Colin Edwards admitted he had ridden one of the hardest races in his long career, and was disappointed to only be rewarded with eighth. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider was keen for a strong result in front of his home crowd but was unable to keep up with the factory Ducatis and Suzuki ahead of him.
Accidents for Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista and Edward's teammate Cal Crutchlow promoted him to eighth but the Texan admitted he was prevented from improving any further by a lack of grip.
“Honestly I’m really disappointed because I came here for my home race and I expected bigger and better things. I struggled all weekend with the set-up and we made a wrong turn somewhere in the last couple of races that have knocked us out of stride a little bit. This morning we just put in the same setting I ran in last year’s race and that wasn’t great, but at least I felt more comfortable with it than what I’d been running all weekend. It wasn’t the best setting but at least I felt comfortable to a point where I could push for some decent lap times. I just lacked front and rear grip.”
“I’ve never ridden so hard in my life but I was a second off the pace and when Cal went down in front of me, there was no way I could go with Bautista. I just had to be smooth because if I pushed I just ended up going slower. I still moved up in the Championship and got some good points, so now I’m just looking forward to a couple of weeks relaxing to get ready for the final part of the season.”
Edwards' effort didn't go unnoticed by Team Manager Herve Poncharal who was pleased to leave California with some solid points.
“Colin had a really strong race today and he worked hard for some good points. He never gave up his pace, the rhythm was very constant and he was very near the pace of the factory Ducati for almost the entire race. He asked me on the grid what I would like and I said that an eighth position would make me happy because it had not been an easy weekend for Colin. So I am happy with his performance. The whole team is going to Colin’s Boot Camp tomorrow and we are all excited about that. Hopefully we will all be back with fully recharged batteries when the season continues in Czech Republic.”
