Carl Fogarty

Carl 'Foggy' Fogarty (born 1 July 1965 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is the most successful World Superbike racer of all time in terms of the number of championships and number of race wins. Now retired, he is renowned for his high corner speed riding style, combined with an aggressive competitiveness, which netted him 59 victories and four World Superbike Championships (1994, 1995, 1998 and 1999). His greatest success came with the factory Ducati team. He was awarded an MBE in 1998's New Year's Honours List.

World Superbikes

In 1991 he raced for Neil Tuxworth's Honda UK team in World Superbikes, finishing 7th overall. The team pulled out in 1992, and Carl nearly found himself without a ride after a promised deal failed to materialise. He did ultimately take his first WSBK win at Donington Park, and finished the championship 9th overall despite only completing a partial season.

1993 was the beginning of his era as a factory Ducati rider. He battled with Scott Russell for the title, winning 11 races to the American's five, but losing out on consistency (Russell came 2nd twelve times compared to Fogarty's two) to finish behind him.

In 1994 two factors came together to build on the successes of the previous season. Foggy was fit and hungry for the title, having been so close the previous season; but he would also be using the new Ducati 916.

He missed the Hockenheim races with a broken wrist, but fought back to pip Russell and Aaron Slight to the crown.

Winning 6 of the first 8 races in 1995 helped him seal that title with 5 of the 24 races to spare, and he clinched it with 3 races to spare in 1999.

In 1996 he raced for Tuxworth again, now with Honda factory support. Despite winning four races that season on the RC45, three more than team-mate Aaron Slight, and one more than Slight had managed over three seasons on the bike, Fogarty again struggled with consistency and finished 4th overall, 16 points behind 2nd placed Slight and 38 points behind champion Troy Corser.

In 1997 he returned to Ducati, finishing second overall to the Honda of John Kocinski.

1998 was his closest title - after a disastrous weekend at the Nürburgring he lay just 6th in the standings, but fought back to overhaul Troy Corser and Aaron Slight in the final round. This was especially notable as his team (Ducati Performance), managed by Davide Tardozzi, was in its first year of WSBK competition.

Surprisingly, his first victory in any form of racing at Brands Hatch did not come until 1995. He had much greater success at Assen, winning all but 1 race there between 1995 and 1999. Large numbers of British fans would travel to the race on the ferries at this time.

Superbike World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Other races

Early in his career he won the Formula One World Championship for bikes, which was gradually fading after the 1988 commencement of the World Superbike Championship. In 1990 it dropped below the six races required for the FIM to class it as a Championship, rather than merely a Cup; again, he won it.

He made a handful of starts in Moto GP, filling in for Pierfrancesco Chili on a ROC bike for a while in 1990, with a best finish of 6th at the Swedish Grand Prix. He also contested the 500cc British Grand Prix several times. In 1992 he ran 6th before crashing on oil. In 1993 he qualified on the second row, and ran second early on after Alex Barros, Mick Doohan and Kevin Schwantz crashed on the first lap. he was set for third when he ran out of fuel, coasting over the line in 4th behind three Yamahas. He was entered again in 1994, but withdrew pre-race - citing a hand injury but later admitting that he felt the ride was uncompetitive.

Fogarty broke the lap record at the Isle of Man TT in 1992. His lap at 18 minutes, 18.8 seconds (123.61 mph) on a Yamaha 750cc wasn't broken until seven years later by Jim Moodie from a standing start riding a Honda RC45 in 1999, taking the record to 124.45 mph.

In 1992 he teamed with Terry Rymer and Michael Simul to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They went on to win the World Endurance Championship for Kawasaki.

Riding for Ducati, Fogarty finished second at the 1995 Daytona 200 in the United States. Scott Russell crashed during the first lap of the race but was able to remount and pass Fogarty for the win. Fogarty said that the pace car regrouping following the yellow flag allowed Russell to close the gap significantly.^[1]

Career stats

Post-racing

Fogarty was forced to retire from racing in 2000 after a racing incident at Philip Island when he hit privateer Ducati rider Robert Ulm and crashed. He suffered multiple injuries, including a serious shoulder injury which failed to heal well enough to allow him to race again. He was replaced in the factory Ducati team by Troy Bayliss.

In 2002, Ducati released a special limited edition model (only 300 units were built) in his honour, the Monster S4 Fogarty.

In the same year, Fogarty founded the Foggy Petronas team in the World Superbike Championship (WSB). They entered with Carl's former team-mate Corser and James Haydon in 2003, but their three-cylinder Petronas FP1 was never truly competitive. In 2004 they achieved two third places (one for Corser and one for Chris Walker), but in this season there was little manufacturer support in WSB. Once several manufacturers returned for 2005, they were not competitive. Petronas ended the project at the end of 2006, leaving Foggy's racing future unclear. Having tried and failed to find sponsorship for a team running customer Ducatis in 2007, in May Fogarty confirmed the team's return in 2008 as the official MV Agusta team^[2] - only to later pull the plug on his team's activities and put their assets up for sale.^[3]

Carl Fogarty was never a person to stray away from controversy in the WSB paddock, and even in retirement, he frequently voices his opinion (most often in the British motorcycle newspaper MCN) in which he often berates past rivals such as Troy Corser and Neil Hodgson. This attitude towards other racers has made him a love-or-hate personality in the motorcycling world.

References

External links

• Team Fogarty Racing
• The Carl Fogarty Photo Album
• Carl Fogarty interview - BBC Sport