RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GP TELECONFERENCE
Colin Edwards, Ben Spies
Thursday, April 1, 2010

HOST: Welcome, everyone to this Red Bull Indianapolis GP teleconference with American MotoGP stars Colin Edwards and Ben Spies as our guests today. A little bit of background on Colin and Ben. Colin is from Houston, he’s in his ninth season in MotoGP and finished fifth in the MotoGP World Championship standings last season. It was the best performance by a rider not on a factory team. Colin won the Superbike World Championship in 2000 and 2002 before climbing to MotoGP in 2003. Ben is from Longview, Texas. He will make his full-time MotoGP debut this season after winning the Superbike World Championship in 2009 as a rookie. And he came to Superbikes after winning three consecutive AMA Superbike titles from 2006 to 2008. Both Colin and Ben this season will ride for the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha team – we like to call them Tex 3, because it’s Team Texas for both of these guys – and the season starts April 10 with the Grand Prix of Qatar and also includes the third annual Red Bull Indianapolis GP Aug. 27-29 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We’re really excited to have both guys on today. Colin, Ben, thanks for joining us.

BEN SPIES: Thank you.

COLIN EDWARDS: What’s up, man? I couldn’t wait.

HOST: Colin, going into this season, how do you think team Tech 3 is set up? What’s it looking like?

EDWARDS: I think we’re looking good. Ben and I have been friends for a while. I actually sent him a text at the end of last year saying like, “Wait, maybe don’t come this year.” We had some engine issues going on last year with a bit of a horsepower deficit. But really surprised this year. Yamaha has come up with good stuff. The bike is running really well. Chassis are working good. So testing has been really good, so I’m really looking forward to it.

HOST: Ben, you’ve had a strong preseason of testing. What’s been the most surprising thing for you in your transition from MotoGP to World Superbike? Not necessarily the most challenging thing, but the thing that’s caused you to stand back and say, “Whoa, I didn’t expect that?”

SPIES: Not a whole lot of things. The overall speed of the guys is obviously another level. They’re just flat-out faster guys. And trying to work with that, trying to push myself to new limits. Just the way the bike works, the way the tires work, the amount of grip the tires do have. There’s just a lot of learning curves. But I wouldn’t say there was one thing that just jumped out that was a big surprise. But there were a lot of changes. As I said, it was just faster guys and different machinery. It’s been one big kind of learning curve, for sure.

CHRIS JONNUM: I did want to know how you guys enjoyed doing that little film (“Mancation”) for Yamaha and if that was something you enjoyed, and if you would do something like that again.

EDWARDS: You first, Ben. Fire away.

SPIES: Yeah, it was good. I’m definitely not the loudest personality in the paddock, and I have a little trouble throwing on the game face for the acting. Colin, on the other hand, I think he needs to, when he’s done racing, go into acting because he’s definitely into it and pretty good at it. It was fun. We went out there and crammed it all into a day and had one little incident that was pretty funny and got to spend some time and have some good laughs. So overall, it was good.

EDWARDS: My turn? Yeah, it was good. It was fun. We had an absolute ball with it. None of us knew what was going on until we showed up and they said, “OK, Colin, you’re the over-the-top, annoying, loud guy. I was like, “OK, I’ll give it my best.” It turned out all right. We had a good time with it.

JONNUM: What are your thoughts on the relatively late start this season in combination with the lack of testing? Do you feel particularly eager to get the season started, and how prepared are you?

SPIES: I’m excited. It’s definitely been a long, long break from racing. The testing, OK, we don’t have a lot of testing, and being a rookie it’s hard. But it is what it is, and I’m ready to get to the track and race. I’m a little ahead of where I thought I was going to be entering the year, and I think we’re in a good position to keep learning and keep moving up. But we also have some big new challenges ahead of us going to some new tracks and not knowing, and just the combination of riding with these guys. But it’s been good. Colin’s been a super-big help. I think this year is going to go really good. We’re definitely competitors. We want to beat each other. We want to beat everybody out there, but I think we both understand racing against the guys we’re racing against, if we can work with each other a little bit to make the bike a little bit better, even though we’re racing against each other in the meantime, if it’s racing fourth and fifth and sixth and making the bike better, it’s better than racing ninth and 10th and holding information from each other. So I think we’re going to be good with sharing information trying to make the overall package better and dukeing it out on the track. Again, we want to beat each other as bad as anybody else, and I think that’s going to help me, at least with the lack of testing time I’ve had.

