Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128644
A t ce rtain tr acks he was competitive, an d Noriyu - One from the archives: A young Co li n discusses racing with Co lin Sr. in Spain In 1992. The pa ir traveled, a long with Kenny Roberts Jr. and Chris D 'A1uis io , to take part in an in t e rn ati onal 250cc race - the Superprestigio. un til three four in th e m orning , drink in g beer, lis te ning to th e rad io . Get th e blow torch ou t weldi ng, cutting , grind ing ." Early o ne m orning while cha nnel surfing . he came on an in fo me rc ia l t out ing th e be n efit s of p ositi v e th ink ing . " So ld m e on it . Pick ed up the pho ne , call ed th em up, sa id I'll ta k e them . $ 39 .9 5 or wh atev er it was fo r si x tapes." The tapes were ca lled Passion , Profit, and Powe r. Edward s o nly listened to the Powe r ta pes . T h ey changed his life. "T he key is to li sten to them over and over, bu t I listened to them one time. gave a couple of minutes to thi nk about it. tested out some theories and listened to them again . Now I've got the th ing memorized. " What the tapes taught him wa s to be supremel y confident : To kn ow something in y o ur heart, not your m ind . To r em ov es wo rd s lik e ' ca n' t,' 'won 't,' and 'hope' from yo u r vocabulary. "Ho pe... 1 hope I' ll win . You j ust replace it with ' will.' I w ill win . The key to the whole th ing is to believe in your heart. The key to this whole t h in g is you can believ e in your head all you want, b ut if your heart's saying , 'M an t her e's some st iff co m petition out t here, I don 't know , it's goi ng to be tough today ,' you 're beaten, you ' re done , yo u 're fi nished. You might as well go hom e. " If yo u w ish for it, you ' r e no t goi ng t o succeed. Yo u ' v e got to k no w an d you've go t to be c o nfiden t th at you' re goi ng t o succeed . And I ju st t urned th at around into racing . I wen t to M id-Oh io and I'd bee n li ste n ing to t hese tapes fo r a co up le of week s an d I said , ' O k ay , we ll , lap re cord , pole position , and wi n th e race. But, it' s easy to say it and it's easy to lie to yourself a ll day lo ng and it' s easy to think tha t . But w ha t t his g uy really got across to me is that you've got to believe it wholeheartedly and you have to com m it to it. I went th er e th at weekend and people wo uld ask me, 'Yo u haven't won a Superbike ra c e? What are you going to do? ' 'I' m going to win .' ' Well that's a little cocky don't y ou th ink .' 'Well, that's what I'm go ing to do .' And you find that the more y ou comm it , the more y o u start to be lieve in y o ur heart. An d that's what really , reall y co u nt s. " I went there that week end , new lap record , pole position , won the race . F irs t ra ce I'd won on a Superbik e. Went the nex t week end [actually tw o weeks later at Brainerd] and d id th e same . Went th e next weekend [t hree weeks on ] and di d the sa me at Sear s Po int. We nt th ree in a row th ere. Th at' s m y wh ol e ph iloso phy : yo u c an 't th ink , you ca n't w ish, you can 't hope. As long as y o u know , it' ll happen. " An d I see people all t he t ime , Super cross, road raci ng , NA SCA R, w hatev er sport m ay be . T hey get on t he podium , or they fin ish ed fifth . Yo u hear people say thing s are n' t going too goo d, I just hope to get on th e pod ium toda y . W ell that's bu ll shit. Wh y even waste your breath . Gettin g o n th e pod ium is not getting on the top . That' s t he only place to be. If I fini sh second , I'm p issed . If I finish l Oth, I' m pissed . The o nly t hing I'm happy with is w inn ing. " Whi ch is what m ad e th e transitio n to Wo rld Super bike so difficult. . Ed w a r d s was the wund erki nd who , alo ng w ith Yasu tomo Naga i, wo u ld spea rhea d Yamaha 's en t ry into World Superbike. A t Yamaha's U .S . headquar t ers, he was told that he d idn 't have to w in , and it enraged him. " I st ill rem em ber his name, Tom W at anab e, he sat me d ow n in Cypress , California , and said , ' Li st en , we 're no t too worried about y o u winn ing ra ces, we j u st wan t you to go out there and give Yama ha a good image and be good to