Features 18 Jul 2017

Profiled: Tom Edwards

The story behind one of Australia's youthful emerging talents.

If you’re not familiar with the name, there’s a good chance you will be in the coming years. Tom Edwards has been a standout rider in the Yamaha R3 Cup, Supersport 300 and GP Juniors categories during this year’s Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

At just 16 years of age, the youthful talent from Newcastle, New South Wales, has had an illustrious, yet short career to date, travelling the world to contest a host of championships in varying categories and disciplines of motorcycle racing.

Edwards has been riding bikes ever since he can remember, and being a third generation rider, he can thank his family’s strong history in motorcycles for the introduction to the sport. With dirt track racing in his blood, it was only inevitable that he’d make a start in the discipline to kickstart his racing career.

Image: Keith Muir.

“My dad and pop have always ridden bikes and raced,” Edwards explained to CycleOnline.com.au. “I was pretty much brought straight into it. I got my first bike when I was really young, and dad taught me how to ride. I started racing dirt track because that’s what my family has done.”

The New South Welshman was evidently a natural on the bike, and at the time, dirt track racing. It wasn’t long before he made his way to America at just 10 years of age to race the highly-regarded AMA Flat Track Championship, and after visiting the country for the next four consecutive years, he is now a multi-time AMA champion.

In 2012, Edwards was named ‘Youth Rider of the Year’ by the AMA, something the teenager now sees as a standout accomplishment during his time racing the discipline. “When I was racing dirt track in America, I was Youth Rider of the Year in 2012 – I won two Grand National championships that year, that was really good,” he continued.

Edwards’ transition to road came earlier than anticipated, dabbling in supermoto while on 65s, but it was later down the track when he caught the attention of Colin Stoner – father of multi-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner – when his road racing ignited.

Image: Alex Gobert (Foremost Media).

“One day we were at the track and Colin Stoner came over, he was looking to help someone out,” Edwards commented. “He noticed me and got me into road racing. He’s helped me out a lot in the last three or four years. I started out racing on a Yamaha R15, I stayed on that for a bit before I went over to Thailand to race. I raced there for a year, then I tried out for the Asia Talent Cup, and got in. I did that for a season and I improved a lot while I was over there.”

Now a regular on the ASBK calendar racing primarily aboard his Yamaha R3, Edwards finds himself as a regular challenger for race wins in whichever category he enters, and it’s obvious he has a bright future ahead of him. While he has ambitious goals of racing in the world’s most prestigious motorcycle championships, such as MotoGP or WorldSBK, he has set a firm short-term goal to be contesting the World Supersport 300 championship as soon as 2018.

“We’ll see how I end up at the end of this season,” he said modestly. “If I go good at the last three rounds, then next year the big goal is to race the World Supersport 300 championship, or racing Supersport in Australia if that doesn’t happen. Hopefully in the future I can be riding in WorldSBK or MotoGP,” he concluded.

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