Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128630
Carl Fogarty • , b ike. Befo re I go testing I wo uld like to be a bout 85%. Davide a gr eed and the s pecia lis t s aid , "a t 85% I wou ld be happy for yo u to get ba c k on th e bike ." Around Novem ber tim e it s ho uld be th at stro ng, a nd a test is scheduled for the n. The tro uble is tha t I have to make some decision s befor e Nov ember ; in fact , before that. All my previous ye a rs m y contract has alwa ys been sorted out e arly . Obviously , I want Ducati to hang on for me. But I'm not 100% certain about what I want to do , even now . I thought tha t after I had gone to Brands I'm go ing to come away think ing. 'W ell , I' m definitely gonna want to race ,' but that hasn 't happened at a ll. Whether it' s because I rode th e b ike round and didn't feel right on it or what, I dunno . If I'd pu lled a few wheelies a nd really en joyed it the n it might have fe lt more the other way, but I tend to think it's ne ve r go nna be right. The do ctor sa id that th e a rm shou ld get ba ck to 10 0% strong, but I will ha ve on ly a 90% re covery of use . DO you see your future ro le in the Ducati setup as anything like that of Doohan in the Honda squad? Sort of riding guru-corne-motivator? I d unn o wha t he d oe s ; he seems to sit in the ga rage and do not m uc h . But it's like [Kevi n] Schwa ntz an d S uzu ki - you associate a name with a bike . Fogarty and Duc ati are like twins. So there has to be th ings that carry that on. Th ings on the Internet, replica bikes , books , a racing school, lots to do with Ducati.' But coming to every ra c e? I don't want to do that. I always said I would go to th e two Eng lish ones, the Italian ones, mayb e one or two others . I'd enjoy th at, but I couldn't do what Doohan does. I find it strange to see him sat in a garage at eve ry racetrack . I keep thin king , ' Bloody hell, get back to Australia.' Yo ur autobiography ha s sold inc redibly we ll in the firs t couple of weeks , and in the book yo u do have some serious dig s a t people. Ha ve you ups e t a lot of them? Q A Carl Fogarty (right) chats with Brands Hatch World Superbike winner Neil Hodgson before the start of the first leg. B y G O RDO N R IT CHIE PHOT OS BY G OLD & G O OSE n April 23, Ca rl Fogarty and the hapless Robert Ulm had a collision at Ph illip Island that has had co nsequences far beyond the broke n upper arm s uffered by the reigni ng World Superbike Champ ion . The World Superbi ke racing firmament , from that moment on, has been tu rn ed on its head. Like Mic k Do oha n in GPs , th e exit of the do mi nant force in Wor~d Superbike ra cin g for the last s ix years has le ft a half dozen potential World Cha m pion s -in -waiting. But is it the e nd of Fogarty' s career entirely? Go rdon Ritch ie spoke to t he Worl d Champion after what may well p ro ve to be his swansong in front of his home crowd at Brands Hatch. How do you fee l physically no w? O Q l' m completely worn out actually , aft er two days at Brands Hatch for the World Superbike race , a couple of da ys in Londo n do ing the la unch of my bo o k befor e t ha t a n d the n a couple of da ys after doing book s ignings. Hell of a s ix days , beca us e I've done ve ry little ov e r the la st few mont hs . Are you keen to re -sign for next season , or do you think you will retire? Ha d I ra ced th is ye a r and won the world title , I had mention ed th at this would pr obably be m y last yea r anyway . I'd like to re -write things a nd go o ut d ifferently , but yo u ca n 't a lways ha ve every thing . O ve r the ne xt month I've rea lly got to work hard on m y a rm and then th ink a bo ut it. I ha ve a 10day hol id a y com ing up a nd hopefu lly that s ho u ld he lp me m a ke up m y m ind. I've a lrea dy had a m iniret irement for th e last few m onths. Initia lly I was like , 'I'll get ba ck , I'll get stra ight back .' Now I've bee n sat arou nd for months andm onth s . and to have done what I've done , a nd at the a ge I'm at. p lus ta k ing into considerati on the inju ries that I'v e had be fore - which a re always creeping back and giving me tro uble - it's like everything's pointing at me not coming back, tell ing me not to come back. A Q A 42 SEPTEMBER 1 3 . 2000' 0: U 0: • e n e I d unno, it's a difficult o ne . Everyth ing is po inti ng towards retirement, but I just want to be 100% su re so that in a month 's time I don 't suddenly go. 'O h ye a h. I' m ready. I'm a lot stronger, I wa nt to come back.' YOU rode a bike fo r a couple of laps at Brands Hatch. Did it feel good to get back on your Ducati again? Rid ing m y ra c e bike at Brands fe lt re a lly diffi- , cu lt. A lot of peo p le we re sayi ng how fit a n d well I was looking on the bike . how it loo ked like I had never been awa y , but I felt like a co mp le te no vice . I couldn 't get down behind the sc reen p roperly , felt I was holding on so tight with my good a rm that it made the b ike unstable at speed. It had brand new tires on as well and wh en I felt it tw itch exiting G raham Hill ben d I t hou gh t ' O h , n o , not now !' Be c a us e I cou ld n' t ha ng on a t all I wa s wo b bling everywhere a nd I was consta ntly in the wron g gea r. S o t he experience didn 't fill you with your usual confidence? I must a dmi t if I ever needed to know how far away I am from ra cing a gai n then that wa s it. I s til l fe e l lik e I'm a m ill ion mil es off b e ing right. Maybe that will im prove now tha t I've been given the all clear to p ush a bit by the doctors at Ox ford th e Thu rsda y be fo re Bran ds Hatc h. IS Du<:at i getting a little impatient with the rate of your recovery? I had Da vide Ta rd ozzi a t O xford with m e for th e final exa m ina tio ns as well be cause I wanted him to be there a nd listen to it a ll. I had even sta rte d to b el ie ve th a t th ey h a d well .. . not that they did n't beli eve m e a bout m y inj uries , but that they were st arting to get as frus tra te d a s I wa s . So it was good for Davide to hear from the doctor himself that I'm not right, not by a long wa y. Strength -wise , the y say break was 65% strong , whic h is not good at all if I'm planning on riding a Q Q A Q A Q A _ s Fogarty did a parade lap on his Ducatl at Brands Hatch, saying he felt like a complete Novice on the bike.