Ninjette Newsbot
April 5th, 2012, 11:20 AM
MotoGP 2012 Qatar—Colin Edwards talks CRT
http://image.sportrider.com/f/news/146_12040_motogp_2012_qatar_colin_edwards_talks_crt/41009424+ppromo_large/146-12040-+motogp-2012-qatar-colin-edwards-talks-crt+.jpg
Texan starting from scratch with NGM Forward Racing BMW-Suter CRT machine for 2012 (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_12040_motogp_2012_qatar_colin_edwards_talks_crt/index.html)LOSAIL, QATAR, APRIL 5 – Colin Edwards is celebrating his 10th year in Grand Prix racing the same way he celebrated his first, on a European motorcycle that has no chance of winning.
When the Texan made the move to MotoGP in 2003 after winning the 2002 World Superbike Championship, it was aboard the ill-fated Aprilia RS3 Cube. The lasting image of that year is of Edwards bailing off the back of the Cube after it caught fire when the fuel cap was improperly fitted at the Sachsenring.
This year Edwards is leading the charge of the Claiming Rules Team (CRT) machines, the MotoGP subset that makes up nine of the 21 bikes on the 2012 grid. The NGM Forward Racing BMW-Suter is very much a work in progress, with limited testing and no data at the vast majority of MotoGP tracks, including Losail, the track outside the Qatari capital of Doha where Edwards held court during the pre-race press conference.
The Qatar pre-race presser is usually a staid affair, where riders say very little and journalists are loathe to ask questions, opting to engage individual riders directly in small groups following the conference. An Edwards appearance is something to be treasured, as it was today, when the language was just profane enough to incite laughter while not offending.
Addressing the beginning of his tenth year in the MotoGP paddock, he said, “It’s been great, honestly. I mean, my extended family, pretty much everybody here and seeing the likes of (Jorge) Lorenzo and these guys grow up. And hanging out in the motor home with Casey (Stoner) playing Playstation games when he was just a kid. It’s been a lot of time passed, but it’s been fun.”
Asked about the new project, he answered the question with a question.
“Anybody know the rules to claiming rules teams? I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said to hoots of laughter. Turning serious, he continued. “It’s not going to be easy. I mean, we’re…in Texas we would say shoveling s**t uphill sometimes. And that’s kind of what it feels like. In testing we get to a point and it’s like, OK, let’s make it better. But we have limitations. We have some fundamental issues that we need to solve and get sorted out.
“But it’s going good. Everything we seem to do, the bike makes it a little bit better and a little bit better. In the last test they said, 'Oh, last test, let’s go racing.' I was like,” he began, clearing his throat for effect, “I’ve got 18 more tests to go, please. We’re showing up with no gearing, no suspension, no data, nothing. So we’re kinda starting from scratch everywhere we go.”
Edwards has described the BMW-Suter as an angry bull. Part of that is down to the difficulty of developing the Bosch electronics, which are exclusively used in MotoGP by the NGM Forward Racing team.
“Oh yeah, it’s angry,” he said. “It’s always angry at me for some reason. I haven’t figured that out.
“We spent the first couple tests riding around with a cleft a**hole just waiting for something to happen. And then finally at the last test we really worked on the electronics and got the electronics sorted out to where we’re more comfortable and a lot easier to ride. And you don’t have to…you weren’t spending so much time wondering what was going to happen. You spent more time wondering about what I want to happen. So yeah, it’s getting there, but at the same we’re just step-by-step, step-by-step.”
As one of the veterans in the paddock, and one with vast experience on a variety of motorcycles and tires, Edwards takes pride in being a CRT pioneer.
“If there’s one guy in this paddock that had to do it, I guess it’s me, with the experience and the knowledge,” he said. “And, you know, coming from the Aprilia and riding the (Telefonica MoviStar) Honda and riding the (Camel and Fiat) Yamahas and kinda all the information that I, let’s say, have stored up and what we’ve done to fix problems in the past, yeah, it’s how do I feel about it? It’s going to be a long project. And I think whenever they do decide ultimately one day that everything’s CRT—we’ll have to wait and see if that actually does happen—it’s going to be interesting.”
At the end of the Qatar news conference, the five panelists were asked to predict the order of the top three finishers in the 2012 MotoGP race, a question no rider in his right mind would take seriously. Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner smiled and said, “Hopefully I’m one of them.” Ducati Marlboro’s Valentino Rossi chimed in, “Too early to say.” And Edwards? “I’m going to say me, (Randy) de Puniet and (Ivan) Silva.” Classic Edwards.
