CHIEF mechanic Anthony Bass wants Foggy to pack racing in!

The two men have been inseparable since 1993 but Bass - widely known as Slick - has had enough.

He has lived a nomadic existence throughout his career and is keen for a change of direction.

Bass's girlfriend has even changed jobs to move from the Isle of Man to Switzerland, nearer to his temporary base of Bologna in Italy.

But a long-standing promise to Fogarty is preventing him from a new challenge.

"I wish he would stop so that I can stop, but I said when I started I would never let him down," said Bass.

The relationship between chief mechanic and rider is a key part of any team set-up, with absolute trust essential.

Bass added: "At the end of the day, it's his backside on the bike and if there's something wrong with the bike I get my backside kicked."

Fortunately, those occasions have been few and far between. "The only thing I ever left loose was a gear lever," Bass recalled.

And it was that attention to detail which first made Fogarty realise that Bass was a man he could work with. "At the time I was quite focused and motivated. There was no way the bike wouldn't get right and I was working on my own with two bikes, and just one guy on the tyres.

"If I couldn't sort out a problem myself I would find someone else who could," said Bass, who started out the hard way with privateer firms for "scraps of food."

Professionalism, resourcefulness and dedication. It's not hard to see why Fogarty and Bass gell so effectively.

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