• Peg It on GarageMonkey
MOTOGP: Team Texas Talks
Colin Edwards and Ben Spies took part in a Red Bull Indianapolis GP teleconference.
Media Release  |  Posted April 06, 2010   Indianapolis, IN
Tech3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards (Photo: Yamaha Racing)

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The MotoGP season opener from Qatar will air on SPEED on April 11th at 4:00pm EST.

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.


Page 1 of 9
Prev
123456789
Next
media_release's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Media Release

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.