Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

- MOTOGP head down and rode as hard as I could the whole time. A few times the gap was just staying about the same, and [I] just tried to relax and keep pushing keep riding, keep digging, and it was enough today to get the win. Just really happy. It's a great feeling to get the win. "I was just ready to go today and all weekend. Just everything was clicking. We honestly hadn't changed the bike hardly since we got here." Hayden believes he isn't a one-race wonder. "I've always been a momentum guy my whole career," he said. "It's in my family's blood that we're momentum guys. Same for my brothers. I definitely hope this here will be what I need to be here week in and week out." The expectations of the American wave are finally being realized. "They've been saying time for us to produce, and today good old boys [went] onetwo. We know the track and stuff, but these guys are World Champions, they've had S 1/2 hours of track time. If you've got the talent, they're going to figure out how to get around the track." Asked for one word to describe the weekend, Hayden went long. "Just an unreal feeling, really. Definitely it's... No, I can't do it then. Sorry. But definitely just to come home. It's just one of them weekend's you dream about. When it clicks, it's such a good feeling." Colin Edwards interjected, "I got it, I got it. Pole position, you won the race, fairy tale." Henny Ray Abrams Colin Edwards Round 8 July 10, 2005 ~ few tricks up our sleeve." Edwards was sixth fastest in practice, posting a time of I:24.696, but he wasn't overly worried about that. "Sixth is sixth - you've got to look at the times," Edwards said. "We're only four-tenths off what the other guys did. It's easy to be a second off the pace around this place. We're looking good. Everything pretty much went according to plan." The pressure on the track had to be exceeded by the pressure in dealing with being mobbed in the paddock off it. Edwards' wife Alyssia commented that Laguna was more like a family reunion than a motorcycle race, as wellwishers and former acquaintances descended upon Edwards. But he never seemed to be bothered by the endless stream of family and friends. "The more the merrier," Edwards said. "I like having my friends and family around. I've always been the kind of guy where the more pressure I have, the better I perform. Shit, once you're on the bike, you can't think about anything else anyway. At least I never do. You go out there, and you do your job, and spend your time in the garage to get things sorted out. That's all you can do. We just keep that rule on like we always do, and then the other time you can hang out with family and friends. I've got a kid, so I'm always doing that." About the only hitch on Friday was the »"It's quite an eye-opening experience because you've got so many people out there. I can't help but on every warmup lap and every cool-off lap before and after the sessions just waving to everybody. " If the outright result of Colin Edwards' U.S. GP experience didn't meet with his expectations, there was no denying that the fun-loving Texan fulfilled his mission to have the most fun of any of the Americans. Starting right from first practice on Friday, the Edwards' motor home area in the MotoGP paddock turned into a party zone, and it stayed that way all weekend. Friday: "It was pretty much highs all day." Edwards said. "We got the bike to where it's working, you know? I feel like we're ahead of the game already. We've got tomorrow, and we've got some good ideas for tomorrow, a MotoGP World Championship 28 JULY 20, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS concern over track safety. When asked about it, Edwards was quick to respond. "Laguna is very technical, and you've got to be precise here," he said. "It's almost to the point that we have outgrown a lot of the tracks we go to, not just here, because the speeds are just phenomenal. But there are places here that are a bit dangerous and that need to be changed. We've just been spoiled for so long in Europe to where there's no factor of hitting a wall or anything, whereas here, racing in the U.S., has always been about risk management. There are corners where you can push and there are corners where you just have to maybe go single file. But you learn that when you grow up racing here, and then you go to Europe, and you can pretty much push or crash anywhere. Then you come here and it's like, 'Oooh, I cannot crash there.' You might lose that little tiny bit [of time]. but it's better to lose that than your neck." Saturday: Edwards' "day" pretty much started the night before, as he was part of a major celebration put on by Yamaha at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As part of the Yamaha family, Edwards took part in a special photo session, featuring Yamaha legends and past racing champions. The party raged for most of the night. "It was incredible," Edwards said. "I felt like a kid in a candy store. All my heroes growing up were sitting next to me, and they wanted to meet me, and I wanted to meet them. It worked both ways. It was just really, really awesome, and I thank Yamaha for putting it on. Some of those guys go back to when I was like a kid kid, watching them on TV and envying everybody that was up there. It was good." Saturday didn't go as well as Edwards would have liked. Primed for qualifying, a bad tire choice left him with a second-row start. He wasn't pleased. "I wish I'd made the mistake," Edwards said. "Yeah, that would be nice. If I'd made the mistake, then I wouldn't complain about it. Our normal process is scrubbing in a new front, doing a lap or so on a new front and then going out on a qualifier. But you know... The tire guy is telling me, 'Oh, this tire will do 50 laps. It will be all right." But still, you know, we went out there, put a qualifier on and got so much grip on the qualifier that anything less than a new front, and 1was just tucking the front. I was tucking the front on the qualifier. I was actually kind of lucky that I got the lap in that I did, because the laps that kind of book-ended that lap, I was just losing the front everywhere and almost going off the track. "But you know, we're on the second row, can't complain too much," Edwards said. "We've got a good pace for the race, so we'll get a good start and win." Edwards said that the difficulty of the track was surprising, far tougher to negotiate on the lightning-quick MotoGP bike than on a Superbike. "This track is actually easier on a Superbike if you ask me," Edwards said. "It's a bit bumpy. The undulations, you've got a bit of weight that goes with you, and it kind of flows a bit more on a Superbike. With a Grand Prix bike being a little bit stiffer and more rigid, it kind of keeps you on your toes. But this is no different than any other track. You just get in a good pace and see what you can do." Edwards said that when fellow American Nicky Hayden cut his fast lap, there would be no denying Hayden the pole position "When Nicky did that 22.6, Isaid, 'That's pole position,''' Edwards said. "Honestly, I didn't feel we had a 22.6. It didn't really matter if we'd had no tires, front, back, super gum balls or whatever, he just did an incredible lap. I had predicted 23.0s for my pole prediction, and I think we had that - that we could have done 23.0 - but obviously we didn't because of circumstances. But we're on the front row, and I can't complain too much." His day ended with more PR, as Edwards darted off to the Smashmouth concert. Edwards and teammate Valentino Rossi charged up the crowd at the Smashmouth show by giving away T-shirts and auctioning off an autographed set of leathers from each of them, netting $21,000 for the charity Feed the Children. "It was good," Edwards said. "\ don't mind doing that. It all goes to a good cause, and that's just great." Edwards made the most of the hectic schedule. ''I'm having a good time," Edwards said. "It was always fun when Superbikes were here, but now it's a bit different. In Superbikes, you had the Bostroms who took a lot of heat. A lot of people were here to see Eric and Ben. Now, I'm doing the best of the Americans in the points, and we come here and it's absolute chaos. It's quite an eyeopening experience because you've got so many people out there. I can't help but on every warmup lap and every cool-off lap before and after the sessions just waving to everybody. That's not a normal thing that i do, but everybody's here, and some of them traveled a long way to be here, so you can at least acknowledge that they're here." Sunday: It is understandable that anything less than a win in the Red Bull U.S. GP would be a downer for any of the four Americans in the race. Edwards was no different in that regard, but a second-place finish still gave him reason to smile. "I come here expecting to win, you know?" Edwards said. "I had home-track advantage and the whole nine yards. So did this weekend meet up to my expectations? Not 100 percent, but I was a quite happy. Honestly, that's the best second [place] I've ever gotten in my life. I was happy to see Nicky win his first one. I mean, I've won a lot of World Championship races via Superbike, never a Grand Prix, but to see Nicky win his

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