Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW ~ C'f C'f ;;::::: .... 0. ~ 24 Colin E ards dw for whi le the list of Colin Edwards supporte rs was q uite lo ng, the list of do ubters was even longer. Edwards brough t wi th him to Daytona a list of accomplishments well beyond his 18 years. He ha d dom in ated the Novice 'portion of the WE RA Grand Nationa l Finals in October of 1991, and he ha d foll owed th at up with an astounding second place fin ish to AMA 250cc Grand P rix Champion J immy Filice in h is professional raci ng debu t in Miami. The skeptics q u ickl y pointed out that Edwards ha d th e best equipment at the WERA Finals and, after all, he was only racing against Novices. They attrib uted his success in Miami on the circuit layout itself - it was tight, twi sty and dangerous - the perfect place for a young kid to take chances and make a name for himself. So what did the you ng Texan do at Daytona? Well , he qualified second and went o u t and dominated the 250cc 100-kilo meter final. And there are a lot of doubters still pulling their feet from their mouths. The kid is for real. End of subject. Those who kn ow a thing or two about road racing have praised Edwards from the start. One of those is Dunlop tir e technician Jim Allen. H e could n 't help but notice this Colin Edwards kid . After all, he was shipping him eigh t sets of tires after each and every WERA club meet in 1991. " We found it kind of astounding that all these tires were going to one kid, " Allen said, of the Dunlop 591 tire co nti n gen cy program that Edwards decided to make his own. "We . were sending him 16 tires a week. I started watching him, and talking to him through the year. "At the WERA Finals he had really goo d bikes, but I was impressed. His lap times were not really that good earl y on, but he was never challenged. In the one race he had to come from beh ind in, he dropped his times way down. Then when he go t in the lead the times went back up . That's when I knew he was smart enough to go slow . He's a nic e kid. H e's not cocky , he listen s and when it's tim e to go do it - he just goes and does it. I think he 's going to be very good, and he 's genuinely a nice person." So where did the kid come from? Motocross. In fact, Yamaha had him penciled in as being the next Damon Bradshaw. He was a fully sponsored Yamaha support rider, but after II years of bumps and jumps, burnout set it in and he went road racing. " In the beginning of this year, I went out and rode like four days straight of motocross," Edwards said. "After a few days, I realized that I didn't miss it a bit. You 've got to be so in shape, so fit. You 've got to be mentally perfect to be ab le to do it . You 've got to be totally dedicated. I wish I could be that dedicated to road racing. When I'm at the races I am , but I guess I've got to face the fact that I'm still only 18 and in high school. I've got other things going on. I'm sure whenever I quit school that will change and I'll be on an intensive training program." He 's hoping that post-school training occurs mostly in Europe. He 's not bas hful in p utting his rather lofty goals on the tab le. . ''I'm just basically looking for a path to the 500cc G Ps," he said, without a trace of self doubt. " I don 't know if I'll go next year , I'd like to if the chance came. I'd like to be put on a training program where I could go out and spend some time on the bike. Riding the 250 is alright, but they say that Americans and Australian s are the only ones who can ride 500s - well , my dad 's Australian and my mom 's American. " . The 500cc World Championship? Next year? "Well, I wouldn 't expect too much that first year, but it would depend," he said. " I' ve ridden two -strokes since I was three, and I think that's why I've adap ted so well to the 250. I believe tha t if I got the chance, I could do it. " Edwards' big break in road racing cam e after a race last year at Willow Springs. It was there that he was spo tted by Southwest Motorsports team owner Eric Klement ich . "I was racing against (T akayama ) Koyama, it was like his first race here, in Future Stars. We ended up cutting times two seco nds faster than the rest of the guys , so he (Klement ich) was pretty impressed." For his first professional season, Edw ard s cou ld have chosen to do a seaso n of superbike racing on Klemenrich 's Honda RC30, but he opted ins tead to do the 250cc series - both AMA and WERA on the Klementich-owned Southwest Motorspo rts , OTS-backed team alo ng with ' Chris D'Aluisio. " I just figured the quickest path to rea lly getting noticed - instead of running mid-pack in superbike, which is wh a t I would have been doing because the RC30 wo uldn't have been real co mpe ti tive - was to ride the 250 ," Edwards sa id . " W i th Dave Harold doing the tuning, we'v e really got the best 250cc team in j he United States. I knew with him on our side it wouldn 't be a problem. " If a 500cc G P ride doesn't present itself for 1992, Edwards will face a , tough decision. If all goes well this season, he will likely be offered a factory -level superbike ride (wi th Van ce & Hines Yamaha likely hav ing an ' inside track ). At that po int he'll have to decide between that and staying on 250s. "I don 't really know what I would do," Edwards said. "I would really have to think about that." Like mos t young road racers, the talented Edwards doesn 't have much ' problem with just go ing out and riding ' the bike . His troubles begin, though, when it comes to setting up the Yamaha TZ250 . He's quick to give credit to his teammate D'Aluisio for helping him through the tough times behind the pit wal l. "Without Chris and Dave both, I wouldn't have done as well at Daytona," he said. "Chris has really helped me set u p the bike. I can come in and say it 's running okay, but I haven 't really worked out the bike yet. Chris can come in and just say exactly what's wrong with it. I haven 't go t to the

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