CARL Fogarty is not ruffled by mounting speculation surrounding the line-up of Ducati riders for next season's World Superbike Championship.

The Blackburn-based reigning champ is in no rush to commit himself to the giants for another season.

Fogarty had stated that a new deal would be discussed following the Laguna Seca round following an initial approach from Ducati.

But, with a gap of three weeks before the next round at Brands Hatch, when more than 100,000 spectators are expecting making it the biggest attended single sporting event in Britain this year, Fogarty has time on his side.

The rumour-mill has linked Australian rider Anthony Gobert with a Ducati ride for next year following an impressive wild card show at Laguna Seca, where Fogarty was happy to just consolidate his championship lead.

Fogarty said: "Gobert is a possibility, but so is Troy and an Italian 250cc rider Capirossi. There are a lot of things flying round, like there always is at this time of year. "But I am pretty sure I'll be all right!

"Gobert is a bit like Noriyuki Haga - there's a lot of circuits he can't ride on and I am confident I could beat him.

"He likes hard-breaking tight twisty circuits.

"But I don't think he would be as good a team-mate as Troy.

"He would keep himself more to himself from a setting up point of view and sharing information."

The Blackburn ace is already looking forward to round nine at Brands and was glad to leave California without major incident.

He added: "I wanted to come away without losing too many points and come out alive after last year. I do not like the place at all.

"Perhaps I should have changed tyres for the second race. Troy gambled on last year's race tyres and it paid off."

Fogarty finished fourth and fifth on Sunday and now leads the championship by 49 points from Corser.

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