Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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JULY 26, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 8 C amel Yamaha's Colin Edwards spent the weekend break between the British and German Grands Prix testing the YZF-R1 he'll race in the Suzuka 8 Hours with Noriyuki Haga. Edwards was pleased with the bike, but joked that compared to his MotoGP M1 it was like driving his motorhome. "The R1 is quite a bit heavier than the M1, and that's a good thing," he said. "It's amazing what weight does," Edwards said. "You add weight and all of your handling problems kind of go out the window. Balance is not as important as it is in a Grand Prix bike. You get a bit more pitch and roll. I was quite pleased with it to be honest with you. It was different. After the first day just going around in the wet with wet patches on it, I thought, 'Oh, Jesus, I still got five seconds to shave off.' But nobody was going fast. Then the sec- ond day got going and instead of really worrying about the bike, I just went out there and did lap after lap after that and felt quite good. I was quite pleased." What didn't please Edwards were the changes to the Suzuka Circuit. Edwards hadn't been to the track since changes were made in the wake of Daijiro Kato's death in 2003. "To be honest with you, it's crap," Edwards said. "Okay, they slowed it down coming out of the hairpin. So now you come out of the hairpin and you've got the chicane, but still the way the chicane is laid out, the exit of the chicane you're pointing to the wall. So it basically hasn't changed anything, except if you crash you're going to hit the wall at a slower speed. And it's still going to hurt like hell. So honestly, I don't think it has improved to be honest. I think now you run more of a risk of crash- ing than before. Before you could some- what judge your speed and everything was pretty kosh. Now you're running through this second gear chicane trying to flip-flop through it and get on the gas. Seems like it would be more able to make an error now." Edwards ended up running a 2:10.2, a tenth slower than Haga and 1.2 slower than Honda rider Riyuichi Kiyonari. Success in the 8 Hour, a race that Honda has owned for years, could help Edwards with his future job prospects. "I'm just kind of looking at everything," he said. "I guess Yamaha are pretty adamant about getting [Casey] Stoner, which I can't blame them. I think Ducati are pretty adamant about getting Stoner as well. I would love to stay where I'm at, for sure. Part of the whole game, I really enjoy the work ethic that our team has at the moment. You can say okay, you like the work, but we haven't really done that much to make the bike better this year. But I'm looking forward to this 800 - something different. I think it would be a challenge. I'd love to stay here. If not, the sky's the limit. We'll see." Edwards wasn't certain if he'd get the chance to test the 800. "I don't know," he said. "They said something, maybe at a test, midyear test, or something like that. But I'm sure that Valentino would be the first one to test it and if there's time I might get a run on it. I'm not sure." He also said that he thinks Yamaha wants to continue with him in some way. Media speculation has him joining Nori Haga on Yamaha's World Superbike team. "Honestly, I haven't really cut loose the phone calls to start riling people up to see what I'm doing," Edwards said. "I haven't gotten to that point yet. Hell, we still got how many races left? I remember all this shit used to go on in September. Now it seems like two or three races, Stoner has a couple of good results, next thing you know it's on." Edwards was jokingly asked he'd like to ride Yamaha's Superbike in the U.S. in 2007. "That, I will definitely pass on," he said with a laugh. "Not that I really wouldn't entertain the idea, it's just the tracks. That's the only thing that really turns me off. And to some point also the world Superbikes. Until you go back to like Suzuka... I remember going to Suzuka thinking that it's perfectly safe. There's a couple of corners that you can't really push. After being on all these luxury tracks that we've been on for years in a row, I went back to Suzuka, I was like, 'Jesus Christ, this shit's tight.' And I mean Suzuka's total luxury compared to some of the tracks in the U.S. The thing that Superbikes taught you in the U.S., and also there [Suzuka], is there are you cor- ners you can push and there are corners you can absolutely not crash. You still push a little bit, but do not crash. Here it's different." Henny Ray Abrams Edwards A Busy Man Following the first meeting of the newly formed AMA Road Race Rules Committee on Thursday, July 13, at the AMA headquarters in Pickerington, Ohio, the AMA board of directors moved quickly in ratifying a rule change that will allow both AMA Superbikes and Formula Xtreme motorcycles to use traction control, effective immediately. The competition bulletin was issued by AMA Pro Racing's director of technical devel- opment, Kevin Crowther, on Monday, July 17. The bulletin outlined the change to rule E.23.A, which can be found on page 36 of the road-race rulebook, so that it now reads: "a. For Superstock and Supersport, any form of engine control system that can actively change the performance/acceleration of the engine using input from any sensors that are not OEM on the motorcycle, to create a situ- ation of better traction at the rear wheel at any time while the motorcycle is being ridden is prohibited." In addition to the traction-control issue, the all-day meeting covered a variety of issues related to the AMA Superbike Championship and was an encouraging beginning to a new way of conducting business according to AMA CEO, Patti DiPietro. "I am very pleased with the outcome of our first meeting and the contributions made by each member of this committee," said DiPietro in a press release. "We covered a lot of ground today and I'm happy with our initial progress. There is a great deal of work to be done by this group and this was a productive beginning." Members of the newly-formed committee attending the meeting included Ammar Bazzaz of Bazzaz Performance Design, Erik Buell of Buell, Sean Clarke of WERA, Kevin Crowther of AMA Pro Racing, Gordon Lunde of the Wegman Benefit Fund, Britt Lynn of Moto-R, Nick McCabe of Ducati North America, Keith McCarty of Yamaha, Wendell Phillips of Phillips Motorsport Group, Michael Preston of Kawasaki, Don Sakakura of Yoshimura R&D (representing Suzuki), Jay Sherritt, and Kevin Smith of the AFM. Committee member Chuck Miller of Honda was unable to attend due to a prior commit- ment. Additionally, AMA and AMA Pro Racing staff members who attended included DiPietro, Kerry Graeber, Ron Barrick, Ken Rogers and AMA board of directors member Carl Reynolds, who chaired the meeting. AMA attorney Timothy Owens was also in attendance. Kawasaki team manager Mike Preston echoed DiPietro's positive outlook after the first meeting. "It went good," Preston said on Monday, July 17. "No real problems and it's some- thing new. Time will tell, but I got to meet some people and it's a diverse group, which is good. The first meeting was relatively positive and now it's just a matter of time to see what happens. Everything still has to be voted on by the board, so we'll see how the board reacts. It was really just a matter of trying to get things started, so it was rela- tively positive. The diversity of the group is positive." Earlier this year the AMA and AMA Pro Racing announced reorganization to its structure specifically designed to improve the rules-making process. In addition to a Standing Racing Committee created to pro- vide strategic direction for AMA Championship Racing, a separate rules committee is being formed for each disci- pline. This committee will deal specifically with AMA Superbike rules. Committees for AMA Flat Track, AMA Supercross/ Motocross and AMA Supermoto are being finalized and will be meeting soon. Additionally a committee has been formed to oversee AMA Hillclimb. Once a rule is decided upon by the respective rules committee it is elevated through the Racing Standing Committee to the AMA board of directors for ratification, according to AMA Pro Racing. The board of directors can either approve the rule as is or send back to the rules committee with com- ment. The board is empowered to either approve or deny the rule but not change it, the AMA says. DiPietro stated in an AMA Pro Racing press release that, typically, rule changes will not go into effect until the following season, but if the situation warrants, rule changes can be implemented immediately. That was apparently the case with traction control. The next meeting of the Road Race Rules Committee is scheduled for September according to AMA Pro Racing. PHOTO BY GOLD & GOOSE Colin Edwards has been a busy man of late. Traction Control Okayed For AMA Superbikes