Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Colin Edwards will be riding a Honda RC211V in the 2003 MotoGP World Championship. That’s the word from Jerry Jirkovsky of Pirelli/Bridgestone tire vendor California Race Services.

“I’m out here at Firebird International Raceway (near Phoenix, Arizona) vending tires for the track day before this CCS weekend, and Colin Edwards just shows up,” said Jirkovsky. “There’s only about 40 bikes here. So it kind of blew everybody away.

“I asked him, ‘So, are you still riding the Ducati next year?’ He goes, ‘Nah, it looks like plans have changed. I’ll be riding a V5 Honda in MotoGP next year.” Edwards went on to tell Jirkovsky that he was in town to do autograph signings at local dealerships, but his Honda RC51, which was shipped over for the appearances, was held up due to the labor dispute at the port of Los Angeles.

Jirkovsky said Edwards showed up around 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time, stayed for about 15-20 minutes signing autographs and left.