During a pre-event press conference held during lunchtime Thursday at Laguna Seca, Superbike World Champion Colin Edwards used the word “asshole” in referring to AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin without suffering any official penalties. Things got interesting when track announcer Richard Chambers handed the microphone to Edwards and encouraged Edwards to lead the press conference.
Edwards was given the microphone after Chambers had already interviewed Honda teammates Nicky Hayden and Miguel Duhamel, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mladin, and Edwards himself. Troy Bayliss, Peter Goddard, Ben Bostrom, Regis Laconi and others were still waiting to be interviewed.
By the time Edwards received the microphone, Mladin had quietly left the overcrowded head table, almost as if to make room for Edwards to sit down. Mladin also looked to return to his pits as the AMA Superbike racers’ one and only qualifying session was scheduled for shortly after the Thursday lunch break. As Mladin walked away from the press conference area, Edwards called to Mladin over the small, press conference P.A. system, “Where ya going, Mat?”
Mladin didn’t appear to hear Edwards and continued walking. Edwards then told the crowd consisting of national, international, and local media members, “Now I understand why you guys think he’s an asshole.” Half of the crowd laughed while the other half mumbled to one another. In addition to “asshole”, Edwards also said the word “ass’ twice during his time speaking to the press.
The next racer to be interviewed was Benelli Tornado development rider/racer Peter Goddard. Goddard asked, “I wonder if Colin is going to get fined for that?” referring to the $5000 fine Mladin received for using the word “shit” and criticizing the track and other riders during an AMA press conference at New Hampshire International Raceway.
When asked after the press conference about the possibility of AMA officials fining him for his choice of words, Edwards said, “They’re gonna have a good time getting it out of me. I don’t give a shit. I don’t care. It wasn’t an AMA press conference. For a World Superbike press conference that’s normal lingo.”
Asked if he thought that the use of curse words is detrimental to the sport of motorcycle road racing—as claimed by AMA officials–Edwards said, “I don’t care. That’s who I am. I can be a robot and get up there and say the same thing over and over, but that’s not what the fans want. The fans want to know who I am. I’ll show you my whole deck of cards right there. This is who I am. If I say a few cuss words here and there that’s part of my personality.”
When asked about his comments concerning Mladin, Edwards said, “I was just wondering where he was going. I mean, it looked like the press conference was just getting kicking and then he left. I was just saying, ‘Where the Hell are you going?’ You just don’t get up and leave a press conference normally. I think nothing less of him. Now I just understand why everyone thinks he’s an asshole.” Then Edwards clarified saying, “I didn’t call him an asshole. I just said that I understand why people think he’s an asshole.”
After the press event was over, AMA Media Relations Contractor Larry Lawrence confirmed that the press conference had not been an official AMA press conference. Lawrence later asked his World Superbike series press counterpart, Renata Nosetta, about Edwards’ conduct. According to Lawrence, he was told by Nosetta that the World Superbike series allows their riders to be more free in expressing themselves than the AMA does.
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