WORLD STAGE
“We were all set to ride another year for Vance & Hines, then Yamaha US, Japan, and Europe put this big plan together. Yamaha Europe would find the sponsorship, Yamaha US would pay me, and Yamaha Japan would pay Yasutomo Nagai, it was a world effort to get a World Superbike team on the grid. I was going to Europe at age 21 and that’s where I stayed. It was the year that Kobe had the big earthquake, so Dunlop in Japan wasn’t producing tyres so we had to run the English tyres. It always seemed that they would pull a Japanese Dunlop out of somewhere and next thing you’d be a second quicker. We had big tyre issues that year; we struggled. I was also learning all the tracks.” The team, based in Italy, was very experienced. “Belgarda and my mechanic Fiorenzo Fanali were awesome. He had worked with Eddie Lawson at Cagiva. He was the guy I needed and that was when I really got into not totally relying on just talent, but really understanding. If I wanted to make this a lot easier on myself, I really had to turn this bike into my bike, to make it work for me instead of working against me.” A highlight was fifth in race two at the season opening Hockenheim, following home his teammate Nagai. “You talk about getting fed to the wolves. Hockenheim, that place is just widethe-f*** open, it was bumpy and so fast. I can remember like it was yesterday, braking at the first chicane my head would buffet so much that I’d see three racetracks and just aim for the middle one.” Colin was on the podium at Monza with a third place. A second place followed at Brands Hatch. Then came the nightmare of Assen. “I was right behind Nagai and we were coming out of a corner and I looked up and I saw a big shiny strip just in time to get to the right of it. Nagai got stuck on the outside of it, trapped between the white line and the oil. It was such an easy little crash; he knew he couldn’t cross the oil, so he went off on to the grass. There was oil in the grass too, and it tucked the front. I watched the whole thing; he slid off the bike looking up to see where he was going. The bike caught the footpeg, then caught the rear wheel, sprung loaded itself and did a whole flip. I can still see it in slow motion, it was way the f*** up there. The rear tyre came down exactly on his chest. It was just a freak accident, nobody was doing anything stupid, but somebody wasn’t breathing anymore.” It was the end of the year for the Yamaha programme. “I think Yamaha, out of respect, decided that they weren’t going to compete in the last couple of races, rather get the package together to start again in 1996.” That year was a struggle, with a podium at Monza and one at Hockenheim. “We could run with them, but we still didn’t have the ultimate package and had to work hard. Honda had gotten the RC45 working pretty good. It was another year of learning. “A highlight was doing the Suzuka 8 Hour with my team-mate, Yoshikawa. When we got there the big boss at Yamaha was at the test. Haga was on the yellow-and-white satellite all-japan team, he wasn’t even on the factory bike. I got to riding around with this Haga kid and thought ‘this kid is f****** fast’. I went to the boss and said ‘I’m not trying to cause any waves here, but I believe that me and Haga have a much better chance than me and Yoshikawa. We ride the bike the same and set the bike up very similar.’ So he said, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’” It was the recipe for instant success. “I got on Haga’s bike, the rear of his bike was awesome; the front I wasn’t happy with. I was happy with the front of my bike. Haga went out on my bike and said ‘I love the front of the bike, but I hate the rear.’ We took my front settings and his rear settings and combined them and it just worked. He liked to run these short and narrow clip-ons
and I liked more leverage. I told him, ‘Listen dude, we are team-mates and you can do whatever the f*** you want, but we’ve got to ride this thing for 8 hours.’ That first hour everyone is always together, and next thing we are out front with six hours to go. Then that little b******d in the last hour decides he wants to break the lap record. At that time Aoki had the track record, and I’m thinking ‘what is he doing?’ We won the 8 Hour, and that was my highlight for 1996. “For 1997, I was again on the Yamaha. At Phillip Island I was leading the whole thing when Slight drafted by me halfway down the straight and won the race by a couple of hundredths… it was going to be my first win. The package was getting better.” There wasn’t much to choose between Edwards and former champion Scott Russell, now riding for Yamaha. However, a promising year turned to disaster in practice at Monza. “Ruggia was a wild card rider and I drafted by him. He ran up the inside of me going into Parabolica and broke my right wrist. I went flipping through the gravel trap; I had a plate on my collar bone and broke the plate and the collar bone again. My year was done, and they ended up putting Haga on the bike for the rest of the year. And it was the last year of my contract. Scott Russell had a two-year contract, so I was out at Yamaha, all broken up and feeling sorry for myself.” Haga finished out 2007 with a first and second at Sugo, securing his position on the team. For 1998 everything changed. Colin ended up on the World Championship winning RC45. “Luckily Kocinski had something in his contract that if he won the World Superbike Championship, he would go Grand Prix. That RC45 was not the easiest bike to ride; trying to figure out the Michelin front was not the easiest thing in the world. It was a big learning year and Aaron (Slight) was going good. At that time we were good friends.” The first big success came at Monza. “I remember being on the podium and thinking… I finally did it; I won a couple of races.” At the Nurburgring the team-mates finished 1-2. Colin then won at Brands Hatch. “I don’t know why I was so good there, but it fitted my style.” Colin finished fifth in the 1998 Championship. It was the beginning of Colin’s greatest run of success.