Thursday, October 15, 2009
Colin Edwards, a Houston native nicknamed "The Texas Tornado," will offer candid insight about his performance, competitors and life in the exciting world of MotoGP motorcycle racing before every event in 2009 in "Tornado Warning."
Two-time World Superbike champion Edwards, 35, is in his seventh year of MotoGP competition, riding this season for Monster Yamaha Tech 3. He is sixth in the season standings after 14 races this season and will compete with the rest of the MotoGP grid at the Grand Prix of Australia on Oct. 16-18 at Phillip Island.
The colorful Edwards finished fifth in the second annual Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Aug. 28-30 at IMS, racing along with fellow American MotoGP star Nicky Hayden, and MotoGP superstars Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo.
Estoril seemed like a solid weekend pretty much right off the truck and through to the finish for you. Correct assessment?
Yeah. First practice I think I was fifth. Fifth in second practice. Fifth in qualifying. It just seemed like, man, I was destined for fifth there. It was just crazy. It all went to plan. I would have liked to have gone a little bit better, but those guys (top four riders) … Hell, Lorenzo is on another planet at the moment. Even Casey, Casey rode damn well.
Was there anything in which you could have done anything better, or did you get everything you could out of the bike?
We tried some different handlebars to relocate my position, pull back a little bit. And I don't know, just my position it feels like I'm way up sitting over the handlebars. That angle is obviously what I'm not accustomed to. I was so sore after the race. I normally don't get sore after riding that bike. Just that angle and that pressure being a little bit different angle, I don't know. After 15 laps of the race, I looked up and still had 13 laps to go, and: "You've got to be kidding me. I'm dying here." We might have to go back to what we know. We struggled with rear traction. We struggled a lot. We tried a harder rear spring for qualifying, and it seemed to work. But it works when you have grip. As soon as we put race trim back on, it didn't work that well.
You mentioned how good Jorge Lorenzo was last weekend. Did he almost remind you of the guy on the other side of the Fiat Yamaha garage, Valentino? He took the whole race in his grip and ran away.
You know, very, very Rossi-esque, let's say. He hauled ass last year, Jorge, and won the race. But I think his fastest lap from the race (in 2008) was (1:) 37.4, and those guys are out there doing 36.9's, which is pretty impressive. He broke the lap record lap after lap after lap. 37.0, 37.1, 36.9. I got back and looked at his chart, and that's just insanity. When I watched the race over, it looked easy. It's hard to understand. You watch him, he was 30 seconds or something in front of me, but it just looked easy.
The other thing that was striking to me was that as well as Casey rode, that Ducati was dancing all over under him. I know that's normal, but the Yamaha looked so smooth under Jorge.
That's Casey, anyways, and that's that bike. You have to ride it like that to extract everything out of it. As far as Jorge is concerned, man, it just looked like he was out for a cruise. Not out of shape. Everything precise. Yeah, ran away with it. That was a good race for him.
What dimension does Casey bring now to the title race? Before it was the three aliens and pretty much Valentino vs. Jorge. But now it looks like Casey is in the mix. Do you think Jorge might be the happiest guy in the paddock to see Casey back?
Yeah, I would think so. Anyways, Jorge can win the next three races and if Valentino finishes second, Valentino still wins the championship. So I think Jorge is liking the fact that Stoner is back in the mix. Stoner is going to good next race in Australia. He's going to go good in Malaysia and obviously Valencia. I think it's going to be some exciting racing here in the next few races.
It was a big week for you at Estoril, as your 2010 deal was announced. I know you're always chilled about contract talks, but was there ever a point this summer where you thought you might not have a MotoGP ride next year?
Honestly, I had a meeting with (Yamaha boss Masao) Furusawa and (Yamaha Racing boss Lin) Jarvis and (Tech 3 boss) Herve Poncharal, two of the Yamaha kingpins and Herve, in Donington. And (they said): "No matter what, doesn't matter what happens, we want to to take care of you for somehow, some way. Go back to the factory team if Jorge leaves or stay here or go to (World) Superbike. We want you to continue with Yamaha. So really, after that point, I was like: "OK, they want me to do something with them. They're going to take care of me." I kind of had that feeling for a long time. And it wasn't really until let's say Indy that I had a meeting, and tey were like: "Psyche. We were just blowing smoke up your ass. We didn't want you to worry about it." So they more or less left it up to Herve. They wanted me to stay with Herve, and they were pushing for me to stay with Herve. But yet, financially, that's where we were having some trouble. But anyways, we got it all sorted out. Pretty much we got it all sorted at Indy on the Sunday, and Misano, it was pretty much done.
Ben Spies also was announced that week as your teammate for 2010. Team Texas. That must be the dream setup you wanted.
Yep, it is. I think the world of Ben. I think the kid has lots of talent. So I'm looking forward to spending a year with him. The main thing is that it's a dream team for the right sponsor. Problem is, in the times that we're at, it's just finding that sponsor. Of course, we've got Monster, but we could always use somebody with lots of cheese.
Is Phillip Island pretty much the classic MotoGP track now that Assen has been changed? If you could point one track to someone and say, "This is the best track," would that be Phillip Island?
I think it's the fastest track on the schedule, if I'm not mistaken. I think overall speed it's the fastest. It is the perfect motorcycle track. You've got first-gear corners, the fifth-gear corners, camber, off-camber, elevation. You've got everything. It's all in nine turns. The scenery is awesome. The real estate around there is just incredible. The ocean, the food, the people: Everything about it is just perfect. It's definitely the best Grand Prix to go to, if you ask me.
Phillip Island seems to be the one track on the current schedule that everyone raves about. You never read or hear a bad word about it.
It's awesome, and I don't think you will hear a bad thing said about it. It's like a little vacation town. Everybody goes down to see the penguins. They cater to us. It's fantastic.
I know it's a trip that you look forward to, but is it also one of the busiest weekends of the year for you because your dad was born in Australia and you have so many friends and family there? Are there a few headaches involved there, too?
Yeah, but you know, everybody is pretty calm about it. They know that I'm doing a job and that I've got things I've got to do. Commitments for Yamaha or Monster, whatever it might be. They understand. I try to swing by and eat some food with them if I can. But it might be only 30 minutes; it might be an hour. But we always hang out, anyways. They understand.
You were born in Texas, but you definitely have a sense of the Australian mindset because of your dad. Why are Australian riders so good, and what about the Aussie culture breeds such good riders like Mick Doohan, Wayne Gardner and Casey Stoner? It's a world away from the European hotbed of the sport.
I think probably the only way I can say is you look at the guys who have been great that have come out of Australia, and there's just a determination, there's a no-bullshit clause. I would say determination. I think you grow up there, you know you're coming from the land Down Under where you know the coastline is populated, and the rest of the place is a ghost town. So it's not a huge market, really, for any motorcycle or any industry whatsoever. And I think that makes them work twice as hard. It's definitely a mindset. All the guys who have come out of there and been great, they definitely have the right mindset.
No drama queens from Australia, huh?
You can't get away with it there. You can be a little cocky and you can be a little blatant or you can speak your mind from there, and it's all good. No worries, as they say.
And you can swear your head off down there and get away with it.
Oh, absolutely. That's the one good thing I like about it. (Laughter)
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