Bostrom, Ventura, et al

If Ben Bostrom agrees to the terms Ducati has given him in the last week, he will not race in the AMA Superbike series in 2000. Bostrom will join Carl Fogarty on the Ducati Corse WSC team.
The problem in all of this is the existence of Troy Corser and his supposedly signed Ducati contract for 2000. Will they run three riders? Do they have a second team in the works sponsored by a well known Italian telephone/web/network giant? We'll know more in a few days. You of course know where you heard it first.

Sure his comments about religion being only for the weak-minded and that he wants to be reincarnated as a very large bra got some persons dander up. But wait until you hear what Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura said about motorcycles in his recent Playboy interview.

Asked what the difference between a Harley, BMW,  a Yamaha and a Honda, the former Twin City talk radio star showed an amazing ability to contradict himself in a matter of a few sentences. Ventura replied:  "Harley's the only bike, all the rest are motorcycles. I sold my Harley when Sonny Barger, president of the Hell's Angels, said it was time to buy a Honda. It's no longer the bike of the one-percenters. Every stockbroker, accountant and lawyer now owns a Harley."

Asked if he ever wears a helmet when riding, Ventura (whose real name is simply Jim Janos, by the way) said that he doesn't; and when asked if that's not in some way a safety issue, Ventura stated that it had more to do with freedom. Then, he went on to say that his not wearing a helmet helped protect people who drive convertible cars. He stated, "No, then people in convertibles would have to wear them too. See how far that will fly."

That's your presidential candidate, folks.

Robert and Renetta Nosetto have been hired by Flammini to run the technical and media departments of World Superbike. Robert is the much maligned former Grand Prix steward who caught major flack last year for the Biaggi incident. Renatta had run media relations for Grand Prix for the last ten years or so but when her husband resigned from his post at GP, Renatta went with him. Now they will throw their lot in with World Superbike racing and that is viewed as a major coup by many in the know. Why? The Nosettos are very well known to be confidants of Berni Eccelstone.

More Slight and Edwards from Sugo:
Aaron Slight stated, "I hate twins. No really, next year I've signed with Honda to ride the V-twin. All these years I've been fighting against the V-twin, now I'll be riding one. When I rode it at the beginning of the year, it seemed to be about on the pace with the Yamaha, which was a new bike. So it seemed very very good, we could have even raced it this year. With the development they've done over the winter, I expect it will be a good package straight away."

Colin Edwards: "I've never really wanted to ride a twin either. I've always felt it was maybe the easy way out. I hope it is the easy way out now. I think everybody is not giving it as much credit as I thought they would, you know, being Honda and knowing how much experience they've got with four strokes. I think everybody's kinda 'yeah okay, they're bringing out a V-twin,' but I don't think they're taking it seriously that it's gonna win the championship next year. It'll be either me or Aaron, I think that's it's gonna be as just a good a package, if not better than Ducati. When I rode it, it felt slow to be honest with you. Getting off a four cylinder onto any V-twin, don't matter what size it is, it's gonna feel slow because the power is so smooth. That was my initial impression, but the lap times were pretty close to the RC45. From what I hear, they've got more power out of it. We'll test it and see what happens."

More later today.

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