2010 will see the experienced and popular Colin Edwards begin his third year with Tech3 Yamaha and his sixth season as a Yamaha rider steering the YZR-M1. The soon-to-be 36 year old is now entering the twilight of his career but has carved a reputation for not only being an amiable and likeable character but also a reliable racer, noted for his consistency.
Colin is no stranger to Yamaha. The Texan first entered the international stage back in the mid-1990s after winning an AMA 250cc crown and shining in AMA Superbike events. He came to WSB riding a YZF-750 and after a learning season in 1995 grabbed his first podium result in 1996; also winning the famous Suzuka 8-hour the same year with Yamaha star Noriyuki Haga.
After eight WSB terms, over 30 victories and two titles, he took the step to MotoGP in 2003 and after finishing fifth and obtaining his first podium results, he became Valentino Rossi’s team-mate in 2005. Six further top-three finishes with the M1 arrived across the space of three seasons.
His regularity for point-scoring performances has become one of his strongest assets; in fact he only missed the points eight times from 84 MotoGP appearances prior to 2008.
A transfer to the Tech3 Yamaha team in 2008 saw an invigorated Edwards sharp out of the blocks. His heroic and sensational ‘save’ from a near crash at Jerez during qualifying earning him as much applause as the pole position and part in a historic podium clean-sweep for Yamaha at Le Mans for the Grand Prix of France. While Colin enjoyed good moments, such as his Gallic performance and also a remarkable charge through the pack at one of his favourite tracks, Assen, to finish fourth, the second half of the season did not shine so brightly with tyre problems reducing his effectiveness.
With a change of chief technician and the arrival of Guy Coulon into his corner for 2009 Edwards was again an effective part of the higher section of the MotoGP leader-board and belied his advancing years. Running the Bridgestone controlled tyre for the first time he took a decent runner-up position at Donington Park for his eleventh MotoGP podium finish and scored points in all but one of the eighteen rounds, notching 14 top ten results on the way. At Valencia for the season-finale he confirmed 5th in the championship, which was his fifth top-seven ranking in seven years and elevated him to the status of the first classified non-factory rider.
Colin is married to Alyssia with two young children and has a home with over 20 acres of land back in his native USA. He enjoys motocross and especially racing on a PlayStation 3!
