Colin Edwards' Texas Tornado Boot Camp | Don’t Mess With Texas

Friday’s weaponry was handguns: .22, .45 and 9mm; Saturday for skeet shooting with a shotgun. And on Sunday they brought out the ‘50’, a .50 caliber rifle known for its use in long-range sniper work and vaporizing varmints.

Edwards holds the record of 1:27.3. “Generally, most of us instructors, we’ll finish all within a second and a half,” he said. “And if it goes right, I’m usually the first. Most of the time.” Not this weekend. Four days before the start of the camp, Edwards was involved in the horrific crash that took the life of Marco Simoncelli in the Malaysian Grand Prix, resulting in a dislocated left shoulder. Scheduled for surgery two days after the camp, he was roaming from group to group on his Yamaha Grizzly, often in the background, deferring to his instructors—and always holding a can of some sort, either a Monster Energy drink or Coors Light or an empty that he used as a spittoon for the smokeless tobacco he enjoys. The shoulder popped out from time to time, but Edwards would nonchalantly jam it back into place.

Corner exit techniques were taught on Friday. Saturday would begin with mid-corner technique that incorporated what had been learned about corner exit.

Edwards told a story about learning the value of neutral throttle. At the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix, the Texan was a second a lap slower than teammate Valentino Rossi early in practice, despite having equal top speed. “Why is he a second faster?” Edwards asked. Though this was his fourth season racing a GP bike, Edwards still had “some old Superbike ways to work my way out of.” What he saw on the data was that the interval between Rossi being off-throttle to back into it was negligible. “The brakes coming down and the throttle coming up creates heaps of load,” he said. “Just that little bit he did every corner, a half a tenth here, a half a tenth there, that’s a second.” He added, “When you don’t minimize that time, the bike’s riding you.”

“We tell ‘em at the beginning of every camp, if you’re worried around ride time, don’t, because you’re going to get more than enough. And always that first day you want to go out and ride and ride and ride and ride. [Then] you’re screwed for the next two days.” The TTBC also has two-day camps, but “the two-days are a lot more intense. We’re trying to cram everything in two days and for me two days is not enough to really see progression. We’ve seen it, but generally that first day is getting familiar, trying to figure out body position, get everything right. Sleep on it, by the second day, just starting to get it and then everybody’s gonna go home. So that’s why we came up with the four-days. It’s a lot easier, a lot more relaxed pace, a lot more time to sleep on it, sleep on it again and then it comes.”

This four-day camp ended back at the Saloon, with a Texas barbecue and a bonfire. Edwards pointed out how many riders had improved their Superpole times, and thanked them for attending. There would be more improvement on Sunday, then the swapping of emails and phone numbers. Another class had graduated from the boot camp, and many were certain to return.

The Texas Tornado Boot Camp is now offering special one-week "racer only" camps designed for racers looking to tune up before the season starts. The next Racer Only camp is scheduled for Feb 6 - 12. Cost is $1950.