Tornado Warning: Grand Prix Of Czech Republic :: Official site of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Colin Edwards, a Houston native nicknamed "The Texas Tornado," will offer candid insight before every MotoGP event in 2008 about the characteristics of the upcoming circuit, his tactics and possible motorcycle setup for the weekend, the personalities and rivalries of the exciting world of MotoGP, and personal anecdotes about the region where each event takes place in "Tornado Warning."

Two-time World Superbike champion Edwards, 34, is in his sixth year of MotoGP competition, riding this season for Yamaha Tech 3. His next race is the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic on Sunday, Aug. 17 at Automotodrom Brno.

The colorful Edwards will compete in the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sept. 12-14 at IMS along with fellow American MotoGP stars Nicky Hayden, John Hopkins and Ben Spies, and MotoGP superstars Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa.

How was your break?

Break was good, man. I got to come up there and see you, meet up with you guys. It was fun. We went to Indy. The weekend after that, we went to Destin, Fla. That's a loooong drive when you've got two kids in the car, from Texas. This weekend, we just hung out, man. Just hung out on the boat, went and did some surfing, tubing and drinking copious amounts of alcohol.

When you're on break, do you try and stay completely away from the sport, or do you stay in touch with the team manager or your engineer?

I pretty much cut the cord, really. My life away from the track is a lot different than it is at the track. I cut the cord every time I leave the racetrack, it seems like. I come home and hang out with my family. If there's an emergency or something that needs to be talked about, they'll call me or I'll call them. But eight times out of 10 races, hell, I don't know, I probably won't talk to anybody. I might talk to my crew chief once or twice if there's a week or two off. As far as the team manager or anybody else in the team, I don't really talk too much.

Is that unique to MotoGP or is that unique to you because you're one of the few riders in the series who is married and has kids?

I think it's probably unique to the series. I think it's kind of like that anywhere, to be honest with you. We can't really accomplish anything away from the track. We can talk about stuff all day long, but you kind of build up ideas. If I've got like some brilliant idea that I think is brilliant, I might call my crew chief and say, 'You know, we have this problem: What about if we do this?' He might tell me to go stick it in my butt or that's stupid, or that's a good idea. But usually we just try to accomplish all of our work at the track. We can't really do anything away from the track.

You look at the schedule in NASCAR. Their last week off was the third week in July, and they race every week now until the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Could you handle a schedule like that?

That's insane, man. That's just … whew. I don't know, man. Not only is that dedication … I feel like I make a lot of sacrifices already to have 18 races a year. Eighteen races, 10 tests, you're looking at consuming half of your weekends pretty much throughout the year already. But man, that's just … I don't know. I make enough sacrifices as it is. I couldn't imagine making that much more. You're just constantly on the road. It's one bit different if you got your own jet and you can hop in that sucker and head home two hours after you finish the race. I don't know: I might be all over that.

Yeah, but those guys are flying from Kansas to North Carolina. You're going from Kuala Lumpur to Houston.

Yeah, it's a little bit different. What do they do, 36 or 38 races a year or something like that? That's crazy, man. That's crazy talk.

Now that two weeks have passed since you visited Indy for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, what are your further impressions of that trip?

Well, for some reason, my navigation routed me through Washington Street from the airport, so that was quite interesting. I was coming down Washington Street into town, and I looked over at my wife, and I was like: "I don't know. I don't remember this." I'd been to Indy once, for a show, never to the Speedway. Once we got into town, everything was cool. We enjoyed it. Actually getting out to the track and seeing the, I don't know what the right word is, the mecca of motorsports? Whatever it might be, it was cool. Was it anything different than I thought? I don't know. I think I expected it to be probably exactly what it was.

But now that you've been to Indy for an event, does it help you grasp what the race is going to be like in September a little more?

Yeah. I think a lot of it depends on our attendance. The Brickyard 400, it was awesome, it was cool, it was electric because you had a gazillion people around. If you look up into the stands and you've got 6,000 people up there, then we're going to be in trouble.

We'll do better than that!

I do believe the promotion and everything, the people I've talked to -- hell, I know so many people that are going that just I know. So I think attendance is going to be pretty good.

Since we last talked, you've signed a new deal for next year, just before Laguna. How much of a relief is it to have that buttoned up?

It's good. It's always good to get that taken care of. For so many years, it seems like I'm always been the September, October, getting it done. It's just too late in the season. Maybe that's part of not having a manager. I don't have somebody in there forcing the issue. I've always been pretty laid back: I'm worth this, give me the money, and I'll sign the deal. Yeah, it just feels good to have it done, have it over with, and now we can just focus.

Also at Laguna, we had an epic between Valentino and Casey.

That was insane. That was one of the best races of the year, the last couple of years.

Do you think Valentino, not only the way he won but with some of the passes he made, especially through the dirt in the Corkscrew, and the way that Casey was complaining about it afterward, was that a good psych job by Valentino? If he wins the title, will we look back at Laguna as a watershed race?

I think you can say that, but I know Valentino, and I know Casey. My own personal opinion is yeah, Valentino got five more points than Casey did. It was a great race. But I think all he did is just fuel the fire a little bit more. I think he really pissed off Stoner. Not just the fact that he beat him; I don't know how to explain it. Kind of rubbing his face in it. I can pass you here; I can pass you there. He wasn't giving up. Not that it made Casey look any less of a rider - we know what Casey is. It looked like a psych job. When you watch TV, it looked like he was just trying to psych him out, just trying to get under his skin. And at the end of the day, that's kind of what happened. He kind of leaked out, he missed his braking point, and the next thing you know, he tipped it over. If you ask me, it just pissed Casey off more. He's going to be out to frickin' just dominate every event from here on out.

Valentino always had the feud with Biaggi, the feud with Gibernau. In 2006, there didn't seem to be that with Nicky. They weren't blood enemies. It seems like Valentino and Casey are getting a good rivalry built up now, like there's some bad blood.

It kind of reminds me of, let's say, Carmichael and McGrath. Carmichael was the young guy, and McGrath was the guy dominating for so long. A little changing of the guard happening. But Valentino, he's dropped the hammer now. He has no option. He just has to go out there and give everything he has. That one race will not faze Stoner whatsoever. He's not going to be sitting there thinking over the break, "I should have one that race; I should have won that race." He's going to be thinking, "I'm going to kick that guy's ass next race."

Describe Brno. What's a lap like around that place?

A lot of Brno is built up of basically chicanes. Turn 1 is a big sweeper, and then you've got a big chicane. It kind of runs into this little infield-like bowl section. But then it's just of chicane after chicane, smaller ones, bigger ones, left-right, left-right. You've got to have pretty good agility, and it's pretty high speed in places. I think they just repaved it, if I'm not mistaken. There were some pretty good braking bumps around the track. They should be smoothed out. I'm looking forward to it. Last year Bridgestone had a monstrous advantage, with Stoner and Hopkins just taking off and leaving everybody. With the new pavement, maybe that's thrown a little wrench in it, and maybe we'll get lucky. After these last few weekends with those black round things, we need to sort that out."

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

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