Six-guns a 'blazing, Colin Edwards and Yamaha debuted a special Laguna-only motif today. image by mistah tim huntington

No one who was here at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in 2002 will deny that it was a magical weekend for American Colin Edwards II. Edwards, in a special Texas-meets stars and stripes motif on his Honda RC51, dominated the weekend of World Superbike racing and kick-started a successful come from behind championship run. That weekend in July of '02 was a very special spectacle in racing.

No one who was here in '02 can blame Colin for trying to recapture that magic five years later. Edwards is in the middle of the best MotoGP season he's had and a win at Laguna could be life-changing for him.

Edwards came to today's MotoGP press conference wearing a cowboy hat and a half an hour later Yamaha debuted a special Laguna livery, deemed 'Texas Tornado'.

Edwards and his Fiat Yamaha team pushed the Yamaha M1 out of the garages late this afternoon to a throng of appreciation from the assembled press and guests. While not a replica of his '02 Honda by any means, one doesn't have to squint to see the similarities.

Afterwards Edwards was having his usual fun in any situation: to disperse the crowd he shot his well-oiled t-shirt cannon into the air.