Carl Fogarty - Foggy on Bikes

Worst Crash:Never had one Best Moment:The double wins of 1999, my last proper racing weekend, or the double of 1995 that clinched the would championship. Closest Finish:Kocinski came past me going into the last corner, ran wide and allowed my Honda back underneath. Kocinski also allowed Corser into second. Best Other Rider:Frankie Chili. He has come from 250cc GP’s and so has a similar style to mine. Worst Moment:Being splattered by a bluebottle and losing to John Kocinski in 1997.

Danielle gets to grips with a Foggy replica scooter.

As a general rule, girls and bikes don’t mix. I’d be far happier if my two daughters, Danielle and Claudia – and Michaela, who has just passed her test – did not become involved. There are women who give it a go and do okay, though. The German racer Katja Poensgen has just become the first woman to compete in a 250cc Grand Prix and she seems to be beating a few of the men, which is some going.

I think it’s great that women get involved. For a start, Katja’s an attractive girl. That’s probably one of the reasons why she has got to where she is, because sponsors know they will get a lot of exposure for their team. If she was a pig in a wig, things might have been different! But there’s no question she can ride a bike, and I have seen her go very fast at times. I remember once winding up Karl Harris about her when he was riding Superstock in 1999. I asked him at a meeting how he was doing.

‘I’m doing pretty good, up there in fourth,’ he replied, forgetting to mention that Katja was second quickest.

‘What are you talking about?’ I came back. ‘You’re letting a bird beat you, you silly sod!’

I laughed, and Karl went out for the next session and went quickest! But I hope Katja does well because she has been around the World Superbike paddock for the last five years and gets on well with everyone.

There are quite a few women who also race at club level, although I’m not sure exactly how many because I don’t follow club racing. My old mechanic Anthony ‘Slick’ Bass’s new girlfriend, Juliet Manning, is part of a four-woman team racing at that level. There they are not so much at a disadvantage because on a 125cc or 250cc strength does not play a big part. There used to be a Finnish female rider, Taru Rinne, who was very fast in the 125cc GPs and probably finished in the top 10 on a few occasions in the late eighties. I think she even qualified in pole position once. It’s a different matter on a superbike or GP 500cc bike, though. There will never be a successful woman in those series, although I would like to be proved wrong. I don’t think they could ever have that aggression or ‘bastard’ attitude that some of the men have.

But it has been interesting to watch my girls starting out on bikes. Danielle has a little Yamaha TTR90 and Claudia has an old Yamaha quad that I’ve been servicing. I ordered a new plug, an on/off switch because the old one was broken, put some air in the tyres and changed the oil. When I stripped it down, and all the parts were lying around the garage, Michaela took one look at it and said, ‘Well, that thing will never run again.’

She was wrong, but she had a point. In all my time in racing, I never really had to be the one who bothered about making the bikes work, but once I had started on one bike, I tried to get a few of the others that had been standing around for years to start. The Birel had done about 10 miles at the most, yet the lawnmower-style pull-start would not work. I pulled and pulled at it until my arm ached. I took the plug out for a check, but that looked okay. I then checked there was fuel coming through, but that was fine too. I began to get really pissed off. Then, after I had charged up its battery, the Honda Cub kept cutting out after running for just a second or two.

Leading Michael Doohan in the Czech Grand Prix of 1990, while standing in for the injured Frankie Chili.

Why is it that when machines are left for twelve months they will not start? Maybe the fuel had gone a bit shitty after sitting in the carb for so long. I wanted to ring someone in Japan and drag him over for an explanation. It made matters worse that my kids were watching me fail – miserably. I don’t really have the patience, or the time, to mess around for too long before giving in and taking them down to the local bike shop. I’m not too bad on simple things like cleaning the filter of a two-stroke, but anything more complicated than that and I’m soon out of my depth.

It took some time for Claudia to gain confidence on the quad, which was strange because she is usually the one who will have a go at anything. We had to buy her a crash helmet the last time we went skiing because she goes so quickly. At one point she started crying because we wouldn’t let her go down a black run. I thought she would enjoy messing around on the quad, but she is much happier on the back with Danielle driving. Maybe it’s just that she’s not happy around machines.

Danielle was very confident on the quad, and she was soon asking if she could have a bike of her own. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good idea, but I got her the Yamaha anyway. I don’t really know where it’s all leading. After she had been on it a couple of times, I asked whether she wanted to continue on it or get a new quad, but she was adamant that she wanted to carry on riding the Yamaha. She’s actually very smooth on it, even though it’s probably a bit too heavy for her with its fat 90cc engine, which can be difficult to move around. Sure, she could get hurt on the quads, but being automatic and having four big chunky tyres means they are a lot easier to have safe fun on. And it’s an easy way for children to start riding because the throttle has a restrictor that puts a limit on how fast they can go. As they become more confident, the screw can be loosened so that the quad can reach higher speeds. With bikes it’s a different matter, and there can very easily be tears. If we had a little boy, there would be no problem with him tearing around, falling off and collecting a few scars. It’s a different matter with girls, though.

Michaela is also pretty confident riding the bikes around the field. And she was full of herself recently when she passed her road test. Mind you, she was wearing my lucky green T-shirt, so what do you expect? Seriously, though, I was convinced that she would fail because she was due to take the test on a 500cc when she had been learning on much smaller bikes. I thought that was a pretty stupid way of going about it. I sent her instructor, John Stone, a note saying, ‘Thanks for putting up with her.’ So I couldn’t believe it when she rang to say that she had passed first time. I was really proud of her. She knew she would never have been able to live it down in and around the World Superbike paddock had she failed, and said the whole experience was worse than giving birth. She won’t be going out riding on the road, but she might buy a 125cc or 250cc trail bike and come enduro riding in the Lakes. I’d be quite impressed if she could do that, although she wouldn’t be able to do the really tough stuff and would have to stick to the fireroad sections. But it just wouldn’t be her, somehow. She’s better suited to playing tennis or shopping in Manchester!