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

EMMETT: You’ve basically swapped with James Toseland. Have you spoken to him about the M1, and have you spoken to him about the R1?

SPIES: No. I haven’t talked. I saw him at the last Portugal race before he tested for the first time, and that was pretty much it.

DEAN ADAMS: Greetings, fellow Americans. Colin, I see on the invitation to this fine teleconference that you are 36 years old. 36.

EDWARDS: Dude, I’m getting old.

SPIES: Daaaaaang.

ADAMS: I’m not going to bring up how you promised your father and I that you were going to retire at 30, and I’m not going to bring up when you later changed it to 32, but I’m just curious, the number 36, how do you look at your age, or do you not ponder it?

EDWARDS: Well, dude, I’ve got a few more mouths to feed than when I was 30. College tuition, you know, frickin’ Cocoa Krispies to have in the pantry. I’ve got to buy all of this crap now, so I’ve got to keep racing.

SPIES: Forty-two percent tax bracket.

EDWARDS: Yeah, exactly. I think whenever I made that decision, man, that was back in the 500 days. Guys were getting snapped in half, left and right. Careers were quite a bit shorter than they are now. Now we’ve got the luxuries of traction control and these awesome Bridgestone tires and great bikes that Yamaha is building. We’ve got all these luxuries that seem to be more rider-friendly, let’s say. So I think it’s done nothing but extend the life of a rider. But at the same time, man, I had one of my best seasons at 35. I still feel motivated. I’m still just as eager to get on a race bike. On the other hand, if I stayed here 24 hours a day, my wife probably would kick me out, so I’ve got to come up with something to do.

MATTHEW MILES: Colin, what’s your view on the new M1 engine spec?

EDWARDS: We’ve just got a lot more bottom end. Last year, we were struggling so bad with just having a little bit of pop off the corner. Well, basically we didn’t have any. Your line was so critical, trying to keep the RPM up, trying to keep it in the power. We had to play a lot with gearing just to get the RPM where we wanted it. But then again, once tires started going off, you started having to run some crazy lines just to try to keep it in the power. Whereas now, I think it was the first time I’ve been on the Yamaha 800 that you can actually make a little mistake, you can run it in a little bit deep, you can square a corner off here and there. We’ve got that bottom end to help us out. To me, that’s the biggest difference. Chassis feels very much the same. Everything else feels pretty much identical to what it was last year. We’ve got a lot more bottom end. And that transfers into the top, the top end, we’re getting to it much quicker and we’re running out of it better.

MILES: Have you lost any top end?

EDWARDS: No, I don’t think we’ve lost any top end. I think we’re the same. We’ve only been to Malaysia and Qatar, but I think it’s roughly about the same, maybe a little better. But we definitely haven’t lost any.

MILES: Do you think six engines are realistic for the entire season? Are you going to have to give up anything in practice, for example, to make those limits?

EDWARDS: Can I answer that in November? (laughter) I know what we’ve been running. I know how we’ve been running the bike. Yamaha, they don’t mess around and run the bike weak and turn it up for a race or turn it up for practice or turn it down for a race, or whatever. They pretty much test what a race setting is going to be. They want as much information as they can get, and we haven’t had any problems. Knock on wood. I think six engines, we can do it. Yes, are we going to have to shuffle around a bit and play with which engines get what time. Sure, we’re going to have to. I think everybody is going to have to do that. But I think we’ll manage.

MILES: Ben, is the bike you’re riding significantly different from the bike you rode at Valencia?

SPIES: Yeah, the same thing Colin said. The bottom end is definitely an improvement. The chassis wasn’t a problem there. I don’t have a whole lot of time on the bike, but the bottom end was a huge, huge difference. And overall, I think the package is just much better.

MILES: Regarding your cycling, are you racing Cat I yet?

SPIES: Yeah, actually I’m a II now, so I’m racing with the I’s and II’s. Had a race last week and got 15th. I was pretty happy with that. I was actually like sixth with a K to go, and we led out my sprinters, and that was pretty fun. It’s amazing. You start riding with some better guys, and it’s like anything: You ride with better guys, and it picks your game up. You always want to be better and kind of make that next jump. So I’m definitely suffering a little bit more than I used to.

MILES: Are you going to do any races outside of Texas?

SPIES: Yeah, I want to do a couple of Grand Fondas this year in Italy just for fun. Get some guys over from Texas and have some fun. But it’s one of those things, genetically and all that, how I’m built. I’m no Tour de France guy or anything like that, but I have fun with it and am realistic with it. So it’s a good time.

