Tornado Warning: Grand Prix Of San Marino :: Official site of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP

Friday, August 29, 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 San Marino on Sunday, Aug. 31 at Misano World Circuit.

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.

Brno. Guess the less said about that the better, huh?

Well, yeah. Yeah, that was a joke. In all honesty, it was just, I don't know, man. Had a big, long meeting on Thursday with Michelin guys, and kind of talking about what needs to happen. We were ready to go, and you get all pumped up and ready for something to happen, and it didn't work out like that.

When something is that far off, is there nothing you can do to the bike to change it?

Pretty much, yeah. It wasn't really a big setup issue. Our big is so awesome. We've been dilly-dallying around with bike setup. Germany, we had some issues with some tire stuff. We had, obviously, at Laguna. Everything was so hard. Through those last two races, we've tried to turn the bike upside down and make it work, and nothing seemed to work. Then we showed up at Czech and just said, 'Let's go back to what we know, something we've been running all year.' Put it in, the first three, four laps felt good. I was like: "Cool, man. This is awesome. We're getting somewhere." I felt good, the bike felt good. The grip actually felt good, as well. You come in, and you're two, two-and-a-half seconds off the pace, and you're going, "Whoa, wait a minute. What happened there?" Basically, we encountered some issues with the front at Brno. We had a two-lap tire, a four-lap tire and a five-lap tire. We didn't have a whole lot to choose from. The one good thing is that we had everything that we know we've used through the past that has worked, but nothing really seemed to work.

How do you keep your motivation up on such a brutal weekend? How do you keep digging?

It's hard. I ain't going to lie to you. It's hard. You are a racer, and you still go out there and want to push to the max. Trouble being, there are times where you're just sitting there whenever you're that far off the pace … It's a big risk-reward game; I've told you that before. And if you're taking the maximum risk and your reward is big, then that's great - no problem. But if you're taking double the risk to hopefully get in the top 10, that doesn't settle too well with me.

Moving on to Misano. What are the challenges and characteristics of that racetrack?

Misano is, I don't know. It's weird. It used to be great. I liked it the way it was. It was a left, left, left kind of a dirt-track style. At the moment, we've got this right-handed debacle kind of … It's hard once you've done something one way and then you try to change your mind and say, 'OK, now you're running it backward.' You always finding the faults running it backward. I think that's where we're at. But it's OK. It's kind of a little go-kart track. Nothing real special. It's just in a nice location, that's the one thing good about it."

There's only race left before Indy. Are you starting to look forward to coming to the Speedway to run?

Yeah, yeah. I'm ready, man. I'm ready. It's going to be pretty special for everybody that's there. It's pretty special for the Midwest. There are a lot of bikers over there. So it's going to be cool. It's going to be cool to get everybody there, especially in that venue.

Did you watch the Olympics? What are your favorite events?

Yeah. I just to look at the competition part. For instance, what can happen when you have that much pressure. I like the unknown variables. You know, dropping the baton or frickin' coasting in on the swim and not getting that last push, and you just miss out by a hundredth of a second, whatever it might be. I don't know, I just like watching the unknown variables that can happen with all that pressure and four years' preparation. There's definitely something special about it. Hell, I don't even know anybody there. It's just fun to watch.

Do you think it would be cool if there was some sort of mixed motorsports competition at the Olympics, almost like the Race of Champions, which you won in 2002 with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for Team USA?

Oh, absolutely. That would be cool. Whatever it might be, you'd have to have a pretty big sponsor of some manufacturer, getting 50 bikes or cars - whatever it might be - everything the same spec, and then go out there and see who's got the most talent. I think that would be pretty cool.

Nearly every country has some sort of motorsport. The precedent already has been set with the Race of Champions, so that would be wild.

Athletes are athletes, be it motorcycles or football or whatever it is. There's definitely some way to work it in there.

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Friday, August 29, 2008

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