CARL Fogarty returns to the scene of last year's World Superbikes Championship glory with this year's hard work already done.

Fogarty clinched his third world title at Sugo, 200 miles north of Tokyo in Japan, in a dramatic final day of the 1998 season.

This year the trip is all but irrelevant, except for a few statistically significant goals.

For instance, Fogarty can equal the record number of races he set in 1995 with 13.

He can even break the 500 points mark and set a new record for the number of points, taking 458 into the final round.

And one more race win would make it a career total of 60 in World Superbikes.

But Fogarty will have to contend with a host of top class Japanese wild cards, as well as a notoriously difficult surface on which he has crashed out on a number of occasions.

"The Japanese are fast out there, especially Noriyuki Haga, and Yamaha own the track, so they will be the hardest to beat, for sure.

"I have had a lot of crashes there and so have a lot of other riders.

"It's a very unpredictable surface and very slick, especially on the rear, so you tend to lose that a lot."

Fogarty's Ducati team will be keen for their rider to stay on his bike in order to help the chances of their other man, Troy Corser, hanging on to second place in the championship. He is four points ahead of Honda's Colin Edwards and 31 in front of fourth-placed Aaron Slight.

But Fogarty is no fan of team orders and, to date, his brief is to go out and win both Sunday races.

He said: "If I cannot win, then maybe I can help Troy get second place in the championship.

"If I can help out, then Troy would be grateful for that.

"But I don't really agree with team orders.

"I have always believed that if you are going to win something, you should do it on your own.

"If the team want me to do it, and I can't win the race, then I will have no choice but to do it.

"But the team have said go out and win the races."

The whole meeting was nearly cancelled following last week's radiation leak north of Tokyo, but Ducati have been assured that there will be no risk when passing through the contaminated district on the bullet Sendai-Shinkansen train line from the airport.

Nevertheless, it has still been difficult for Fogarty to remain focused following his title-clinching weekend at Hockenheim four weeks ago.

Since then, he has been testing next year's bike in Croatia and an autograph-signing session at the Milan Bike Show had to be abandoned when the crowd rushed on to the stage, prompting fears of its collapse. He also has a host of TV appearances lined up on his return from Japan.

Foggy added: "There is still an incentive - and that is to be first over the line.

"I'm not 100 per cent happy about having to go, and its hard work to get motivated for the travelling, but once I'm there I'll want to win the races.

"It's a bit of an anti-climax because it's so far away, and no-one really cares about it.

"And I'm not too bothered about the records but there have been a few people going on about it so it would be nice to achieve something there.

"But it's just nice to go into a race and not be under the pressure that I've been under for the whole of 1998 and this season.

"It's the first time I have not had any worries so I might be able to enjoy it a bit more and maybe take a few more chances, knowing that I've got nothing to lose."

Last year, Fogarty entered the round behind both Troy Corser and Aaron Slight.

But Corser crashed out during race day practise, leaving a two-horse race between Fogarty and Aaron Slight.

Foggy managed third place in the first race won by wild card Keiichi Ktiigawa on a Suzuki, despite tyre problems.

That left him one half a point above Slight going into the final race of the series.

With Slight failing to mount a serious challenge, Foggy finished fourth behind Haga to secure his third world title.

Considering the strength of the local challenge - Japanaese riders have won the last six races - Fogarty has a decent record at a technical and twisty track with wins in 1993 and 1995.

But he has also had his fair share of scares in Japan, with big falls in 1995 and 1996.

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