Superbike
The soon-to-be-retired MotoGP rider finishes up telling RedBull.com about his career highlights.
Following on from Part One of Colin Edwards's standout memories from his motorcycling career, which finishes at the end of 2014 after 20 seasons, the American MotoGP rider concludes his look back over the years...
Looking at seasons as wholes, which one from your entire career was the best for you? 2002, no doubt. I had a 63-point deficit on Troy Bayliss (in WSBK) and he was winning pretty much whatever we showed up to. He won the first race at Laguna Seca and I knew I had nine races left and I said at that press conference after the first race "It's win or crash now".
He made a little mistake in Assen and I ended up winning the championship. As far as a year, and some of my best races and just being able to zone in, I think that was a great season.
And what's been your most enjoyable season in MotoGP? That's hard to say. I really had a lot of fun with Valentino (Rossi). I think during 2005, 2006 and 2007 I was 31, 32 and 33 and I was past my prime. At the same time Valentino was right in the middle of his, and the agreement I had with Yamaha at that time was basically 'harmony in the team'.
I knew my place and I knew who they wanted to win and we just made it fun. Every weekend was fun. We had some problems for sure, but we did everything we could do to figure out the bike together.
What advice would you give to a young rider coming through now? When you're at a young age, motorcycle racing pretty much is everything, and it kind of has to be. If you have any distractions when you're in your prime or entering your prime, sure it can distract you.
I took my wife out for her 17th birthday! You don't have any of that messing around, you know what I'm saying? It's just stability, and you can concentrate on going and doing what you're doing.
One of my early bosses in 1993, Terry Vance, called me up and said “You understand you're going to have to make a lot of sacrifices to give us what we want?” I was 18/19 and thinking “What are you talking about?” But it's true, and you have to be willing to make those sacrifices to give everything you can give.
Looking forward, what plans have you got for life after racing? If I stay at home 52 weeks of the year my wife will probably leave after 20! I need to do something 20-21 weeks a year travelling, that might be a bit too much, like now. But 12-13 weeks I could probably manage that, and that would be a happy medium.
The Boot Camp will continue also. I'd like to maybe work with some young guys that want to come over for the winter and kind of work with specific guys. I don't know. There are all kinds of different avenues to take into consideration.
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