SUPERBIKES: Man of the millennium

No other has done as much to promote East Lancashire sport on a global stage.

That's the conclusion of our Hot 100 analysis, of the greatest achievers to have made an impact on our region's sporting record.

It was not an easy decision to make, and far from a unanimous choice from our sports team.

Both Jimmy McIlroy and Alan Shearer were suggested for their roles in bringing arguably the country's most prestigious team honour, the football league title, to the focal points of Turf Moor and Ewood Park.

It is difficult, though, to entirely separate their individual brilliance from the collective team effort.

But Fogarty's phenomenal achievements are built upon the classic personalised foundations of fierce determination, indomitable self-belief and raw talent.

And he has remained loyal to his Blackburn roots, shunning the Monte Carlo jetset lifestyle, to bring his family up in more familiar surroundings.

He said: "I'm the one sportsman, for some reason, who has his name associated with the town that I come from.

"It's unbelievable how many times it is mentioned on television 'Carl Fogarty from Blackburn'.

"They never say that about any other rider and that might be because I haven't gone to live in Monaco, like my team-mates.

"So it's good that Blackburn is mentioned every time I am mentioned. "I am proud of where I come from, there's no reason not to be.

"It's great to win any award but to be called East Lancashire's greatest ever sportsman is a fantastic honour.

"I hope I have brought a lot of pleasure to the people of East Lancashire with my achievements over the last 10 years."

There are detractors who would argue that those achievements have been achieved in a sport in which credit should be shared equally between rider and engineer. The mechanic, though, does not travel at speeds of 200 miles per hour, protected from certain death by the width of a crash helmet.

He does not throw that huge weight of metal around miles and miles of track in searing hot conditions.

And the mechanic does not duck inside the line of a rival on the final bend, where no space for such a manoeuvre ever existed.

That breathtaking combination of the dangerous craving for supremacy and adrenaline is the essence of bike racing's unique appeal, a fascination that can attract 120,000 people to Brands Hatch to pay homage to their undisputed and adored hero.

That day in August provided the first real indication of the growing phenomenon of Foggimania.

For a minority sport, which was not covered on terrestrial television, the year's biggest single-day attendance at a sporting event was mind-boggling.

But it only mirrored the worldwide following that Fogarty already attracted. He was once voted Italy's fifth most popular sportsman, the highest non-Italian and non-footballer, because of his long-standing association with Italian manufacturers, Ducati.

Fogarty is also a household name throughout the world as the World Superbike Championship grows in stature and continues to challenge the 500cc Grand Prix series as the sport's blue riband competition.

And it is only the fact that Fogarty has never competed in that class, against legends of the calibre of Mick Doohan, that has prevented him from staking a claim to be among the undisputed all-time greats.

Even so, in a recent analysis in the sport's bible, Motor Cycle News, Fogarty was nominated as the 13th best rider of all-time and, significantly, ahead of Barry Sheene.

What might have been, if circumstance had not conspired to prevent Fogarty from moving from Superbikes into the Grand Prix arena, is open to conjecture.

But Fogarty's standing as the greatest ever superbike rider is beyond dispute.

A record four world titles, a record number of 59 race wins, not to mention the most pole positions, place Fogarty in a different league to his rivals.

That success has made him a multi-millionaire, set to earn more than £2 million as he chases a fifth world title this summer.

But Fogarty's is no classic rags to riches story. His early years in motocross and 250cc racing were bankrolled by his dad's successful company, P&G Fogarty. But the real crunch came when, after two bad accidents, Fogarty found that he was more comfortable on a bigger 750cc Honda in winning the Formula One World Championship in 1988 and 1989.

He won the Isle of Man TT in 1990 and in 1992 won his first World Superbike race in 1992.

In 1993 he started to make a real impression on the world championship and finished second behind Scott Russell.

But the following year he lifted his first world title at Phillip Island in Australia, before blitzing the opposition the following season to clinch his second world crown.

Fogarty then moved to Honda for an ill-fated season, during which consistent technical problems hampered his bid for a third title.

But he was quickly back in the Ducati ranks when success did not come with the Japanese giants, as Troy Corser lifted the title.

More bike problems prevented a third title in 1997 when American John Kocinski was crowned king, but Fogarty clinched an amazing series in 1998 when series leader Corser crashed out in practice in Japan, leaving the way clear for Fogarty to pip the Australian and Aaron Slight at the post. Despite the trials of Brands Hatch, he cruised last year's championship and, following his win in Hockenheim, was out of reach with the Japanese round 13 to spare.

Fogarty enters the first season of the new Millennium, as always, the man to beat.

He has a new team-mate in American Ben Bostrum and a modified bike, designed to compete with the threat of a new Honda.

But his will to win is as fierce as ever.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.