Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

r - They see m to get a little mor e a ccele ra tio n. Other than th at, they' re identical. We all know that the Kawasakis handl ed well. It just seemsto wo rK. I talked w ith Scott (Russell) and he said he never touched the thing. They'd go from That means going to the 500cc W~ld Championsh ips , a nd it may happen in 1998, or 1999 at the latest. He knows i t will be with Yamaha, bec au se he had serious discu ssions wi th senior management at Monza . 'They d efinitely wa nt to keep me," he said. "I don't know wh en the actual mo ve' s going to be made ." And, unlike many rid ers who incau tiously jump at the first cha nce to ride a 500, Edward s is taking a more stu died approach. "The thing is, I d on't see w hat the advantage is, moving from he re to 500 when Yamaha is not in tip-top form compared to the Honda," he said . "Not to say anything bad about it, but that' s just the way things are. The only adva nta ge wo uld b e to go for mo n e y en dorseme n ts. You ge t wa y mo re mon ey, but I'm not really concerned . I'm in this for the long term. I'm not in it to ge t out in tw o yea rs, make my money, an d sp lit. I'm jus t want ing to ma ke th e ri ght decisi ons . My ulti mate d ream would be to stay with thi s (Ya ma h a Wo rld Supe rb ik e ) tea m that I've got and ju st cha nge m otorcycl es (to th e Ya m a h a YZR500)." That's no t a likely scenario for a number of reasons, not the least of wh ich is th at it wo u ld lea ve Yamah a witho ut a World Sup erbike team. If he w e re to go, it race to race and just ride it. You see it fro m riding behind the guy s. In the comers it squats and goes, wh ere we're kind of fightin g tracti on." Then comes the Yamaha, always a bear on top end but now d own about ,three mph on the long straigh taways of a track like Hockenheim. "I think everybod y ha s don e some serious wo rk and caught up to our top end," Edwa rd s says. "The Hondas seem to be able to push the wind real good . If we can ge t somebod y's d raft, we can go all day long, as fast as we want to go ." Pier-Francesco Chili's Ducati was the fas tes t o n top e nd a t Ho cke n hei m , thoug h the Suz ukis have made consid era ble p rogress a n d Ja mi e Whitham gave the team their best finish ever w ith a third in the second leg in Germany . " I' m y ou ng an d I'm still lea rni ng a nd , th e thing is, I' m ki nd of hap p y where I'm at," Edwa rds said , "havi ng to ride this, becau se it is maybe a little ou tdated and it is a little hard er to ride and it is a little violent w hen it wants to be. I think it's just mak ing me tha t mu ch better for wh en we do get a goo d bike." That good bike is a subject on which Edwards is particul arly evasive. More on that later. "Some gu ys, ma ybe on a Du ca ti or Honda , ca n aff ord to conserve th eir power and han g ba ck until the last couple of laps and then put a charge on," he said . "A s far as we 're concerned , it 's from the gree n light to the checkered flag · 110 percent. And tires do not even come into the ques tion . You just burn the shit out o f them as much as you can to stay up with everybody." That may be taking its toll. Edw ards has been on Dunlops his entire career, and this year they' re clearly behind the Michelins, the French bra nd w hich has wo n all 10 races . The top three riders in the cham pionship ' Ducati' s Carl Foga rty, and Castro l Hon da's Joh n Kocinsk i and Aaron Slight - all race on Michelin. " I thi n k th e y ' ve reall y na rro w ed do wn a good profile," Edwards said . "It Seems to work really good rolling from straight-up to lean. It's a pr ofile the rid ers seem to be hap py wi th. As far as grip, I cou ldn' t reall y tell you if it' s a w hole lot better. I don' t know. It seems • to be better, because the riders are com- fortable with the profile of it. I think if we can find a p ro file tha t wo r ks, that we're co m fo rta ble wi th, then we would n' t have a problem." I) One problem ~h ich is insurmou ntable is the wea the r. To d a te, th is has been one of the wettest seas o ns ever, and the Michelin is clearly superior in the we t, especially under the control of ex-GP riders like Kocinski and Chili. > Being able to ride in all conditions is ~ha t mak es Kocin ski strong, Edwards believes, and that may be the key to the cha m p ionsh ip. "I thin k Kocinski's got a really good ~.hot at it," Edwards said . "He's going to Laguna, where he tend s to shine. I think the Honda has definit ely got the package and he's come on good la tely. I kind of pu t it down to GP experience. To go GPs, you've go t to go well in everything. I think that' s paid off." ~: His pr ediction for the race at Laguna Seca: "With the package (Kocinski) go t and his knowl edge of the track, he's for su re one of the favorites . If he doesn't win one, there's something wr ong with .~ . him . That's what I thin k. I don't mean to put any pr essure on him, but he should have all he need s anyway." As for Edw ards , there is no pressure. Th e b roken wrist to ok care o f that , thoug h there wasn't a lot of chance he'd be challenging for th e title even if he was healthy. In ord er for him to win, which he's never done on the Yamaha in this series, everything has to be perfect. Getting to the point where that's not the case won 't hap pen this year, but it may happen next year. "There's no reason in the wo rld that (Yama ha) ca n' t bu ild the best 750 out the re," he said . "The tech nology is out there." Edwards and Russell recently tested a new machine at Monza. He won't say a ny th ing abo ut it e xce p t that if it appears, it w ould be for the 1998 season. What he knows is that it will cost Yarnaha a lot of money to build it, and he doesn't think they hav e mu ch of a 750cc market. The irs is mo re of a 600-1000cc market, he believes. "I know the d evelopment' s getting better and the engineeri ng's getti ng better, but I d on't know if they' re willing to continue this way , seeing as they don' t have a mar ket to actually build a totally new 750," he exp lained. " If they' re no t going to do that, we may as well change . motorcycles." would make se nse to p la ce him in Wayne Rainey' s works team 5 0 that the thr ee-tim e World Champion could share his incalculable wi sdom with Edwards . Wat ch ing World Superbike Champion Tro y Co rser struggle on the Red Bull Yama ha , working with the same team which ran Ducatis last year, should be a cautionary tale for Edwards. And if he stays on the four-stroke for another yea r - w ell, that's fine, too . "I kno w as soon as we get a bike tha t' s go ing to work, we'll be okay," Edward s says . "When the g ree n flag drop s, I g ive 110 pe rce nt . Th a t' s just going to be the way it. is from here on out." a 27

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