Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

A war of words erupted in the British press earlier this month between four-time World Superbike Champion Carl Fogarty and 2003 World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgson, but Hodgson is looking to put an end to the public feud.

In early November, England’s MCN quoted Hodgson as saying, “I don’t fear Rossi liked Foggy feared Doohan. Carl would never admit that but that’s probably why he never took up the challenge. He talked about it but never did it. But I’m going to do it. I want to be judged against the best riders in the world and that means in MotoGP.”

Fogarty responded in a November 10 press release issued by his team, Foggy Petronas Racing, stating, “I think it’s a cowardly comment. The simple truth is that I never got a chance to ride in GPs. I would have loved to have been given that chance, because I was certainly never scared of anyone on the track.

“It’s cowardly because I can’t go out there and race anymore and do anything about it. And people will know for sure that it’s an absolute lie. They will realize that Neil is trying hard not to be boring.

“He has a long way to go before he can be mentioned in the same breath of me. He has won nothing yet – he was given the World Superbike title this year.”

Hodgson, however, sought to set the record straight with a November 19 entry on his website, writing, “You’ve probably read a whole load of stuff about me and Carl Fogarty going at each other. Well, my website seems to be the best place to put the record straight once and for all so here it is, the last official statement on the whole mess:

“Around the time that Carl retired he was quoted, rightly or wrongly, as saying that he thought he was a better rider than Mick Doohan. I was asked what my personal opinion of that statement was and my opinion, which I think I’m fully entitled to, was that I considered Mick Doohan to have been a better rider than Carl Fogarty and, in my opinion, I doubt whether Carl would really have wanted to race against him because of that. And that’s it. As a rider I respect Carl so much and always have. I totally look up to him as a motorcycle racer and I think he’s achieved so much for racing and for World Superbikes. In the press my opinion maybe looked like an attack on Carl, but it wasn’t. Now he’s saying some pretty crazy things in the press and I’m sorry, but I’m not entering into a public slanging match. That’s it, over, case closed.”