JOHN Lennon caused uproar when he said that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ.

How, then, do you avoid offence in describing the phenomenon of Carl Fogarty?

For the incredible 120,911 fans that attended Brands Hatch yesterday, Fogarty approaches the divine.

Those spectators not sporting Fogarty memorabilia stuck out like Martians doing cartwheels. Remember, one in every 500 Brits were at the event.

Fogarty finished 19th and fourth and still commanded a standing ovation. A large percentage would not leave until he made a personal appearance in front of the grandstand.

The biggest cheer of the day was saved for his promise that he would return next year to race at his spiritual home.

So it is not difficult to imagine the cascade of emotions Foggy felt when he was unable to deliver the win the crowd demanded.

He was seething, distraught, demoralised, apologetic and pretty well inconsolable.

"I've got a month to stew over this before the next round in Austria. I wish the next race was next week.

"I'm not upset. I'm only upset when I make mistakes. I have fallen off and gone off crying my eyes out.

"But I think the crowd know how hard I tried as they could see where Troy finished and he is a world class rider. I rode my heart out in that second race.

"Hopefully the same crowd will be in Assen and I will do the double.

"It makes it harder for me because I know how much the crowd wanted me to win," said Fogarty.

That was obvious from the minute he stepped out of his garage at 9am to another standing ovation from an already packed grandstand, three hours before the first race started.

The attendance even shocked the race organisers. This was the biggest crowd at Brands since the circuit last staged a Formula One Grand Prix in 1986.

There was, perhaps, too much burden on one man's shoulders and he appeared edgy.

But it was a track that had previously suited Fogarty. On this, of all days, though, Ducati got it wrong.

The choice of size and compound of Michelin tyres had been a problem for Ducati all weekend.

No-one, however, expected the rear tyre to fall to bits in the first race.

Fogarty said: "Bits just kept flying off it and then one big piece flew off. If I had not come in I would have been carried off in an ambulance.

"Troy had problems with his tyre but Honda used the same tyre in the first race and Edwards' looked like brand new at the end.

"Honda have got more power and can use softer tyres but my 17 inch tyre got far too hot."

The Ducati garage was not a happy place after race one. Fogarty's wife Michaela sought solace in solitude and a cigarette in the garage. The mechanics that were not dangling by their belts from the ceiling kicked anything durable enough and expendable enough.

Ducati spokesman Michele Morisetti said: "Sure these things happen - but not here. In some damned race in South Africa, but not at Brands."

There was much soul and manual searching before the second race. But Fogarty was caught between a rock and a hard place. Should he continue with the 17 inch tyres which have better grip but overheat and risk another disintegration?

Or should he drop down to a 16.5 inch tyre which stays cooler but does not have the same grip?

He added: "Michelin talked me out of using another 17 inch for the second race but the 16.5 inch didn't have any grip from lap one to the last lap. Look at Troy Corser, he finished 13th.

"They are cooler but I don't like them." Pity the big fat guy with a docile grin and huge chubby arms and legs in Kent on Sunday night. Foggy might have mistaken him for the Michelin Man. RACE ONE:

THIS was not in the script.

Fogarty defended the first corner and took the lead but was soon overtaken by Colin Edwards.

But Fogarty looked content to sit behind the Texan although the gap was gradually increasing over the first 10 laps.

The consensus of opinion was that Foggy was conserving his tyres in the heat. Quite the opposite in fact, the rear tyre was falling to bits.

Then the pack started closing in. First Aaron Slight went through into second as Fogarty drifted wide into the dirt while fighting that deteriorating tyre.

Then Pierfrancesco Chili moved into third place on lap 12 and over the next five laps Troy Corser began to make ground in fifth.

On lap 18 Fogarty decided the tyre could not last the race and pulled into the pits.

Motorbikes, however, cannot compete with the slick pit stop tyre changes of formula one and, after Fogarty had endured a frustrating few seconds out of the saddle, he rejoined the race again behind Chili but now a lap behind in 21st place.

Despite a valiant effort to secure a single point by making 15th slot he could only come home in 19th.

John Reynolds, who rides a Red Bull Ducati in the British Superbikes Championship, eventually pipped Troy Corser for fourth.

Only Edwards of the top five failed to record a faster lap than Fogarty's best of one minute 27.92 seconds and the more powerful Castrol Hondas' top speed was more than 10km/h better than 238.2.

