Four-time Superbike World Champion Carl Fogarty said at Daytona that he hasn’t seen any new up-and-coming talent. Interviewed in the paddock area at Daytona March 5th and asked “Who do you think is the most talented, up and coming, young racer?”, Fogarty said:

“I really don’t know who is the most talented guy coming up right now. There’s not too many fast guys coming up right now. The fast guys tend to be in their mid-to-late 20s. There’s not many young riders anymore I can think of. I don’t know of any in America. Well, there’s one name I’ve heard of – Nicky Hayden. I don’t know. Is he a young guy? So I’m interested in seeing how he gets on this year. There seems to be a bit of a shortage really around the world of young 500cc Grand Prix riders coming through. There’s a few out there now like Rossi doing the business. It always seems like an Italian/Spanish dominated thing for bringing young riders. America’s struggling and Britain’s struggling as well.”

Fogarty is in the United States to film a video.

For more from Fogarty, including how he’s dealing with injury-forced retirement and what he thinks of John Kocinski and Anthony Gobert, see the May issue of Roadracing World.