TOBY MOODY: Question for Colin. We covered the six engines for the whole season. It’s about three races per engine. How different does the 2010 engine feel compared with a wide-open engine from a couple of years ago. What is that type of difference?

EDWARDS: Are we comparing this engine to a 990?

MOODY: No, to the very first 800s.

EDWARDS: Oh, gosh, the very first 800, that thing felt like it was about to drop a big-end bearing. Everywhere you went, you shut the throttle off. That was one of the first things, going from the 990 to the 800, you shut the throttle, and it was just lock-up and felt like it wanted to lock up all the time. Not as much inertia, rotating mass. It just felt strange. To get back to the point, this engine, yeah, it feels a lot better. It definitely feels … We’ve got fuel down, as well, from the first time we started 800s. It’s credit to the guys who are doing all the wizardry back at Yamaha. They’ve got this running strong, and we don’t have any fuel consumption problems. Yeah, we are left with very minimal fuel at the end of a race, but it’s definitely breathing, it’s definitely running a lot better than that first 800.

CHRIS JONNUM: Both of you came to the class through World Superbike, and most of the rest of the grid is coming through 125s and 250s. This year we’ve got a new class of Moto2, taking the place of 250s. What are your thoughts on the class and how good of a preparation it’s going to be for the premier class?

EDWARDS: Man, I’m excited about it, to be honest with you. You’ve got a bunch of kids that have been bred on two-strokes pretty much their entire lives, pocket bikes, 125s. And then you just throw a wrench and say this is what you have to ride now. I think, looking at the testing results, we’re already kind of seeing some guys that have adapted to the four-stroke and some that haven’t yet. So it’s going to be interesting. I’ve always enjoyed the 250 race. Whereas now, I’ll say the Moto2, and I think it’s going to be that much more enjoyment for the weekend, seeing who can crack that nut.

SPIES: I’m looking forward to it. Same thing. It’s always good watching a 250 race. There’s always a whole bunch of jumping off the couch and yelling and can’t believe those guys are doing what they’re doing, but also believe the change is going to be good. I really don’t know what to think of it. We really haven’t got to see those bikes in person go, but it’s going to be interesting. It’s a change that’s needed. We’ll see how it works out. It’s hard for me to say anything because I really don’t know much about them and haven’t got to see them in person yet.

DEAN ADAMS: Colin, any sense of the workload behind the scenes by Yamaha to prepare for the new six-engine rule? It’s got to be an enormous effort for a reduction in engine numbers like that.

EDWARDS: It’s strange, because I know how many engines I ran last year. I know how many engines it takes to get through a season under normal circumstances. Not that we’re completely killing an engine, but pieces have to be replaced and made new again. You don’t just throw the whole engine. But at the end of the day, to have six, let’s say, sealed engines, man, that’s enormous amount of development goes into materials, all the dyno time they had to spend. I was talking with a few of the big wigs at Malaysia and asked them how was the vacation, and they just looked at me like I was stupid. They haven’t had any vacation. They’ve been working hard. I think the spec that we’re running, they’ve obviously been thinking about it for a while. It wasn’t all done in the winter. We had this rule, was it the middle of last year. They’ve had plenty of time to get it going. Is it going to work? I don’t know. I think Yamaha is going to look awesome. You look at some of the other factories and what they’re running, I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait until November and see who needs to use more than six engines.

DAVID EMMETT: Colin, one more question for you. We’ve been talking about the engines, and you said the engine spec is a lot more closer now than perhaps it’s ever been. We haven’t seen a satellite rider win since Toni Elias in Portugal in 2006. Do you think it could happen this year?

EDWARDS: Absolutely. You’ve got, I would say the top four guys, but Pedrosa hasn’t done a damn thing in the last couple of tests. You’ve got the top three guys. It’s going to be difficult; I ain’t going to lie to you. Anybody that’s going to bet against Valentino’s got their head screwed on wrong. But it’s definitely a possibility. Like I said, this is the closest our bikes have ever been to factory spec, so if there was ever a year it was going to flat-out happen, this is definitely one of those years.

EMMETT: Is it going to be you or Ben?

EDWARDS: I don’t know, man. I would love to say it’s going to be me. But if Ben does it, I’m not going to be disappointed.

SPIES: I think we’ll be having a beer with each other, whoever does it, that’s for sure. (laughter).

HOST: With that, we will conclude the teleconference. Colin, Ben, thanks so much for giving us 45 minutes of your time, and we wish both the best of luck in Qatar. And we look forward to seeing in August at Indy.