Hodgson 'better than Troy'

ByEurosport

Published 09/11/2006 at 13:30 GMT

EXCLUSIVE! Carl Fogarty has hailed his one-time nemesis Neil Hodgson, branding the British rider better than World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss. Fogarty says he has patched up his differences with Hodgson after falling out, and that the 2003 champion h

Despite three years away from the series, Fogarty insists the 32-year-old Briton can still be a cut above his rivals.

"There are very few people who can do what Neil can do on a Superbike," he told eurosport.com.

"Yeah, the championship has changed since he won it in 2003, but I think he'd be the class of the field if he came back.

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"On the same bike as [Troy] Bayliss, Neil would beat him."

Following his split from Malaysian backers Petronas, Fogarty is looking to put together a team for 2007, and has pledged to make Hodgson his number one rider.

"There's no problem between Neil and me, and that's the long and short of it. I got to spend some time with him at Magny-Cours," said Fogarty.

"He's turned down the best rides in both the British and AMA Superbike championships to ride for me, he's even turned down the d'Antin MotoGP ride to come and ride for me, and I desperately want to run him next season."

However, Fogarty expressed his frustration at finding machinery for next season, describing how a proposed deal with Ducati had fallen through.

"I've actually been really annoyed by Ducati," he added.

"Yeah, I know us running a team next year depends on us finding a sponsor first, but back in July we went to them and asked them about supplying us, and they told us we could have the bikes that Troy Bayliss and Lorenzo Lanzi have run this year.

"We need a sponsor to pay for it though. Ducati were really good about it and kept pushing the deadline back for us to come up with a sponsor, but in Valencia I found out from someone quite low down in the company that we'd missed out.

"That annoyed me so much, because all it would have taken was a five-minute phone call from the boss to say 'sorry, we can't wait any longer' and while that would still have been annoying, at least they could have had the decency to tell me to my face."

Fogarty also said there was no chance of the Foggy Petronas Racing team continuing in its current guise, after a season blighted by mechanical difficulties in which riders Steve Martin and Craig Jones collected just 22 points between them.

"Carrying on with this year's bike is not an option. It's not something I'd want to do at all. It's just been a nightmare this season," he said.

"We've developed the chassis just as much as ever, but, over the last two seasons, there's been no improvement on the engine side at all. It just stopped.

"To be honest, we've been fighting a losing battle all year. For the first two or three years I thought it would be good, but it all went wrong.

"I can't be too negative about it because we did have our own team. We looked quick, in the respect that we had the biggest transporter in the paddock, our colours were great, our hospitality unit was huge.

"We looked like a winning team. It didn't work though. We were slow on track."

Eurosport.com will be giving away signed copies of Carl Fogarty's new DVD - Phileas Foggy's New Zealand Adventure - keep logging on for details!

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Image credit: Eurosport

"New Zealand and Canada are two places I always wanted to go, so to ride across New Zealand was fantastic," he said.

"We did so many things I've never done, scuba diving, canyon jumping - you just jump into a canyon, sort of like a bungee, but not quite.

"Everyone should, when they get to 40, leave the mobile at home and go camping for two weeks. It was brilliant."

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