NHRA News: Edwards enjoying less hectic preseason (1/27/2004)

Edwards enjoying less hectic preseason

1/27/2004

"How many people wake up in the morning, go to work, and love what they do?"
– Mike Edwards

All things considered, Mike Edwards is enjoying the current off-season much more than last year. And when you take into account some of the obstacles encountered at the beginning of '03 by the 46-year-old Edwards, you begin to understand why the Pontiac Grand Am racer is slightly more relaxed and more confident as he looks toward the upcoming POWERade Pro Stock battle.

"Everything's pretty much on schedule," Edwards said. "We're working on a new car but have the Grand Am we ran last year if we need it. Frank Iaconio is still giving us good horsepower, and Alan Lindsey and Josh Robinson are still in place doing a terrific job. This year we feel real comfortable with what we have and where we are. We're working on the new car to see if there's any hope for it. If there is, I'll probably start the season with it at Pomona, and if not, I'll use the car I ran last year.

"I was ready for the season to end two months ago, but we usually are. Like everything else, when you're doing something non-stop for 10 months straight, you welcome a little break. But after a couple of months away from it you're ready to go again. I think it's the thrill of competing against some really good teams that keeps us going and drives us to do better."

Edwards faced many challenges as he readied the Young Life Pontiac for the 2003 campaign. The Oklahoma native made the switch over from the Chevy Cavalier to the SC/T Grand Am and took delivery of his new racecar in mid-January. The state of his engine program and where he would find adequate horsepower was also a question to be answered. With very little testing and just a few laps on his new Pontiac, Edwards DNQ at the '03 Winternationals was a disappointment but not the quite shock it may have been in previous campaigns.

"I guess it's no secret that we were a little behind starting off last year," Edwards said. "We were limping along with our engine program and actually went to Phoenix without a motor on the trailer, not knowing what would happen."

Veteran racer Edwards has 11 victories in 23
final-round showings over his nine-year career.
Racers Edge Photography

Heading into the Gatornationals a distant 21st place in the points, things finally started to fall into place. A fresh head of steam, courtesy of Frank Iaconio's engine shop began to provide Edwards' Pontiac with the necessary horsepower to be competitive and his new Grand Am started to show the kind of potential he had expected at the outset of the year.

"We didn't really know Frank until we started working with him," Edwards said. "He has a really good program and has been doing this a long time. Frank's extremely smart, has a lot of experience, and that goes a long way in this sport. I'm glad to have him involved with our program."

By the end of the season, Edwards had clawed his way to fifth place in the POWERade standings for his third career top-five Pro Stock points finish.

"I was real proud of what we were able to do," said Edwards. "When you look at the four guys who were in front of me and the quality of their programs it puts into perspective what this team was able to accomplish. After the start we had, Alan and Josh really worked their tails off to give us that great finish. I'm really proud of the way they hung in there and never gave up.

"We'll keep working and keep trying things to see what looks best for us. It's pretty upbeat around here for this time of year. We're usually way behind, so we're looking pretty good. I think the data we have this year with the Grand Am will make us even better. This is the second year now that we've had an opportunity to run the Pontiac, and now we'll be going back to tracks where we have a little experience with it. We had a learning curve last year, got over that, made a lot of changes and now we're looking forward to driving the Grand Am again this season. It's going to be fun starting off with our pistols fully loaded."

Edwards has come a long way since he began bracket racing in the mid-1970s at local strips throughout the Sooner State. He won the NHRA championship in Modified in 1981 after claiming victories at a pair of national events in Pomona and Denver. In '82 Edwards competed in Pro Stock for the first time, entering two national events, and then climbed back into a full-time ride in the factory hot rods in 1995 when he raced in three events for car-owner John Kight.

Edwards scored his third top-five finish in 2003.
Racers Edge Photography

In 1996, Edwards captured his first Pro Stock national-event victory at Houston. He won two more races that year at Seattle and Pomona, and added a pair of runners-up at Richmond and Sonoma to lock up a third-place finish and a share of Rookie of the Year honors with Pro Stock Bike rider Matt Hines.

"I love being a Pro Stock competitor," Edwards said. "I'm so blessed to have what I have. How many people wake up in the morning, go to work, and love what they do? I just thank the Lord every day for what I have. The program I'm involved with at Young Life helping the kids makes it even sweeter. I've said it before, but I've got the greatest job in the world. I get to race this car and tell kids about Christ.

"If you don't love what you're doing you can't be happy. I'm not afraid to admit it although a lot of these guys are. It is an absolute ball to get in that Grand Am and run 6.8 seconds at 205 mph, and I'm going to enjoy it until it's not here anymore. Right now, I'm 45 years old and one of the happiest guys in the world."

Widely recognized for his overall racing aptitude and dual-role talents as a crew chief and a driver, Edwards has tallied 11 career victories in 23 final-round appearances, three top-five, and six top-10 finishes. Edwards captured the U.S. Nationals in 1998 and has won at least one race in six of the last seven seasons he's competed (Edwards did not race in 2000).

"I love working on the car more than anything," Edwards said. "I'm kind of one of those guys who probably pays too much attention to what I feel and what's going on with the car and the motor. I'm listening to the car all the time, and I should probably be paying better attention to doing my job and driving it. Even though I enjoy driving the car, I love the challenge of working on the car even more. If the car's not right, I enjoy trying to make it right and getting it to run the way it needs to. The bonus is getting to drive. That makes it even better. If I had to give up one of the two, I would give up driving and continue working on the car."

Although Edwards failed to reach the winner's circle in 2003 for the first time in seven years, he rolled to a runner-up at Bristol and a pair of No. 3 qualifying efforts at Bristol and Sonoma. On the season, Edwards' Pontiac delivered 17 round wins, including a clutch performance at the Auto Club NHRA Finals that moved Edwards up to fifth place, just four points ahead of sixth-place finisher Alan Johnson, and 18 points ahead of seventh-place driver Ron Krisher. Edwards also ran a career-best elapsed time of 6.736 seconds at Houston and a career-best speed of 204.51 mph at Englishtown.

"We're hoping our overall performance from last year can carry over," Edwards said. "We're racing against the best. These guys we compete against in Pro Stock are good, they're real good, and it's tough trying to beat them and rewarding when we do. We won't know for certain where we stand until we get to Pomona and start racing. You always want to do better than you did the year before. We didn't win a race last season, so obviously we want to do that. We'd also like to finish better, but we're going to have to start out stronger than we did last year, and I'm confident that we can."

Return to 2004 News Archive
Return to the Home Page