#ColinEdwards

Kids say the darndest things, don’t they? They also ask some great questions, often when you least expect it. That’s just what happens here, when factory Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales are interviewed by 12 year-old fan Hayes Edwards. Wait, Edwards? As in Colin Edwards? Yep, we’re talking about the offspring of the Texas Tornado, having a sit down with two of the fastest riders in the world – and honestly, we’re impressed with his questions and composure!

The Island Classic is an annual vintage motorcycle festival held at the iconic Phillip Island circuit in Australia, and its headlining event is the International Challenge teams competition for bikes manufactured between 1973 and 1984. In years past, the event has been dominated by British and Australian teams, as American efforts have been thus far only modestly supported.

Launched in 1988, World Superbike racing is 39 years MotoGP’s junior. Some notable champions have been produced in the series’ 27-year existence, but noticeably different between WSBK and MotoGP is the lack of one-man dominance. WSBK has multi-time champions (that’s what this Top 10 is all about), but nothing quite like MotoGP. For example, the 12 championship seasons, from 1994 through 2005 saw Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi consume 10 of them (five apiece). That’s a decade of domination by two riders! Having a greater variety of champions makes for an arguably superior series, so kudos to WSBK.

If you had watched only the first six laps of today’s Indianapolis Grand Prix, you might think the Marquez magic had ended back in July. It was an absolute dogfight, with Italians on Yamaha s and Ducati s holding the upper hand, or hands. Ultimately, though, as the day wore on, the natural order of things in the premier class was restored, and Marc Marquez secured his 10th win in 10 tries in 2014.

Mugello, one of the friendliest of the Yamaha-friendly circuits on the tour, hosts Round Six of the 2014 MotoGP world championship. In Italy, the Scarperia shrine sits just a notch below Assisi and The Sistine Chapel on the holiness scale. Since 2002, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, the Bruise Brothers of the Movistar Yamaha team, have won 10 of the 12 races held here. If, as expected, they get pierced again on Sunday by Repsol Honda phenom Marc Marquez, the party is truly over.

On a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon in southern Spain, Marc Marquez took care of business, becoming the first polesitter to win in Jerez since Nicky Hayden in 2006. He is the first rider to win the first four races of the season since Valentino Rossi in 2002. He checked off Jerez on his list of Tracks Where I’ve Won Races, the last venue on the 2014 tour to make the list. He is undefeated since clinching the world championship at Valencia in 2013. In short, at age 21, he is the bomb-diggity of the MotoGP world.

When last we saw our helmeted heroes in action – it seems like months ago – Honda’s brilliant Marc Marquez out-raced grizzled Yamaha veteran Valentino Rossi to the flag in a riveting season opener in Qatar. Rossi’s teammate and two-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo lost his marbles on Lap One, ending up in the kitty litter, any chance he might have had for a third premier class title vanishing in a puff of smoke and a shower of sparks.

There’s more to the world of motorcycle racing than what happens on the track. Behind the scenes, rumors are flying and motorcycles are ever-changing. But we sometimes forget that the riders, too, have lives just like the rest of us. Now, thanks to social media, and Twitter specifically, we have more access to the racing world, and the people in it, than ever before. We can get the latest news, gossip and rumors straight from the most knowledgeable sources in the sport. What’s more, many athletes are active on Twitter as well, allowing us the inside line into their everyday lives outside the racetrack.

Factory Yamaha #1 Jorge Lorenzo won a number of battles today at the Gran Premio Aperol de Catalunya. He beat challengers Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez to the finish line for his second consecutive win of 2013 and his second in a row at Montmelo. He beat the Spanish summer heat that had a number of riders seeing stars. He beat the racing surface itself, which was hot, greasy and abrasive. So why does he seems destined to finish second in 2013?