Indy MotoGP: Colin Edwards hoping for Michelin improvement

Colin Edwards is hoping for a big improvement in Michelin’s tyres as the American looks to avoid another disaster on home soil in Indianapolis.

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider had a nightmare time with Michelin’s incorrect choice of hard compound tyres at the Laguna Seca clash in late July.

And Edwards, who has only scored one top ten finish in the last four races, said he hoped that Michelin had done its homework after testing three times in the build-up to Sunday’s inaugural 28-lap Indy MotoGP clash.

“It’s been a pain in the ass really of late. The beginning of the season was a lot of fun. It was fun to be on the bike. Now it’s not a lot of fun at the moment. You cross your fingers, show up usually after Friday morning having run through three or four tyres to see if you’re in the ballpark. But we’ve been kind of in the parking lot of the ballpark at times.”

Edwards said it wouldn’t take long for him to assess whether he is going to be in for a good or bad weekend as he tries to fight his way back into the battle for fourth place in the championship.

“Honestly, Laguna was two corners, we went out and did two corners and we were on the softest tyre we had, and it was still way too hard, and I thought, “We’re in trouble here.” Hopefully we should be in the ballpark. Michelin has enough information over the last few tests they’ve done. I think they tested here on a Superbike or something over the last week, and so they should have got some information out of that. If we’re not in the ballpark, then we really have some issues. But hopefully they did their homework, and we’ll have some stuff.”

Edwards thought might have to contend with stormy weather conditions with dire forecasts for the entire weekend.

Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate James Toseland revealed his concerns about safety in some sections of the track in wet conditions and Texan Edwards agreed.

“I think part of the problem, if it rains, when you have a leather suit on, when you hit the grass and it’s wet, you just seem to accelerate. So we need to figure out what’s going to happen. I think in certain places, I think we might need to work with some air fence and in some different locations.”