Foggy Biography

[merv]

Has anyone else read the biography of Carl Fogarty?

Being a slow reader I'm still working my way through last year's birthday presents. I've finally finished the 2 Britten books and started on Foggy a couple of nights ago. I'm about 1/3 the way through and just can't get over what a full-of-himself shit wanker he really is.

I had discussions with Aaron Slight about this a few years ago and of course he got special mention in Slight's book. The surprise has been how absolutely full the book is of his sexual exploits and how he saw himself as god's gift to women no matter how ugly he is.

Just my thoughts so far.

[Marknz]

Has anyone else read the biography of Carl Fogarty?

Being a slow reader I'm still working my way through last year's birthday presents. I've finally finished the 2 Britten books and started on Foggy a couple of nights ago. I'm about 1/3 the way through and just can't get over what a full-of-himself shit wanker he really is.

I had discussions with Aaron Slight about this a few years ago and of course he got special mention in Slight's book. The surprise has been how absolutely full the book is of his sexual exploits and how he saw himself as god's gift to women no matter how ugly he is.

Just my thoughts so far.

I agree Merv... but I still couldn't put the book down and ended up buying the next one too. But it wasn't toolong before I got pretty sick of "I did this" and "I did that"

The only good thing I picked out of it was that he never used his rear brake when racing... just goes to show that if you set the bike up properly you can still maintain your corner speed without have to trail the rear brake.

[Bleck K6]

yeah I've got it,there are a couple of hard case bits in there,1 that springs to mind is when he is talkin about when he started racing & he got busted with a starter motor in his bike,so instead of jump starting it like everyone else he used to run along side it as he was turning it over.
I agree he is a bit of a tosser.

[Bob]

I read it back to back with Niall MacKenzie's autobiography (which is a much, much better book in my opinion - MacKenzie actually admits to being human!)

Glad I did, as it shows up Fogarty big time. Fogarty has always said that in his one and only GP race, he was going to get 3rd place but ran out of petrol - a claim he puts forward again in the book.

So I was amused to see in MacKenzie's book that he was the one tailing Fogarty and thought he missed a gear. Later, after parking his bike in Parque Firme, MacKenzie was walking back when his mechanic came up and said "Have you heard? Fogarty is claiming he ran out of petrol - if that was true, then how did he do a warm-down lap?"

If a 500cc two-stroke GP bike ran out of fuel - it would pretty much stop there and then, let alone allow the rider to do another full lap, even at coasting speeds!

But back to the book - I thought it was poorly written, full of arrogance (I counted and I think he admits to TWO errors in his whole career) and quite possibly factually inaccurate, being kind for a moment.

What it does show for me is the sheer determination of the man and how driven he was to be the best in his field. For that it is worth reading, but not if you want it to be a 'good read' as well.

[Motu]

I've read a couple of Foggy books,the one Carl wrote is hard to stomach,how could the guy who kept me on the edge of my seat for all those races be such an arogant fucktard - burn it Merv,mine was a library copy and I thought other people might enjoy a laugh too.

[LB]

I agree with you totally Merv and others. I bought it about a year ago and still haven't finished it, I occasionally read a few pages then get sick of it and put it down. He comes across as a right arrogant shit.

I've got the new Barry Sheene book on order - still waiting for it to arrive at Capital Books.

Am also halfway through the Neil Hodgson book, have put it somewhere and can't find it. It's not riveting stuff, but it's a better read than the Foggy book.

[moko]

I read it when it first came out and have to agree with just about every comment here.Much as I admire the bloke`s riding skills what an arrogant tosser he comes across as in his book,everything that goes wrong is someone else`s fault,every victory is down to him alone never mind all the "backroom" guys that go to make up any team.Just goes to show that sometimes a bit of "ghostwriting" is not nescessarily a bad thing,in my eyes he went from being a bloke very,very good at what he did to the kind of jerk I try very hard to avoid.

[vifferman]

I read it when it first came out and have to agree with just about every comment here.Much as I admire the bloke`s riding skills what an arrogant tosser he comes across as in his book,everything that goes wrong is someone else`s fault,every victory is down to him alone never mind all the "backroom" guys that go to make up any team.Just goes to show that sometimes a bit of "ghostwriting" is not nescessarily a bad thing,in my eyes he went from being a bloke very,very good at what he did to the kind of jerk I try very hard to avoid.

Damn! That's pretty much what I was going to say (but I haven't read the book). Every time they interviewed him after a race, the tosser moaned about something or someone, even when he got a podium! "The tyres were no good", "The bike wasn't set up right", "So and so cut me off". What a wanker, biking legend or not. Whine whine whine moan bitch complain rant whinge grizzle...
But the thing that got me the most is a comment that he didn't actually even enjoy bike racing, just winning! A complete contrast to Rossi, for example, who is obviously so enthusiastic about bike racing, and who enjoys the competition for its own sake.

[merv]

Thanks for the comments; so it wasn't just me thinking what I did. However, I find some of it quite funny too and will read it right through. One comment that made me laugh last night (I'm up to the '93 season in the chapters) was where he ends up on the podium with Scott Russell looks at Russell and says "your face looks like slapped arse".

[Bob]

I'm sure Slick Bass (his mechanic for too many years to remember) must have been really chuffed to bits to see all the hard work he did for Fogarty over the years to be dismissed so lightly. If Bass had been so useless, Fogarty would have wanted him out.

One other thing about Fogarty, he is pretty thick to be honest (I was standing with a mate who had to ask him a couple of questions - my mate told him very clearly and slowly what it was for, Fogarty nodded all the time and when he was finished said "So what is this all about then?"), but was very good at playing the media when it suited him.

He was well trained in that side of things - I was doing news and photos from the NEC once and Fogarty knew where every official cameraman was standing and made sure they all got (good) photos of him, just as an example.

So the "the tyres were going off", "I couldn't get 3rd gear" etc was all part of 'building the legend'.

But I'd still be very p*ssed off if I were Bass.

Talking about the Barry Sheene book (I take it we're referring to the Stuart Barker one), I've read extracts and they were all excellent, interesting, well written and well researched. Definitely want to read that one in full at some point.

If I am to commit what seems to be blasphemy, I have to say that once Sheene had retired, he could really get on my nerves (it seemed that Sheene discovered anyone and everyone that was any good etc), but as a rider he was amazing and he fought so hard for riders rights that each and every professional rider should thank their lucky stars he was around. Without Sheene, they could still be PAYING to enter a race!

[LB]

Talking about the Barry Sheene book (I take it we're referring to the Stuart Barker one), I've read extracts and they were all excellent, interesting, well written and well researched. Definitely want to read that one in full at some point.

Yep, that's the one. Will post a review once I finally get it and read it.