RACE TWO:

TWO-nil to the machine in the man versus machine contest.

Again Fogarty defended his pole position into the first bend but the superior power of the Castrol Hondas was once more soon in evidence.

Fogarty led after lap two but on the third lap both Hondas were in front and he found himself in fifth when Chili and Noriyuki Haga overtook on the next lap.

From then on in Fogarty was battled with more problems at the rear of his bike in an attempt to conserve his championship lead.

Dad George said: "I saw him kick-start a couple of times early on and knew he had problems again.

"But that lad just does not give in."

But when Chili had to retire shortly before the end, Foggy was handed a bonus of 13 points for fourth place.

With Troy Corser back in 13th, that meant Fogarty had lost just one point of his 49 point lead going into this round.

Worryingly, though, with four rounds still remaining, Edwards is back in the championship race and just 14 points behind Corser.

Fogarty could only manage the 15th top speed in the second race, at 237.2 km/h but did record the sixth fastest lap.

Results: 1st leg: 1 C Edwards (USA) Honda 36mins 51.71secs, 2 A Slight (Nzl) Honda 36:53.14, 3 P Chili (Ita) Suzuki 36:59.59, 4 J Reynolds (Gbr) Ducati 37:03.49, 5 T Corser (Aus) Ducati 37:05.94, 6 A Yanagawa (Jpn) Kawasaki 37:06.01, 7 N Haga (Jpn) Yamaha 37:08.33, 8 N MacKenzie (Gbr) Yamaha 37:08.64, 9 J Haydon (Gbr) Suzuki 37:21.05, 10 C Walker (Gbr) Kawasaki 37:25.52.

2nd Leg: 1 C Edwards (USA) Honda 36 mins 52.98 seconds 10667.mph, 2 A Slight (Nzl) Honda 36 min 53.07 secs, 3 N Haga (Jpn) Yamaha 37 mins 02.25 secs, 4 C Fogarty (Gbr) Ducati 37 mins 04.34secs, 5 A Yanagawa (Jpn) Kawasaki 37 mins 08.06 secs, 6 S Emmett (Gbr) Ducati 37 mins 10.47 secs, 7 N MacKenzie (Gbr) Yamaha 37 mins 10.59 secs, 8 J Reynolds (Gbr) Ducati 37 mins 11.88 secs, 9 P Goddard (Aus) Aprilia 37 mins 12.31 secs, 10 G Lavilla (Spa) Kawasaki 37 mins 17.51 secs

Championship Points after nine rounds: 1 Fogarty 330 pts, 2 Corser 282, 3 Edwards 268, 4 Slight 236, 5 Yanagawa 215, 6 Chili 160 Foggy

turns

to his

ad-visor By NEIL BRAMWELL A FOURTH pole position of the year was clinched despite a rare crisis of confidence.

Foggy was having trouble in the final third of the track around Clearways, losing the ground he had gained on the first two split times.

It was the type of niggling drawback that can consume Fogarty and team boss Davide Tardozzi was quick to act.

Grabbing his rider by the visor, Tardozzi ordered Fogarty to ignore the gremlins and concentrate on riding the bike.

It was a masterstroke of motivation as Fogarty responded with the fastest lap of the day to jump from fifth fastest and knock Honda's Colin Edwards off pole position.

The controversial one lap superpole was suspended when spots of rain fell while the eighth rider was out on the track.

With less than half of the 16 fastest riders having completed their Superpole lap, the "wet procedure" was adopted in which each rider has 15 minutes of track time and a maximum of 12 laps in which to record his fastest lap.

The healthy Saturday crowd of around 30,000 responded to the pure theatre of the occasion, a factor the riders are urging organisers to take on board in future deliberations over qualifying.

And there were wild celebrations when Foggy roared round to become only the second rider of the weekend to lap under one minute 27 seconds.

He said: "I felt like all my fans were blowing to push me to the finish line and get the pole." FORMER Blackburn Rovers and England footballer David Batty was dragged from the crowd to present the trophies on the podium.

He had driven down after the Leeds game with Birmingham on Saturday and pitched a tent in the Brands Hatch grounds.

But the tent collapsed in the middle of the night and Batty and his mates were forced to sleep under the stars.

He said: "We didn't put it up too well or it was something to do with all the partying people - I haven't got a clue.

"All I know is we ended up sleeping on top of the tent. But I'll be back next year."

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