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Texan starting from scratch with NGM Forward Racing BMW-Suter CRT machine for 2012 (http://www.sportrider.com/news/146_12040_motogp_2012_qatar_colin_edwards_talks_crt/index.html)LOSAIL, QATAR, APRIL 5 – Colin Edwards is celebrating his 10th year in Grand Prix racing the same way he celebrated his first, on a European motorcycle that has no chance of winning.
When the Texan made the move to MotoGP in 2003 after winning the 2002 World Superbike Championship, it was aboard the ill-fated Aprilia RS3 Cube. The lasting image of that year is of Edwards bailing off the back of the Cube after it caught fire when the fuel cap was improperly fitted at the Sachsenring.
This year Edwards is leading the charge of the Claiming Rules Team (CRT) machines, the MotoGP subset that makes up nine of the 21 bikes on the 2012 grid. The NGM Forward Racing BMW-Suter is very much a work in progress, with limited testing and no data at the vast majority of MotoGP tracks, including Losail, the track outside the Qatari capital of Doha where Edwards held court during the pre-race press conference.
The Qatar pre-race presser is usually a staid affair, where riders say very little and journalists are loathe to ask questions, opting to engage individual riders directly in small groups following the conference. An Edwards appearance is something to be treasured, as it was today, when the language was just profane enough to incite laughter while not offending.
Addressing the beginning of his tenth year in the MotoGP paddock, he said, “It’s been great, honestly. I mean, my extended family, pretty much everybody here and seeing the likes of (Jorge) Lorenzo and these guys grow up. And hanging out in the motor home with Casey (Stoner) playing Playstation games when he was just a kid. It’s been a lot of time passed, but it’s been fun.”
Asked about the new project, he answered the question with a question.
“Anybody know the rules to claiming rules teams? I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said to hoots of laughter. Turning serious, he continued. “It’s not going to be easy. I mean, we’re…in Texas we would say shoveling s**t uphill sometimes. And that’s kind of what it feels like. In testing we get to a point and it’s like, OK, let’s make it better. But we have limitations. We have some fundamental issues that we need to solve and get sorted out.
“But it’s going good. Everything we seem to do, the bike makes it a little bit better and a little bit better. In the last test they said, 'Oh, last test, let’s go racing.' I was like,” he began, clearing his throat for effect, “I’ve got 18 more tests to go, please. We’re showing up with no gearing, no suspension, no data, nothing. So we’re kinda starting from scratch everywhere we go.”
Edwards has described the BMW-Suter as an angry bull. Part of that is down to the difficulty of developing the Bosch electronics, which are exclusively used in MotoGP by the NGM Forward Racing team.
“Oh yeah, it’s angry,” he said. “It’s always angry at me for some reason. I haven’t figured that out.
“We spent the first couple tests riding around with a cleft a**hole just waiting for something to happen. And then finally at the last test we really worked on the electronics and got the electronics sorted out to where we’re more comfortable and a lot easier to ride. And you don’t have to…you weren’t spending so much time wondering what was going to happen. You spent more time wondering about what I want to happen. So yeah, it’s getting there, but at the same we’re just step-by-step, step-by-step.”
As one of the veterans in the paddock, and one with vast experience on a variety of motorcycles and tires, Edwards takes pride in being a CRT pioneer.
“If there’s one guy in this paddock that had to do it, I guess it’s me, with the experience and the knowledge,” he said. “And, you know, coming from the Aprilia and riding the (Telefonica MoviStar) Honda and riding the (Camel and Fiat) Yamahas and kinda all the information that I, let’s say, have stored up and what we’ve done to fix problems in the past, yeah, it’s how do I feel about it? It’s going to be a long project. And I think whenever they do decide ultimately one day that everything’s CRT—we’ll have to wait and see if that actually does happen—it’s going to be interesting.”
At the end of the Qatar news conference, the five panelists were asked to predict the order of the top three finishers in the 2012 MotoGP race, a question no rider in his right mind would take seriously. Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner smiled and said, “Hopefully I’m one of them.” Ducati Marlboro’s Valentino Rossi chimed in, “Too early to say.” And Edwards? “I’m going to say me, (Randy) de Puniet and (Ivan) Silva.” Classic Edwards.
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