Colin Edwards (Yamaha) diary – March 2007
Colin Edwards
Hey folks,
A lot has happened since my last diary – most notably re-signing for Yamaha in 2007, which I was delighted to finalise at the end of last season. I couldn’t be happier to be staying with Yamaha for another year. It’s no secret that last season we didn’t achieve the results we should have had, but in the last few races of the season I could feel that things were starting to turn around. I couldn’t ask for a better team-mate or team and the switch to the 800cc bike has worked really well for me so it has been nice to show Yamaha that they were right to put their faith in me with some good work in preseason and a couple of decent results to start the year at Qatar and Jerez.
We started working on the new bike at Sepang, just a couple of weeks after the final round of 2006 at Valencia. Right away my first impressions were good - obviously power-wise it felt different to the 990 but other than that it just felt like it was rounded-off a bit; not such a knife-edge and a little bit more forgiving. Over the tests we got it dialled in more and more but there were no drastic changes that we had to make – it was just a case of getting the most out of the bike and developing the tyres around it. As far as I am concerned Yamaha did a better job than any of their competitors in getting the best 800cc bike out of the box in those first tests and it was a real advantage for Valentino and myself to be starting from such a good base.
Colin Edwards
By the end of the third Sepang tests at the start of February we had a machine that was already far better than the old 990cc M1, which is a pretty incredible achievement. It gave Valentino and me a lot of confidence when we headed into the Official Tests at Qatar and Jerez, which we pretty much dominated. That domination continued when we went back to Qatar for the opening round and I was fastest in almost every practice session. I was really disappointed not to follow that through into the race but I had a few grip issues due to the changing track conditions and a near-crash on lap seven or eight so I couldn’t do much more than consolidate sixth place. Things got better in Jerez, where the horsepower deficit to our rivals wasn’t as important, and we got back on the podium after a great weekend. It was kind of the opposite to Qatar because I had some problems in practice but we managed to sort it out for the race and the bike on Sunday felt better than it had all weekend.
Anyway, that’s enough about racing – I guess you want to hear what else I got up to over the winter, right? Well I’m afraid the answer is a little boring and not the glamorous stories you might be hoping for! The truth is that when the time finally comes for me to go back home to Texas, between all the racing and the winter testing, I just want to spend it with my family and do as little as possible. As you know I have a young daughter, Gracie, who is 4 years old now, and a little boy called Hayes, who is 15 months and growing up fast. Hayes doesn’t really notice whether I am there or not but Gracie has to spend a lot of time during the year without her dad around so I make sure we spend as much time as possible together. Between the Malaysia and Jerez tests we went off on a camping trip with about 10 other dads and their kids to a National Park about 30 minutes from my house. We went on this crazy treasure hunt and the kids ran wild – you can imagine what it got like without their mums there to clean up! Actually, I don’t know who made the most mess – the dads or the kids!
Other than that I just caught up on some golf and tennis and over New Year we also took the opportunity to enjoy some winter sports in Jackson Hole, where I have a house. I had some friends over from England who joined us, including my motorhome driver Pete – otherwise known as Mr Paddock - and we did some snowboarding, rode around on snowmobiles and just had fun for a few days. Gracie learnt to ski for the first time, which she absolutely loved. It’s great to disconnect from bikes for a while and you don’t get much further from the paddock than halfway up a huge mountain!
I’ve been able to come home to Texas between the Jerez and Turkey races but now it’s all about staying fit and focused so that we can be ready to fight for that podium again in Istanbul. It should be a really interesting race because it will be the first time the new tyre regulations really come into force at a circuit where we have no prior testing. Thankfully we have a great base setting with the M1 and a great relationship with Michelin so hopefully we can come out fighting on Friday morning and continue our excellent start to the season.
Thanks for all your support – speak to you all soon!
Colin #5
Colin Edwards -
09.04.2007, 01:37
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