Norm Dewitt tells the story of one of America’s most charismatic racers, fast shooting Colin Edwards.
Thecolin Edwards’ Story
For a generation, Colin Edwards competed at the World Championship level, first in World Superbike and then Motogp.the two-time World Superbike Champion, with the unrivalled personality, tells Norm Dewitt about his early career in the USA and his rise to international stardom.
Colin’s roots were in off-road, as he explains: “I did motocross and got my first bike aged three, started racing at four and then won national championships all the way up from Pee-wee, 60s, and 80s, and then I just burned out. My dad got me a streetbike and I got my driver’s licence, aged 16, on a 1988 FZR1000. “My dad said, ‘let’s go out to Oakdale Raceway and watch the races’. I was like… ‘ahhhh whatever’, I would rather be chasing girls. Jeff Covington was winning; he’d been road racing for a year. Well, I used to beat him in motocross and I thought that maybe I should give this a try.they talked me into doing a test day, and went really fast right off. I got my licence and was undefeated in my entire novice year. My dad borrowed a CBR600 that I raced in A, B, and C Supersport with a pipe and jet kit. Ronnie Lunsford had a stock CBR600 that I rode in production.then Owentechnology Solutions (OTS) came up with an RC30 and ATZ250 that I could race in Formula 1 and 2. I won 13 national championships between CMRA and Road Atlanta, and went undefeated that year. “Eric Klementich, of OTS, had race bikes, and if he saw some talent he’d say ‘come and ride my bikes’. When I showed up at Daytona in November I had an RC30,TZ250, and two 600s, I looked like a factory novice. I rode hard to get all that s***, but you just don’t see a novice show up with a stable of bikes like that. The last race of the year was an AMA race in Miami, and I wanted to ride mytz250 in the pro class.they said you have to do a year of Expert, but I’d been starting in the second wave with the novices and ended up beating all the Experts. They looked at my overall position in all the races to see if I had 300 points; I had something like 580 so they said, ‘We’ll give you a licence for that one race, to show us what you are made of, just don’t f*** it up.”
“I WAS OUT THERE RIDING MY ASS OFF. POLEN PASSED ME AND THEN PICOTTE STUFFED ME, I WENT BACK BY HIM AND THEN THE F***** RAN INTO THE BACK OF ME AND TOOK US BOTH OUT.”
Jimmy Felice recalls: “There were a few guys that really showcased their talent at their first event; Kocinski and Colin stuck out.that Miami race was a pretty dangerous street course; I believe it was the last year they ran there. Chris D’aluisio and I were battling for the championship. In the race Colin got the start and it took a couple of laps to get around him. It was a really technical race track; he impressed a lot of people.” Colin takes up the story: “We finished second to Jimmy Felice. So they decided to give us a pro licence and in 1992 I rode the 250 in pro class.yamaha stepped in and helped us with bikes, and Mr Klementich paid what he had to. My second pro race was Daytona and I won, and that season won five of the nine races. Here we are at Daytona, it was weird, but it was cool, it was awesome. I battled the whole way with my team-mate Chris D’aluisio and I think Kenny Junior was third.” Next was Monterey. “I’d never been there; I got to Laguna and it was blind corners, flat and banked, high speed. I was not really clicking with it on that 250. Felice was on the Honda and at that time, whatever unit he was given didn’t have the motor we had. Me, D’aluisio and Kenny Junior were on the same. You could draft by them and they could draft by you; everything was pretty damn even.” Jimmy Felice again: “Colin and Kenny Roberts Junior were kind of battling through that year, they were both rookies.the class was loaded with talent that year, with Richard Oliver, Robby Petersen, Kenny, me, Colin, and Chris; a lot of winners.the race that sticks out where me and Colin battled was Laguna Seca. “He was really fast and young, his ability was there. Kenny Junior got hurt at Loudon and that put a damper on those two fighting for the championship. I was trying to fight them with my Honda; theyamahas were better.the next year he got hired byterry Vance and the rest was history. Everybody knew at that point that he was special.”
Colin remembers the rest of that season: “I didn’t win at Texas World Speedway because I broke my navicular in practice. I knew I’d broken something. The front brake line got routed around the front fork and the tyre slit it in half. Going into the 90º turn three I had no brakes so I had to lay it down and went straight into the Armco. The bike hit the wall, came back and hit me. I knew something had happened to my wrist but when I had it X-rayed and they said, ‘no, you are fine.’ I tried to race and it hurt like hell. The next race was Brainerd, and I taped it up, Brainerd you could kind of get away with. But Loudon, the following race, my left hand was numb. I came home and had it X-rayed and they asked ‘Mr Edwards, how long has your wrist been broken?’” Colin had one more race to run with the injury. “I got a flat tyre at Elkhart Lake then I flew directly to Dr Ting in San Francisco and he put two screws in it. I had to wear a soft cast the
“HE WAS REALLY GOOD AT PUSHING THE FRONT AND REAR AT THE SAME TIME. THERE WERE SO FEW GUYS AT THAT TIME THAT COULD SLIDE BOTH ENDS.”
rest of that year. After the surgery was done I went to Mid-ohio and won.” There was a twomonth gap in the schedule, which enabled Colin to fully recover. Cagiva came knocking on the door with a 500cc GP ride. “That was through Ferracci after Cagiva had contacted him looking for a hot shot out of America, and he sent them my name. They sent a proposal to ride the 500 in Grand Prix. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the troubles that guys who were riding it were having. I was 18, and my path was just starting. I didn’t want to make a huge mistake as I’d been with Yamaha since 1986 motocross days and we had signed that we wanted to remain faithful to them. Between me and my dad; he’s my best friend, we were obviously excited about it, but then reality set in. We live in Texas where your word is your word, and Yamaha had always been good to me, so we said ‘thanks but no thanks’.”