'Bummer' weekend for Bostrom.

Ben Bostrom suffered a far from ideal return to World Superbikes at Qatar, after leaving the AMA championship last year.

With only one race bike ready, the team struggled all week as the first official test acted as the Renegade Koji Honda team's shakedown session.

A severe accident during practice then meant that Bostrom's one and only race bike was practically destroyed. This left him with a road bike fitted with whatever salvaged parts the team could find from the race bike. Bostrom still managed to qualify for the grid, albeit in second to last place.

Saturday's first race saw Bostrom get more used to his machine and the American worked his way steadily up the field, finishing just outside the points in 16th place. However a mechanical failure stopped Ben from even starting the second race.

"You could see how my weekend was from the points table - it's a bummer," commented Bostrom. "We had a small bike problem right from the start and so it was a tough weekend.

"But this was really like us testing at our first race so we will have two bikes and more parts at the next tests, new motors as well. We are down at the bottom this weekend but we will be accelerating up at a rapid rate from now on," he declared.