With less than 18 hours remaining in an eBay auction to benefit the Roadracing World Air Fence* Fund, $2025 is the current high bid for Eric Bostrom’s 2001 Team Kawasaki leathers. The first bidder in this auction, nankai, the current high bid holder, was also in on the bidding for Nicky Hayden’s leathers until late in that auction.
Bidding on the leathers is expected to become more active toward the end of the seven-day auction at 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time Friday, February 1. Potential winners of the auction may be waiting to slip in a high bid just before the close of bidding rather than drive the price higher now. As evidence, Roadracing World has been contacted by several parties to ask questions about the suit, and these same parties had not entered any bids as of post time.
A new auction to benefit the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund should start Friday, February 1 after the Bostrom leathers auction ends.
To benefit the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund, Kawasaki factory racer Eric Bostrom donated for auction these custom-designed Alpinestars motorcycle racing leathers, which he wore during the 2001 AMA Superbike Championship series in which he finished second in points.
The suit is one of only three made for Bostrom during 2001 and was worn by the young Californian in his AMA Superbike race win at Laguna Seca. Bostrom was featured on the cover of Roadracing World magazine wearing these leathers as he dragged his elbow during the race at Laguna Seca. The suit has a 2.5-inch drag mark on the left elbow where it came in contact with the pavement.
Bostrom also wore the suit during tire testing at Daytona International Raceway in December 2001 where he crashed, scuffing the right arm, hip and seat areas of the suit.
The green, silver and black garment was made in Italy and includes all of Bostrom’s team and personal sponsor logos for the 2001 season in addition to custom-made A&G knee sliders that display Bostrom’s initials. The suit retains its interior body armor, padding and removable liner. Bostrom added his autograph in permanent paint marker just below his lettered name and American flag patch on the aerodynamic hump on the back of the suit.
In donating the leathers to be auctioned off for the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund, Bostrom said, “It’s the least I could do, you know. You guys have shown such a big effort and really went out of your way to put your heart into this effort. Anything I can do, for sure I’m there. Hopefully somebody will feel the same way and pay a few bucks and have a pretty cool set of leathers.”
All proceeds from the sale of this leather suit minus the cost of eBay and escrow services will go to the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund. The Roadracing World Air Fence Fund was established to raise funds to purchase and deploy inflatable Air Fence and Air Module soft barriers to protect crashed riders from hitting walls and other hard objects at racetracks.
To go directly to the auction on eBay, click on the link below.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1801269462
*Air Fence is a trademark of Airfence Safety Systems of Australia.