EDWARDS: Yeah, as far as me, I was ready to go racing back in January. I didn’t want any testing time. I’ve been on this bike for I don’t know how long. The new guys coming up, with Ben and Simoncelli and Bautista, I don’t know if it hindered, but definitely didn’t get all the time we normally got. But at the end of the day, Ben made, he’s surprised everybody and learned pretty quick. I don’t think it’s hurt him too bad. And you know, let’s just go racing. I’m ready. The testing is testing, and the racing is when you’ve got to lay your balls on the chopping block.

LARRY LAWRENCE: How close will your machine be to the factory Yamahas that Rossi and Lorenzo will be racing.

EDWARDS: Hey, Larry, how’s it going? Yeah, that’s a good question. Basically, this year probably would be the closest they’ve ever been. You know, being with those guys on track, but not just them, but getting behind Pedrosa or Stoner, getting behind some of the other guys, as well, I’m not saying the bikes are exactly the same. But I think they’re a lot closer than they’ve ever been. That’s about all we can really ask for, being a sister team. When you look at the speed charts, we’re right there. Everybody’s running good. I think all 18 bikes are running within 4K (km/h) or something like that. I think it’s a good thing. The six engines all year, I think it’s evened out the amount of power you can actually put out and keep the thing together. So I think everybody’s just scrunched up a little bit more.

LAWRENCE: I understand this may be the last year of the 800cc formula before they move to a new formula with 1000cc. Maybe both of you can touch on what your feelings are moving to the 1000s and if you feel it’s a positive thing.

SPIES: I think for me and Colin, for numerous reasons, being size, a Superbike background, probably I think our more natural tendency is to ride a bike, 1000 is better overall for us. I think for the fan base it creates better racing. With the 800s, it’s just a completely different style. When you pass people, if you want to keep the flow of racing fast and keep the lap time up, you really have to set up passes a long time in advance. It’s almost like a slingshot pass. When you’re on a 1000, you can almost get in there, brake deep, stop it, fire it out. You’ve got all the sliding, the bucking, more torque. I just think it creates better racing just to watch the riders. It also makes passing opportunities, easier passes to happen more places around the track. And I think that creates better racing, for sure. I’m looking forward to it. I’m hoping everything keeps going through and that’s what happens, and not just because I think it’s better for me, but I think it’s better, just in general. It’s MotoGP; it needs to be 1000cc. And I think the racing will get better, for sure.

EDWARDS: I still remember the days when we didn’t have any traction control and it was all in your wrist and your butt and what you felt. And not a day went by when you didn’t ask for more power, more power. So I’m just going to go back to that. Especially if they’re talking about taking away the electronics, we have to go to 1000. I don’t see any way of riding these 800s, with the amount of corner speed we’re carrying and the actual power they deliver, without electronics these things would be quite violent. Go back to 1000s, get more of the old-school sliding, smoke coming off the tire, and have a little bit of fun with it. For me, I think it’s the right move.

LAWRENCE: Any particular races or events you’re looking forward to this year?

SPIES: There’s a lot of tracks I’m looking forward to that I haven’t been to. Japan is one of them. Just a different place. Even though I’ve raced at Laguna many times and raced at Indy once, it’s always good to race in front of your home crowd. Now I’ve actually felt that racing in a European series, come back to when it was Miller. It wasn’t as big of a crowd as when you’d go to Spain, but when you got the home boys rooting you on, it’s a good feeling. And it’s a different feeling. And Laguna Seca for me, it’s always been a pretty good track for me. You’ve got to pick and choose when you really go hard, and there are some weeks where you don’t have that pace and you’re searching, and you’ve still got to ride your butt off. You hope everything is a little bit easier when you get to the home races, and it’s going to be one of those tracks where we’ve got decent pace. And if we do, then you pull the pin and lay it all down and try to represent for your home country. In saying that, all the top eight riders in the championship do that every weekend, too, but you always have that little bit more motivation when you’ve got your fans cheering you on. So I’m looking forward to Laguna, for sure.

EDWARDS: Myself, I’m looking forward to Donington. Oh, wait: We ain’t going to Donington (laughter). Honestly, you know it will be Laguna and Indy. Let’s say future-cast that you’re building up momentum to or probably have in the back of your head. But like Ben said, every weekend we show up, and we show up and run the Super Bowl. A lot of these countries only have one Grand Prix, and that’s the way it goes. So you’ve got to get geared up week in and week out. Laguna and Indy, they’re home races, they’re a bit special, to answer that question.