Edwards Ready For War

Paul Carruthers | July 2, 2009

If Colin Edwards had a time machine, he’d most likely set it back to July of 2005. That’s when he rode his factory Yamaha to second place in the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix behind Nicky Hayden. If nothing else, he’d like to come close to duplicating that feat here this weekend, or at least put his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha on the podium to beat his 2009 season best of fourth.”Yeah, it’s obviously 2005, we started here in Grand Prix,” Edwards said when asked of his fondest Laguna Seca memories. “I got some good superbike memories here, but ’05 was definitely our best year in Grand Prix. And then it got worse, somehow. But yeah, I’m ready here. Like Valentino [Rossi] said, we’re here on Bridgestones and looking forward to it.”Last year’s U.S. GP was a disaster for Michelin and a disaster for Edwards as he battled his way to a 14th-place finish in his home Grand Prix. He was critical of the French tire company during practice and qualifying and even more so after the race. The Texan says the switch to the spec Bridgestones completely eliminates tires from his train of thought heading into Sunday’s race.”We don’t have to think about it,” Edwards said. “We know what they [Bridgestone] had last year, we know what they have here ,what they brought. And it’s going to be good. It’s fantastic showing up at Laguna and tires aren’t even an issue – they’re not even a concern. All you need to really focus on is getting your bike right and getting your mind right.”And if Edwards needs even more help at a track he and the rest say is completely different than anything they race on in Europe, he’s organized that as well.”It is that [different] and this week for them it’s going to be a lot more different than normal, because I got Obamaized at the end of last year and I went and bought a lot of guns,” Edwards joked. “And I’ve got some marine snipers that I brought… a few guys here just to pass them out to. Just a tire… take out a tire here, and engine there. I mean, we’re not going to kill anybody. No, it’s a good track. This place, we have some good memories here.”

Paul Carruthers | Editor

Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.