Ducati News Today

Reports are coming in that suggest that at the very least Tech3 MotoGP racer Colin Edwards is checking his options for next year and that could involve a return to the World Superbike series on board an Aprilia or more interestingly a Ducati.

MotoGPmatters.com is reporting that a post on Colin’s fan blog by his own father confirms that Colin has been in talks with both Aprilia and Ducati. Fans of the World Superbike Championship will recall that Colin Edwards is a 2 time champion in that series on the Honda VTR1000SP-W twin including the incredible 2002 season where he won the championship at the final Imola round after a season long dice with 3 time champion and now newly retired Troy Bayliss.

So it is axiomatic that the paddock would be very excited about the return of the Texas Tornado to the series if it were to come to pass. Colin has been a solid if unspectacular performer in MotoGP since he joined in 2003 and has ridden the ill-fated Aprilia Cube, a satellite Honda RC211V and both factory and now satellite M1 Yamahas. He has been on the podium but has failed to win a race (he famously crashed at the final corner in Assen handing victory to Nicky Hayden). If you predict that Colin will finish 6th in any given race, you won’t be far wrong.

With rising stars coming up from the 250 ranks, the older Colin may be pushed rather than jump and a return to World Superbikes could be on the cards (although in the past he has openly talked about racing back home in the AMA series too). Colin has a good relationship with Aprilia from his fiery (sometimes literally) days on the cube and Aprilia would surely dearly love someone of his talent on the machine since Nakano is having a so-so season and Max Biaggi is not quite there with the new RSV4.

On the other hand, Colin may well prefer to get aboard a proven winning machine and finish his racing career by winning the championship once again. He of all people knows how hard it is to win the series on a four cylinder bike! If any of this comes to pass, he will have stiff competition from Noriyuki Haga (if he doesn’t retire first) and Ben Spies (if he doesn’t jump quickly to MotoGP)

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