CARL Fogarty's bid to claim a third World Superbike title in a row is turning into a disaster.
The Blackburn ace struggled throughout the weekend at Donington and had to eventually settle for eighth and seven places in the second round.
A massive crowd of over 30,000 turned up at the Derbyshire track to cheer their hero on, but left disappointed after Australian ace Troy Corser blitzed his way to two wins on his Ducati.
And making it a bad day allround for East Lancashire, Burnley rider Neil Hodgson is facing a lengthy lay-off after a qualifying accident left him with a broken wrist.
Hodgson had steered his Ducati to provisional pole in the first session, but crashed on day two and looks set to miss the next race in Germany on May 12th.
Fogarty qualified seventh for the opening race, but suffered handling problems all afternoon and was grateful to finish as high as he did.
"This is an absolute nightmare. Everything is going wrong. I'm battling just to stay on the bike.
"When I go into corners I feel fortunate to come out the other side.
"The most heart-breaking thing for me is that this massive crowd came to see me win and I didn't get close," said Fogarty.
And to make matters worse the Blackburn double world champion also suffered helmet problems.
The visor would not close and left Fogarty's eyes red and sore for the second race.
Corser won the opening race, with Simon Crafar (Kawasaki) second and Anthony Gobert (Kawasaki) third.
Race two was also dominated by Corser, with Fogarty's team-mate Aaron Slight (Honda) in second and Gobert in third.
Corser now stands 21 points clear in the title table on 90pts, with John Kocinski second on 69pts and Pier-Francesco Chili third on 56pts.
The third round is on May 12th at Hockenheim, Germany.
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