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!
I remember the very first time my dad sat me on a bike quite clearly. He had bought me one for my ninth birthday, a bike made up by a Honda dealer called Ken Martin. It was basically a ‘monkey bike’, with a Honda 50cc engine and a chassis made up from different parts. It was a case of crash and learn. At one point, having fallen off a few times, I was convinced I would never be able to change gear. So we started again by dad putting the bike in second gear while I got used to the throttle. I opened it up and shot off down the drive, out of control! There were a couple of ornamental statues at the bottom of our garden, but they didn’t last long!
Dad let the other kids at my birthday party have a go, and one lad shot off the back when he opened the throttle too quickly. The bike did not have much to speak of in terms of top speed, but it accelerated pretty quickly. It seemed a long time before I was riding with my feet on the footrest instead of sticking them out in case I lost balance. Maybe I tried to go too fast from the start, because Danielle never seemed to have the same problems when she was learning. Perhaps she had more sense and took it more slowly, realizing she could get hurt if she fell off. Bikes do need to be respected.
The next step was obviously learning how to shut the throttle off while changing gear. But for my next birthday I was given an XR75, a four-speed bike with a clutch. I couldn’t get the hang of the clutch at all. When a bike revs loudly, or stalls, or jumps in the air, it puts you off trying. So I thought I don’t really have to use the clutch. Dad will put it in second gear and I can just let the clutch out once and ride around forever in second gear. The bottom line is confidence, and it takes a while for anyone to learn how to ride a bike. I certainly didn’t take to it like a duck to water. In no time, however, I was pulling wheelies with the older boys, my dad and his mates, and all my early problems were quickly forgotten.
I had fifth place in the British GP of 1992 in the bag at Donington until my Harris Yamaha hit coolant that had leaked from John Kocinski’s bike.
The hardest thing for me was making that step from mucking around to actually entering my first race, which I did at the age of 15, a schoolboy motocross 125cc event in Carnforth. I was not that good at motocross but I did win every now and then, and within two years I was up against senior riders. That summer of 1983, I went to the Isle of Man, as usual, to watch Dad in what was to be his last-ever TT meeting. Immediately I realised that I had been wasting too much time in motocross and that my heart lay in road racing. This was what I knew I could be the best at. All it needed was for dad on my behalf to apply for a novice licence and enter me in a race meeting at the nearest club – Aintree, in Liverpool.
Anyone can do this by approaching their local branch of the Auto Cycle Union. Novice riders are forced to wear an orange jacket for 10 races so that the better riders know to stay clear for their own safety, but all the novices have probably been brought up riding bikes and know the basics. It would never be safe for someone to come off the street and race without any knowledge of bikes, even if they were wearing the orange jacket. When those 10 races are complete, you are free to enter club races without having to wear that jacket. It was a bit different with me, though, because I was beating people who weren’t novices from the word go.
The other way to get a head start is by going to a race school. I have just set up a Carl Fogarty race academy in conjunction with Brands Hatch and Ducati. The aim is to get riders, especially those between the ages of 12 and 18 who cannot get track time due to licence requirements,
