Foggy: Where I'd finish in MotoGP...

Four-times World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty has revealed he's been supporting former rival Colin Edwards since he switched to MotoGP - and uses the Texan's performance as a guide to where he'd finish in the premier-class.

Crash.net caught up with Foggy following the launch of an exclusive an competition to win a holiday of a life-time to the Monza WSBK round, and quizzed Carl on all aspects of his career as both a rider and team manager - including that question: why, after winning his Superbike titles, didn't Carl switch to MotoGP?

Foggy made a handful of appearances in the 500cc class in 1990 - before his full time World Superbike career began - claiming a credible best finish of sixth while riding a Honda NSR500 in place of the injured Frankie Chili.

Carl then made a one-off return with Cagiva in the 1993 British GP; where he qualified fifth and rose as high as second in the race, before being slowed by brake and then fuel problems - the latter of which cost him third on the final lap.

Foggy would go on to win the first of his WSBK titles the following year, but many wished he'd returned to GPs - for a full season and with a competitive factory team - after establishing himself as the king of Superbike. But it wasn't to be...

"It's just one of those things," mused Fogarty. "Politics, right place at the right time, who you are, there is a lot of luck with anything you do in any sport. It didn't happen, I would have gone there and been successful - I know I would. The chance never came.

"It's probably more frustrating now it has all changed round; you see my old Ducati mechanics there and the 1000cc four-strokes, it would have been perfect for me to move across, but it just came six or seven years too late," he explained.

"When I was racing it was the former (500cc two-stroke) class and the desire just wasn't that great to go there at the end of the 1990s because Superbike was so big - in 1999 World Superbike was arguably the biggest motorcycle championship in the world.

"Every big team was in Superbike in 1999 and obviously MotoGP knew they had a problem; they had lost Doohan, obviously Valentino Rossi wasn't there at that stage and the class was won by Criville, who I think pretty much stumbled his way to the championship to be honest.

"There wasn't much interest, I wasn't bothered, but obviously they changed the rules (to four-strokes) to take on Superbike, which has certainly worked. All the manufacturers have switched their attention to MotoGP and its buzzing and big again.
"I would've gone, but the desire wasn't that big to go in the late 90s as the MotoGP championship wasn't really seen as anything in this country (UK), it wasn't big at all."

However, with one of Foggy's toughest WSBK rivals - double world champion Edwards - having made the jump to the MotoGP class in 2003, the Brit feels he's able to use Colin's results to realistically predict how he'd fair.

Fogarty raced against Edwards for five full seasons from 1995 - 1999, during which time the American never finished higher than the Brit in the championship standings (they recorded 11th-1st, 5th-4th, 12th-2nd, 5th-1st and 2nd-1st), but Colin would clinch two consecutive titles after Carl's injury induced retirement early in 2000.

Overall, Edwards won a total of 31 races during his eight-year WSBK career (riding for Yamaha and Honda) to put him second on the all time win list behind only Fogarty, who claimed 59 victories in just under ten full seasons with Ducati and Honda.

"The closest guy to me in Superbike was Colin Edwards," Carl explained. "Now he's in MotoGP and doing OK, and I look at him and go 'come-on!' - wanting him to finish first, second, third or whatever - as wherever I see him finishing I see myself finishing one place higher, as that's where I was when I was racing against him for four or five years in Superbikes."

Edwards claimed two second places on his way to fifth overall for the satellite Telefonica Honda team in MotoGP last season, and has signed to ride for the factory Yamaha team - alongside Valentino Rossi - this year.

Meanwhile, Foggy believes that the balance of power between World Superbike and MotoGP will become more level as the factories begin to feel the financial strain of competing in the premier GP class.

"I can see in the next year or two the World Superbike championship will be as big as it was in 1999-2000 - I'm sure it will," claimed Carl. "The championship just needs the manufacturers in there supporting the class.

"They all pulled out for a couple of years to concentrate everything on MotoGP and maybe the tide is not quite turning, but we are seeing signs that the big teams are returning to Superbikes," he added.

"I think MotoGP just out-expensed itself with a lot of teams. If Ducati don't produce the goods in the next year or two it could see them pull out too, I don't know..."

The full interview with Fogarty is now available on the Crash.net Radio archive.

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