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."

Schumacher appeared disgusted with himself in his post-race interview on the event's live Web cast, but paid Edwards his due when he said, "Carl was simply better and you have to respect this, so well-done to him."

Edwards made it to the semifinals of the 16-man all-star event as a rookie, losing to Scottish Formula One driver David Coulthard. Between the Race of Champions and Nations Cup events, Coulthard actually ran twice as many races as Edwards, eight to four -- and five of those eight were in the KTM X-Bow, a rear-wheel-drive, open-top two-seat sports-racing car with a two-liter, 240 HP turbocharged Audi engine.

Carl Edwards in his KTM X-Bow.

In the decisive semifinal Coulthard, whose every move Sunday was greeted by massive cheers from the crowd of more than 46,000 people, beat Edwards by just .997 seconds after Coulthard crashed his X-Bow in the last corner, but restarted in time to beat Edwards to the line.

Ironically, in their only other races in the same vehicle, Edwards was faster than Coulthard by .042 seconds in the Abarth. But the idea of this event is head-to-head competition, in which times are irrelevant.

Edwards' single-elimination competition, which featured five different types of purpose-built race or rally cars, actually consisted of two races each in the Abarths and X-Bows.

In the opening round of the Race of Champions, Edwards beat British Formula 3 champion Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari by about .6 seconds in the X-Bow. Edwards and his American teammate, drifter Tanner Foust, lost to Britons Jenson Button and Andy Priaulx, respectively, in the first round of the Nations Cup, which was eventually won for the second consecutive year by Schumacher and current Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel.

American race fans wouldn't be surprised at Edwards' assessment of either his performance, which included a crash in an Abarth in his first-round Nations Cup event or the event.

"He didn't get a chance to practice in [the Abarth Sunday], only in the rain [Saturday]," Edwards said of Schumacher. "So just like my first run today he was at a big disadvantage. That car is different to anything I've ever driven and I'm sure it's the same for him.

"The atmosphere [at Wembley] was great. It seemed like everybody was having a good time and it's real friendly competition -- until we get out on the track -- then, everyone's trying real hard."