Top Selebrities: Forward to run Suter-BMW in MotoGP

Friday, October 21, 2011

Forward to run Suter-BMW in MotoGP

Friday, October 21st 2011, 10:00 GMT

Colin Edwards says his new Forward Racing team will run a BMW-powered Suter chassis in MotoGP next season.

Edwards is leaving Tech 3 Yamaha after four seasons to join Moto2 graduate Forward, which is entering the top class under the new Claiming Rule Teams (CRT) system.

There had been speculation that Edwards would secure Tech 3 chassis and Yamaha engines for the project, but he joked that he had encountered too much resistance.

"Obviously in the beginning I thought I'll just say 'we're going to run Yamahas and Tech 3 chassis', but that was just my way of putting pressure on some guys," he said. "They obviously didn't give a s*** what I thought so they said no... I got a couple of guys against me on the European side at Yamaha.

"At the end of the day, it's BMW and Suter, which is what I signed up for in the beginning and I'm happy to be working with those guys."

Edwards believes that the CRT programme has the potential to revitalise MotoGP by increasing grid sizes and improving the quality of the racing, and said he was excited to be part of it from the start.

"I'm accustomed to coming to a team where it's 'sign the piece of paper, ride the motorcycle, do your work and go home', whereas it's a new adventure and we're just trying to get everything sorted out and everything together," he said.

"I'm a big part of getting everybody together. There's a lot more work than I'm accustomed to, but at the end of the day it's a dream and a vision.

"I think everybody would like to see MotoGP have Moto2 [style] racing - close racing, competitive racing. And I think that's where we're going with it. Somebody has to start it."

The American admitted that the Forward Suter-BMW was unlikely to be competitive for some time.

"It's going to be work and it's not going to be easy, we're just going to have to go out there and work and test," said Edwards.

"We're probably going to be looking for seconds to begin with, and then we'll cut it down to half-seconds, and then tenths. Probably not going to be competitive at the first race, and maybe not at the last race. But we're going to work our ass off to build it."