MotoAmerica is back at VIRginia International Raceway this weekend for the first time since 2022. With nearly 160 riders entered to race in six classes, the 14-turn, 2.25-mile natural road course is a favorite among riders and fans alike. It’s also served up some very memorable AMA road races over the years.
Two of the most historic Superbike races at VIR occurred almost 23 years ago. Race one was an attrition-filled contest and race two featured one of the closest photo finishes in AMA Superbike history.
Held on August 10 and 11, 2002, the two races were the final round of the 2002 AMA Superbike Championship, and coming into the weekend, Honda’s Nicky Hayden had a 35-point lead over Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom, so he only had to finish 11th or better in each of the two races to claim the Championship.
As Saturday’s race one started, Hayden took an understandably conservative approach, while Bostrom got the holeshot and Yoshimura Suzuki teammates Aaron Yates and Mat Mladin slotted into second and third.
Hayden was in fourth place when, on lap eight, Yates tucked the front-end of his Suzuki and slid off the course, moving Hayden up to third. Next up was Eric Bostrom, who crashed out of the race on lap nine going into turn four after his engine locked up. Mladin then moved into the lead followed closely by Hayden. With Hayden applying pressure, Mladin took an off-course excursion on lap 13 that dropped him back to third. Hayden then took the lead.
Running second behind Hayden on lap 16, Jamie Hacking’s Yoshimura Suzuki broke, dropping him out of the race. Mladin then took over second but only until lap 20 when his Suzuki also broke.
Hayden went on to win his ninth Superbike race of the season by more than eight seconds, earning him the victory and the 2002 AMA Superbike Championship. HMC Ducati’s Doug Chandler finished second in the race, and Hayden’s Honda teammate Miguel Duhamel rounded out the podium in third.
On Sunday, and with the championship already wrapped up, the fact that Hayden crashed out of race two was but a footnote. Running in third place, Hayden lost the front in turn 10 on lap seven and skidded onto the grass where his bike caught fire and brought out what would be the first of three red flags that flew that day.
And the drama wasn’t over at VIR that weekend. Eric Bostrom and Mat Mladin battled to the absolute bitter end of the race and the 2002 Superbike season. When the checkered flag flew, as seen in Brian J. Nelson’s masterful photo above, it was Mladin who was in the lead. But, at the finish line itself, and as proven by official photographic evidence, Bostrom prevailed over Mladin by the absolute narrowest of margins to claim the final race victory of the 2002 season.
The “gap,” if you can even call it that, between winner Bostrom and runner-up Mladin was just one ten-thousandth of a second. That’s only one-tenth of a millisecond, and a millisecond itself is just one-thousandth of a second.
To put it in practical terms, 0.1 of a millisecond is much, much shorter than the blink of an eye, which typically lasts between 100 and 400 milliseconds. Bostrom’s race win still stands out as one of the closest finishes in AMA Superbike racing history.
When everything was done and dusted on the 2002 AMA Superbike Championship, Nicky Hayden had won the title by 37 points over Eric Bostrom, and Miguel Duhamel finished the season in third, another 70 points back.
