Another Texas Tiger
ANOTHER TEXAS TIGER
RACE WATCH
IS COLIN EDWARDS AMERICA'S NEXT ROADRACING SUPERSTAR?
ROBERT HOUGH
THE CONVERSATION AT TEXAS World Speedway had barely begun when Doug Polen, defending World Superbike Champion, asked a journalist, "So, what about Colin Edwards?"
Polen's not the only one asking that question these days. Edwards, the up-and-coming 18-year-old from Con-roe, Texas, has been the talk of the tracks since his record-setting performances at the AMA/CCS Race of Champions and the WERA Grand National Finals late last year. But even Edwards is amazed by how fast things have happened. “It has all come so damn quick,” he says. “I never felt last year that I’d be where I am today.”
Last year, Edwards was tearing up Texas club races and making his first forays out of state prior to bagging five AMA/CCS and eight WERA Novice titles. Only the year before, he had climbed on a roadracing bike for the first time.
“I raced motocross from the age of 3 until I was 14,” Edwards says. But 1 1 years of dirt competition was enough. Ele burned out and walked away. “I decided I didn’t want to do it anymore. I just got tired of the whole thing.” It was sheer chance that he even considered pavement racing. “My dad had an FZR1000, and I had a ZX-7. One day, he said, ‘Let’s go watch some roadracing.’” What Edwards saw was an old motocross foe running up front. “I used to beat this guy. I knew that if he could do it, I could do it,” he says now.
Do it he did. After some early wins, the proverbial big break came last spring, at a WERA Future Stars race at Willow Springs. There, Erich Kdementich, owner of the Southwest Motorsports race team, saw Edwards run and snapped him up.
Describing Edwards as “a prodigy in the truest sense of the word,” Klementich says, “I think certain people have certain God-given talents. Edwards’ God-given talent is to race motorcycles.”
As Klementich watched his rider’s talents flourish, he set about organizing the effort that helped push> Edwards to national prominence; an effort that included, among other bikes, a Yamaha TZ250 and a Honda RC30-not your typical Novice equipment. Without a Pro license at that point, Edwards could only compete in endurance races at the AMA nationals, which he did to gain familiarity with the tracks on which the championship races are held. Early promise blossomed into serious potential, culminating with Edwards’ 13 amateur titles.
But there were questions for Edwards, then a high school senior, to answer: Was it superior equipment or superior talent that was responsible for his success? The answer would come quickly, though not easily. Edwards wanted to enter the 750 supersport and 250 GP races in the AMA’s 1991 season-ending Miami National, but he still was technically a Novice. According to AMA rules, you have to be Expert-ranked to race supersport, and a Pro to race a 250.
Edwards found a loophole. Since many of the club races he had competed in were combined Expert/ Novice affairs, he recalculated his points as if he’d been an Expert. Considering that he’d beaten the Experts in many of those races, he had enough points to qualify for a Professional license. If a second place in Miami’s 250 race and an eighth in the 750 contest didn’t silence the skeptics, Edwards’ Daytona Lightweight victory on the 250 earlier this year positively ripped their vocal cords out. Focusing on the AMA 250 title, Edwards followed his Daytona win with a third at Laguna Seca and a victory in Charlotte, battling all the way with Kenny Roberts Jr. for the win.
The next race in Texas was less than kind to Edwards. He rolled to pit lane for the last qualifying session with a badly sprained left wrist, the result of a practice crash. It was said that a tire had rubbed through a brake line, causing the spill. Doug Polen, one of a long line of successful Texas roadracers that includes Kevin Schwantz, Britt Turkington, Bubba Shobert and Steve Wise, moved over to talk briefly with Edwards.
“Doug didn’t say much,” Edwards said afterward. “He just told me to keep my head. I look up to him more than anyone. We talk a lot when he’s at the races.”
Kenny Roberts Jr., also 18, is another rider to whom Edwards talks a great deal. “We’re best friends on and off the track,” Edwards says. “We talk on the phone a couple times a week, and he came to my house when we were in Texas.”
Roberts concurs: “We like the same things, we’re the same age and our girlfriends have the same name, Elisha,” he says. “We have a real strong friendship.”
Their teams are strong, too. Roberts’ team, owned by Wayne Rainey, and Edwards’ team are both relatively new and well-funded. There is talk of a revitalized AMA 250 GP class perhaps attracting attention from European GP teams looking for new riders.
That’s precisely what Klementich has in mind. “One of the goals of Southwest Motorsports is to be a training ground for American riders,” he says.
In Texas, Roberts took a one-point lead over his friend after the race, finishing second to Edwards’ sixth. Edwards said the sprained wrist had no bearing on his relatively poor finish, but he’s also dealing with sore knees, the result of a seize-induced crash in > a WERA race at Road Atlanta.
“I hate to call it part of the training plan,” Klementich says, “but I think Colin has to learn about coming back from injury. That’s part of being a professional racer.”
The aches and pains lessening, Edwards says he’s ready for a 1992 title run that will not include calculated rides to collect points: “The way I want to win it is to win every race coming up. I don’t want to finish, say, second-second-first-third. I want to dominate the season.”
Strong talk? “Eve always been confident about everything I’ve ever done,” Edwards says with conviction. “Em not cocky. You’re not going to win if you’re not confident. Some people mistake that for cockiness, but they don’t know me.” he of
Although he speaks of taking one race at a time, Edwards’ sights are clearly set overseas. Unable to talk specifics, he said there have been some discussions about a GP ride in 1993. “I don’t want to sound like Em down on Superbikes, but I want to stay on two-strokes. I don’t see myself going anywhere on four-strokes. I don’t see it benefitting me,” he says.
So, Colin Edwards, Texas teenage prodigy, one of roadracing’s rising stars, is in it for the long run, or so it would seem.
“Some people might look at racing as total fun,” he says. “It is fun, but I look at the business side, too. This is what I plan on doing the rest of my life, so I’ve got to look at it that way.” Spoken like a true 18-year-old. □
Robert Hough is a reporter for the Galveston Daily News and is a frequent contributor to American Roadracing magazine.
