CARL FOGARTY Hands down one of the most brilliant racers in history — Carl Fogarty — here pictured during the pre-season of World Superbike of 2000. His style might be more aggressive than Whitham's (and even Xaus') but sure enough more efficient than most anyone else's on the planet (well, it's on par with Joe Dunlop's).
"Foggy" was born Carl George Fogarty on July 1st, 1965 in Blackburn, England. His dad, a former racer himself, introduced his son to racing, first motocross racing at 13, and soon thereafter to road racing.
Perhaps the main reason why Foggy will enter history as one of the absolute top racers, is partially due to what he did during the 1992 Isle Of Man TT where he wrestled a Yamaha YZF750 to post an all-time fastest lap ever recorded around the island. There are very few world class racers who are blessed with the combined skills of riding both road courses and race tracks... and in addition, have the guts to do so, especially the TT. With some help from his father, he memorized the 37 miles road course and then managed to ride a lap thru the towns and stone fenced farm-roads at an average speed of almost 124 mph!! In fact, his new lap record proved to be quite hard to beat. It wasn't until 7 years later Foggy's lap record was topped (although barely) by Jim Moodie who continued the craze (on a much more powerful RC45). When asked what made him decide to never race there again, Foggy replied, "Nearly killing myself about 50,000 times on that one lap."
But it was in the World Superbike class where Foggy really shined. In a span of eight years he managed to score 59 world wins (55 for Ducati). While pursuing his fifth world title, Foggy's career was cut short from the injuries he sustained from a freak accident on Phillips Island April 23rd 2000. Since he was still under contract with Ducati, after recovery and his official retirement, they decided to keep him on the team as an advisor and soon thereafter became Ruben Xaus' mentor. Except for some occasional Supermotard racing (which also got him injured), motorcycle racing was over for Foggy by 2001. When released from his contract with Ducati, he decided to put together his own race-team and developed a new bike from scratch, all funded by the Malaysian oil giant Petronas. Although the Petronas bike is truly a piece of art, it has yet to prove its success... even with world class racer Troy Corser at its mounts.
When it comes to racing, Carl Fogarty always seemed to have that required "killer instinct" to beat the competition, an instinct his friend Jamie Whitham lacked. Foggy also seemed to have his head screwed on the right way in regards to pre-race mental preparation, a "skill" Ruben Xaus hasn't yet shown to be blessed with, (sure it's a twenty year age difference between the two).
Although Foggy is described as being very cocky (to the point of arrogance), he attributes to his wife that he's down-to-earth. His wife Michaela was once asked whether she would leave him if he had blown all the money on a bad bet, and she replied; "No, I wouldn't leave him. I've known Carl for eighteen years, right from when he was a schoolboy -- an aggravating, smelly, horrible, snotty-nosed schoolboy. So I knew him when he had nothing, when he was wearing a Crombie and Doc Martens. We have our ups and downs like everyone, but I think we have something special. We spend almost 24 hours a day together and it works."
Carl Fogarty pre-season testing — 1999
Carl Fogarty and his wife Michaela — 2001
