Fogarty secures MV Agusta deal

2007 Superbike calendarCarl Fogarty has secured a deal to run a factory MV Agusta team in the World Superbike championship in 2008. Four-time World SBK champion Fogarty will be provided with full factory MV F4 1000s, race versions of the explosive F4 312R road bike.

"Our initial aim was to continue racing in 2007 but it became clear that a start date of 2008 made more sense for this project. My team is now committed to finding sponsorship," said Fogarty.

The announcement - to be made official at Monza next weekend - sees the Lancastrian return to racing after the demise of the Foggy Petronas team, which went five years without a race win despite their impressive resources.

"It's the first time MV has officially been in the world championship for 30 years and to have the opportunity to run this bike is one of the best things that's ever happened to me," he said.

"Now we're with a proper manufacturer It's like chalk and cheese. Next year we'll be working with the best bikes MV can offer - and we're going out to win races and win the world championship."

No riders have been announced for the team, but Fogarty is known to be keen on resurrecting the racing career of 2003 world champion Neil Hodgson, who is currently the test rider for Ducati's Moto GP team

EuroSport