COLIN EDWARDS' GREATEST QUIPS: THE BEST OF 'TORNADO WARNING'
INDIANAPOLIS, Monday, Aug. 4, 2009 -- American MotoGP superstar Colin
Edwards has participated in an exclusive interview series, "Tornado
Warning," with the official Web site of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP,
www.redbullindianapolisgp.com, before every MotoGP event since early in
the 2008 season.
The colorful, outspoken Edwards, from Houston, never shies from speaking
his mind on a variety of topics in the world of motorcycle racing,
usually with great insight and a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor.
Edwards is visiting Camp Atterbury near Indianapolis on Wednesday,
Aug. 5 to fire weapons, eat lunch with troops and participate in an
armored car rollover procedure. He is often seen at races around the
world sporting a U.S. Marines ball cap and is an avid supporter of the
military. Edwards will return to Indianapolis Aug. 28-30 to race on his
Tech 3 Yamaha in the Red Bull Indianapolis GP at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway along with fellow American star Nicky Hayden and MotoGP stars
Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and more.
The following are selected quotes from "Tornado Warning" that provide a
glimpse into the mind and conscience of the popular rider known as "The
Texas Tornado."
"The guy has stopped impressing me a long time ago because he just seems
to do it all the time. But what is it? I don't know what it is. You
could say he's getting in the zone, but I think he's maybe permanently
stuck there." -- June 2008, about the brilliance of six-time MotoGP
World Champion Valentino Rossi
"I ride a lot better when I'm pissed off, anyways. Always seemed to
have. I was like: "Screw it. Chuck it into the gravel or let's see how
far we can get up." -- July 2008, about his reaction to finishing third
despite dropping to last place on Lap 1 of TT Assen in the Netherlands
"Maybe I just look at pressure differently. I just look at pressure as
if there's just no option. Not pressure like, 'Oh, my God, I've got
to do good; I've got all these people here.' I look at it as like:
'Well, there's no frickin' option now. I've got to kick some ass because
they're watching.'" -- July 2008, about the pressure of racing on home
soil at Laguna Seca and Indianapolis
"The last two or three laps, man, they were just -- Hell, I almost
crashed going slow. I was going slow, and I went to flick into a corner,
and a gust hit me and pushed me out to the white line. I missed the apex
by about, I don't know, 10 yards, and I thought, 'Jesus Christ, this is
jacked up.'" -- September 2008, about the treacherous weather conditions
during the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP
"My heart goes out to these guys, and I see what the reaction is, and
that pisses me off more than anything. Here we've got guys who are
giving their lives to fight for our freedom and yet you still have
people who are so against -- I can understand being against the war,
but at the end of the day, you still have to support the guys who are
out there doing it. It doesn't matter what your belief might be -- At
the end of the day, they just don't get enough respect. That's the only
thing I can do." -- September 2008, about why he wears a U.S. Marines
ball cap at races
"Yeah, I am. This week, in particular, I went out and shot the 50-caliber
yesterday. Blowin' stuff up, and it feels like any other week. But every
time I think about it or rest at night, I know I got the first race coming
up. So yeah, I get excited about it." -- April 2009, about his growing
anticipation to start the 2009 season
"I like the night race. I think it's a cool little scenario. It's
something special; you only have one a year. It's something a little
bit different. I tend to ride faster when I can't see where I'm going.
Everything works out better that way." -- April 2009, about the night
race at Qatar
"I think it's me; I think it's the bike. I've had one good result there,
and I don't know why, there are a couple of corners on that track that,
I don't know, I just seem to be dorking around there. There are a couple
of corners that I follow somebody, and they pull like a bike-length or
two on me through them, and I'm like, 'What am I doing wrong?'" -- May
2009, about his inability to find pace on sections of the Jerez circuit
in Spain
"Well, you can take that carbon-fiber shell. I don't want anything to do
with that. When I crash, I want to get as far away from all that action
as possible. That's the mentality of a motorcycle racer. It's like: "I
want to get away. It's just me, with a whole road of gravel. Not me
and some 2,000-pound vehicle fricking hurling into a wall. I'm out on
that gig." -- June 2009, about the difference between the mentality of
motorcycle racers and auto racers about crashes
"I think they've done a good job to try and screw everything up after
all the changes to the track, to be honest with you. Obviously, when I
first started going there on Superbikes, the track was just, whew, ahh,
it was amazing. Every little part about that track was just amazing. If
you messed up one corner, hell, it'd screw you up for four corners down
the road. They've butchered it. I don't know, man. This gets back into
politics and all this other stuff why they changed it. Hell, there's a
motorcycle track there, and then people move in and start complaining
about the noise. Go figure. If you didn't want to live by a motorcycle
track, then pack your (stuff) and move on. You get enough people that
complain, and next thing you know, they had to change the track for
noise control. The track has been there for, hell, I don't know how many
decades. Which is just, it's ridiculous why they had to change it. But
welcome to socialism." -- June 2009, about his opinion of changes to the
circuit at Assen, Netherlands
"That Turn 1 is still a mother. It doesn't even look like a turn. But
honestly, going over that thing fifth gear tapped, it will put a little
pucker in your buttocks region occasionally if you did it wrong." --
June 2009, about Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, home of the Red Bull U.S.
Grand Prix
"Hell, Valentino and Lorenzo were like scalded cats. They were gone." --
July 2009, describing the fast pace of fellow Yamaha riders Valentino
Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo at Sachsenring, Germany
"Everybody has got it. Traction control, anti-wheelie control, frickin'
scratch-your-ass-while-you're-racing control; whatever control it is,
there's always some new thing they're coming out with -- Our cornering
speeds right now are so just astronomical that if you didn't have
traction control, man, you would be in orbit every other frickin' race."
-- July 2009, about the use of electronics in MotoGP
"You know, being a right-wing extremist, the rules are made to be
broken. That's the reason you implant a rule in the first place so a
few years later you can come in and change it. I think it's B.S. --
I just think whoever works the hardest makes the most money. I just
think whoever rides the best gets the best rides. And when you try to
implement any rules saying, no this or that, I don't know, I think it's
all bullsh*t." -- July 2009, about a rule in 2010 that will prohibit
rookies from riding on MotoGP factory teams
-credit: ims
