Rumors that Carl Fogarty was considering a split from Ducati to run his own World Superbike team with another brand appear to have come true.

From a Ducati press release:

DUCATI AND FOGARTY TO PART WAYS

Ducati Motor Holding and Carl Fogarty wish to announce that they have decided to go their separate ways and dissolve their long-term relationship.

Fogarty, who officially retired from racing at the end of the 2000 season after a crash at Phillip Island, Australia brought an end to his racing career, was in the first year of a three-year agreement as ‘ambassador’ for the Italian manufacturer.

He recently made a specific request to Ducati for the relationship to be dissolved so that he could concentrate on other projects, incompatible with his role, and Ducati, which has always had the highest regard for the British champion, decided that it was right to allow Carl the possibility of embarking on a new adventure.

Carl Fogarty is the most successful World Superbike racer of all time. The 36-year-old from Blackburn, England won four World Superbike titles with Ducati in 1994, 1995, 1998 and 1999. He took part in 219 races, winning 59 (55 for Ducati), a total that included 15 double wins. He finished on the podium 108 times and set 21 pole positions (all Ducati) and 31 fastest laps (all Ducati).

The ultra-successful Fogarty-Ducati partnership started off in 1992, with the Englishman finishing ninth overall in the World Superbike Championship. He scored the first of 55 wins in front of his home crowd at Donington in 1992 with a Ducati 888 and won his first WSBK title in 1994, following this up with title number 2 in 1995, both on a Ducati 916. After a one-year break away from Ducati he returned to the red twin-cylinder bike in 1997, finishing runner-up, and then clinched his third and fourth titles in 1998 and 1999 on a Ducati 996. Carl’s final race on a Ducati was the Australian Round of the 2000 season, when he crashed out and broke his upper left arm.

Carl Fogarty’s name will always be synonymous with World Superbike in general and Ducati in particular.

Ducati would like to offer its sincerest thanks to Carl Fogarty for all the successful years spent together and wish him all the very best for the future.

Bologna, 21st November 2001