were side by side coming up on lapped traffic. With a lapped rider between them, Yates went underneath with his Suzuki and took the lead from Bostrom.
Yates built an 0.4 of a second lead and victory seemed within his reach, but Bostrom capitalized on a mistake by Yates coming into turn three to move back out front and won the sprint to the finish.
“It was fun out there,” Bostrom said. “I can’t wait to see the replays to see how close we were. It was a great race. It seemed like whoever was leading at the time got caught up with the lappers and that helped me at the end. Aaron was real quick out there, and it was a real seesaw battle.”
Yates’ second-place finish kept him third in the points standings, one point behind teammate Ben Spies (240-239) and 16 behind Mat Mladin.
“I wanted to win here real bad,” Yates said. “Once I built the lead I was thinking about the win. I started pushing it real hard the last few laps, but I started skidding out there. I’d get on the gas and I would just spin up pretty bad, and Eric got up underneath me. I just didn’t have any grip left.”
Mladin, who has won six races this season, looked in good position to take his first victory at PPIR when he started from the pole. But the Suzuki rider got off to a bad start and was fourth after the first lap. While riding in third position with 22 laps to go, Mladin came in to change the rear tire as he was falling off the pace. He came out of his pit in 11th place and worked his way up to finish fourth and earned 27 points.
“It was a good result,” Mladin said. “We had to come in (to change the tire). And I had some problems off the start, but it was a decent result.”
Neil Hodgson came into pit with 32 laps to go because of mechanical problems. He made it back onto the track, but failed to earn points, falling from fourth to fifth in the standings, three points behind teammate Bostrom.
Spies, starting third, got a bad start and fell out of the top five, but the Suzuki rider fought his way around the track to finish third and hold on to second place in the standings.
“When I pulled up to the grid, my whole dash went out,” Spies said, “and my shifter was a mess. It’s great to be on the podium, there’s no way we should be up here. Once I got the bike going I just didn’t have anything left for Eric.”
Daniel Turner of Fort Collins was the top Coloradan, finishing 21st out of 35 riders. Brad Hendry of Boulder was 24th. Sean Fey of Denver crashed during morning practice and did not start. He was not seriously injured.
Eliza Marie Somers can be reached at 303-820-1629 or lsomers@denverpost.com.
