Carl Fogarty: the man best known for eating an ostrich anus on live television, right?
No, no… of course not: 2014’s King of the Jungle may be best known to the British public for his bravery in the various bush tucker trials in the ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ TV series, but we recall his grit, determination, courage and balls (his, not some Antipodean animal) out on the track.
Foggy is thankfully better known to us bike fans for his dominance of World Superbikes during its golden period: we’re talking the early to late 1990s.
The list of riders he would race against and beat includes John Kocinski, Scott Russell, Aaron Slight, Pier-Francesco Chili, Doug Polen, Colin Edwards and Anthony Gobert. During his full World Superbike career spanning from 1988 to 2000, Carl would win 59 races, he’d take 21 pole positions and get onto the podium 109 times, until he was forced to retire due to injury.
And then there were his ‘other’ world championships, often forgotten and indelibly linked to his prowess as a pure road racer. “Forgotten?” says Carl when I dare to say this to him. “Go check on my bloody Instagram and Facebook pages – the championships and TT wins are always mentioned on there and I’m very proud of them!”
Oops. Sorry!
I should have known better. After all, Carl was born into racing and was always likely to go to the TT. Dad George was
