Edwards' busy December highlighted with RoC run

Oh, to be lucky enough to be a motorsports star and have the kind of holiday season Carl Edwards is in the middle of. But then again, for a racing driver, talent and charisma make up for a lot compared to just sitting around waiting for luck to take over.

So it made sense that Edwards' continent-hopping holiday season tour included gaining some international racing respect at Sunday's 21st annual Race of Champions at London's Wembley Stadium. And it made a career moment for Edwards as well.

Carl Edwards at the RoC.

If you can, forget about the fact that, after competing in his first RoC, Edwards was going on vacation to Thailand -- the recent government protesters be damned -- before returning to the United States for a low-key Christmas with his and fiancée Kate Downey's families.

Then, right after New Year's, Edwards and Downey will get married, well before the start of another twin-bill NASCAR season. Those are significant marks in anyone's life-log.

But the next couple weeks will give Edwards plenty of time to savor his victory on seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher in the Race of Champions quarterfinals, one day after he was awarded the inaugural TAG Heuer Racing Award in London.

Edwards, who made a positive impression on the media and fans in London, received the award given by the Swiss timepiece company as a determination of the best racing driver in 2008 based on the statistical analysis of weekly results by an eight-person panel that compared more than 150 drivers from Formula One, GP2, NASCAR and the World Rally Championship.

Edwards beat 2008 Race of Champions winner, five-time World Rally Championship winner Sebastien Loeb; as well as history's youngest Formula One champion, Lewis Hamilton.

But Edwards told England's Autosport.com that it paled in comparison to besting Schumacher. During a two-lap run in the Race of Champions' parallel courses in four-cylinder turbocharged 200 HP, front-wheel-drive Abarth 500 rally cars, Edwards soundly beat Schumacher by 1.749 seconds.

"It's amazing," Edwards said in his interview on the English publication's Web edition. "It feels like I've won a championship. I'll never forget that moment as long as I live -- just the chance to be able to race with [Schumacher], and fortunately to be able to beat him." (Continued)