It’s three decades since Carl Fogarty became World Superbike champion for the first time.
Photographs: Mark Wernham Collection at Mortons Archive
What followed from the nail-biting last-round championship win in 1994 was Carl’s domination on the Ducati V-twin, with three more titles coming in 1995, 1998 and 1999. Foggy would go on to break records for wins in the class, which were only recently beaten by six-time WSB champ Jonathan Rea.
Fogarty’s championship win was made all the more remarkable thanks to injury and big changes to his Ducati team. Coming off the back of a successful 1993 where he was runner-up to Scott Russell on the Kawasaki ZXR750, the sensible move may have been keeping things the same. Instead, Ducati brought out a replacement for the 888 – the 916 racer – and replaced his team-boss Raymond Roche (and the entire team) with a new all-Italian group (save for Anthony ‘Slick’ Bass), and with Virginio Ferrari at the helm.
While the bike was based on the outgoing 888, the chassis was new and back then there wasn’t a lot of pre-season testing. The competition was also stiffer, with the arrival of the Castrol Honda squad with the new RC45 V4. Russell and Fogarty would take a win apiece in the first round at Donington Park before disaster struck in the second round at Hockenheim in Germany.
Carl crashed on oil at the Sachs Curve, breaking two bones in his left wrist: Russell won both races. In Italy the Ducati’s gearbox lunched itself in race one and a still hurting Fogarty could only grab 5th in race two. A mid-season comeback from Carl saw back-to-back doubles in Spain and Austria. By the time the season rolled into Philip Island for the last round, Foggy’s race win seemed to break Russell’s spirit and the American waved the Brit through in race two.
Carl Fogarty and Pierfrancesco Chili will be special guests at the Carole Nash Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show on October 12/13 at the Stafford County Showground. For more go to: www.classicbikeshows.com