the fans.' T his was at the en d of '94 , I'd j ust fin ish ed my last ye ar here. That just pissed me off. Why am I here? Maybe in his m ind he was saying there 's no pressure, but he was saying : ' D o n' t worr y about winn ing an y r ace s . ' Whenever I got to Honda th er e was no other thought, 'Just go win races . And that's all we care about. We want Ho nd a to win some races . The m ore races th e better, and if the championship comes along with it, then great, but we want to win races.' " T he years at Yamaha Wo rld Sup erb ik e were fallow, especia lly fo llowing his breakth rou gh in A m erica . "I never rea lly was happy , but I knew th at I put in t he best rid e t ha t I coul d 've put in o n the d a y ." Ed wards says . " A nd ther e was n 't a lo t of times I was ha p py wi th th e resu lts, but t he wa y I rod e I w as happy. A nd I bro ug ht that o ut of it. I rode m y ball s off. I damn near crashed 10 ti mes saving the front and just learni ng . I c rashed the thi ng b ig ti me and I hu rt mys elf qui t e a f ew ti mes trying to r id e it. I would n't change that fo r anything. T hat rig ht th ere is what taught me to ride it at it s full limits. And once I got on a bike that was capable of w in n ing , the n I won ." k i Haga proved that if y ou rid e w ith no res pect for li fe you c an w in on the Yamaha , occasionall y . "I almost wo n a co uple of ra ces in A ustr alia. He [H ag a] won so me ra c es in A ustra lia . D on ingt on it went pretty good there . He won both races the re . He sta rte d fin ish ing sixth and eighth and I th ink it was for h im.. . t he first few r aces, I don 't know what he wa s runn ing o n, I wan t so me of it. He was out to pr ov e him self and in th e pr oc ess he hurt himself at M onza pretty bad t ry ing to ge t the th ing aro und t he track - just the same as I d id . You push th e b ik e to its limit and then it bites yo u reall y hard." T he hand li n g was n 't t he p robl em , it j u st didn ' t ha ve the grunt and raw-speed pow er y ou neede d . It would work at fines se tracks to k eep it in line. A t a power track , it was hopele ss. C ompounding th at were the pro blems Dunlop was hav in g in t he aftermath of th e Kobe earthqu ake. It wa sn't until hi s fin al year with Yama ha , 1997, th at he began gettin g t ires t hat he felt we re up to the j ob . He didn 't get m uch chanc e to use th em . At t he fourth ro und of th e series, in Monza , It aly, he was k nocked down in practice. T he inj uries ke pt him out of the rest of th e ye ar. Scott Rus sell fle w th e Ya ma ha f lag and H a g a wou ld j o i n him i n 19 98 . Edwar ds was offered th e Red Bull Yamaha WCM rid e, but decli ned. He had noth in g but a te nt ative offer for a private team with Yamaha support. W ith in a wee k he wa s on the Castrol Hon da team , thanks to J o hn Kocinsk i. Kocinski had won the World Cha m p ionsh ip for Castrol Ho nda in 19 97. It earned him a seat on Sit o Pons ' 500cc team . Honda needed a ri de r a nd Edwards had just turned down the Red Bull offer. " It was a blessing in d isgu ise . I was out in the co ld for a week. F inall y , J ohn [K oc inski] wen t to Grands Prix and we ca ll ed up Honda and the y said we didn 't know you were availa bl e and w ithin a week it was done." Th e t ransition was q uick and smooth. " T h i r d r ace o f t h e year w e did th e dou ble at M onz a . That was fo r me , that was a bi g learning y ear , new suspension , new b ik e, new t ir es, so m e new places . Some places th at yea r were hit or m iss, big t im e . Sometimes we w ould ta ke t he t hin g off t h e trailer and it wo uld work like a c harm . Sometimes we w ould j ack a r ou nd wi th it a ll wee kend a n d w e co u ld n' t h it o ur ass wi th both ha nds ." Go ing from D unlop to Michelin was made easier by his extended lay -off . "It had been so lo ng sinc e I had bee n on the b ike , that by the t im e I g ot on th e Hon da I didn' t k now what to ex pect . I knew what the tires d id and stu ff , Edwards at speed on the Castrol Honda RC51 . He w on ra ces, finished well when he didn't w in, and came away w ith a World Ch ampionship. cue I e n e _ S • J A N U A RY 3 ,200 1 31