Foggy: The Explosive Autobiography of the Four-time Superbike World Champion - Hardcover

Carl Fogarty

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002189607 ISBN 13: 9780002189606

Publisher: Collins Willow, 2000

Synopsis

Four-time world superbike champion, Carl Fogarty is, by most yardsticks, the greatest motorcycle rider Britain has ever produced. In his autobiography he recounts a lifetime of thrills and spills on and off the racing circuit.

Carl Fogarty could justly lay claim to the title of Sports Personality of the Year. In a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a dominance in any sporting discipline, Fogarty has won the World Superbike Championship no fewer than four times including back-to-back wins in the last two years.

He is immensely popular with the fans and in recent years his growing stature within the sport has reached epic proportions. He has come a long way since the early 1980s when he used to travel to circuits as far away as Finland in a clapped-out old horsebox. But those early days were also wild and enjoyable times. Tales of hell-raising abound: staggering home at five in the morning before the Isle of Man TT was clearly not the best preparation for one of the most dangerous races in the world.

This danger was experienced by Fogarty in very real terms in 1986 when, after a particularly severe crash, his compound fracture of the leg became infected around a traction pin and snapped again in a later race. He describes the other injuries he has suffered, talks about the tragedies that he has witnessed and exposes the sport’s reckless riders.

In such an octane-fuelled sport as Superbikes there are bound to be disagreements and Fogarty has had more than most. In fact, he generally doesn’t get on with his fellow riders and is not afraid to say so. He recounts, among other tales, the spectacular bust-up with his fellow Ducati team-mate, Pier-Francesco Chili, at Assen in 1998.

Away from the hype though, Fogarty is very much the laid-back family man. Despite his trappings of wealth he has remained loyal to his Blackburn roots. His story is a compelling tale of a typical working class lad made good in one of the most dangerous and glamorous arenas in world sport.

About this title

About the Author

Carl Fogarty is the four-time World Superbike Champion and the hero of millions of bike fans worldwide.

Neil Bramwell, who has collaborated with Carl Fogarty in writing this book, is the sports editor of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and has co-written many articles with Fogarty for the paper.

From the Back Cover

Carl Fogarty is one of the world's greatest motorbike riders and arguably the best ever from Britain. He is also something of a sporting rarity. Not only is he a consistent British world champion, but superstar status has failed to affect his honest and down-to-earth approach to life.
He is the major box office attraction of the increasingly popular World Superbike championship, which he has won a record four times, among other world crowns. In 1999, an amazing 120,000 fans turned up to watch him race at Brands hatch.

'Foggy' is a typically frank account of the transformation from a shy and awkward teenager to the self-assured celebrity. It details the dangers of his sport, personal tragedies, the hell-raising years and the sport's unique sex appeal. But Fogarty is essentially a family man and he has retained his roots in the Lancashire town of Blackburn, where he lives with wife Michaela and his two daughters.

The book provides a unique insight into the big money deals that have made him a multi-millionaire and the problems that go hand in hand with such wealth. Track rivals are not spared the forthright Fogarty treatment in some startling revelations about the cut and thrust world of his profession. Most of all, though, he displays an ability to laugh at himself, one of the endearing charms that makes Carl Fogarty's life story a rollercoaster ride of humour and emotion.

Edition details

• Publisher: Collins Willow
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0002189607
• ISBN 13: 9780002189606
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308