CARL Fogarty vowed to continue racing after battling against technical problems to keep in the hunt for a third World Superbike crown.

The Blackburn bike ace delighted a British record crowd of 82,000 at Brands Hatch to clock up second and fourth place finishes to keep the heat on championship leader Troy Corser, who he now trails by 34 points.

And, but for the problems with his bike, the Ducati king believed he could have notched up two wins.

"I nearly pulled out after three laps of the first race.

"If it had been anywhere else I would have done.

"In all my years of racing I have never had a reception like that.

"To get 80,000 watching bikes is incredible."

And spurred on by his adoring supporters, the fans' favourite has vowed he will return next season quoshing rumours concerning his future.

"I will be talking with Ducati in the next week or so, but I'll be back.

"I've always said that I wanted some time to myself but I'm not sure if now is the right time. "While I'm good enough to win races I will carry on. When I can't do that I'll finish."

Cheered on by his amazing flag waving supporters, Foggy proved he still has what it takes, bravely battling through suspension and tyre problems to rocket from ninth on the grid to claim a magnificent fourth place in race one.

Castrol Honda's Colin Edwards took the chequered flag in front of team-mate Aaron Slight as the pair crossed the line 10 seconds ahead of Yamaha's Scott Russell.

"The back of the bike was causing all sorts of problems and I thought the tyre was going to explode.

"It was terrible and definitely the hardest race of my life," said Fogarty.

In race two he was in hot pursuit of fellow Ducati rider Corser for most of the 25 laps before the Australian pulled away on his trouble free machine and beat him to the line.

British Suzuki rider Jamie Whitham claimed his best finish of the year with third place.

"After the first race I sorted a few things out but it was still dire," said Fogarty.

"It annoyed me and it is now the third time this season the bike has let me down.

"With a bike that is running properly I still feel I'm the best.

"I feel I could have won both races - I felt that confident."

Burnley's Neil Hodgson had little to smile about after crashing out in race one and he could only muster ninth place in race two. He said: "I missed a gear going under the bridge, so that when I went down three gears on the approach to the next corner, I was in first instead of second.

"That left me in big trouble as my back end stepped out.

"I thought I had saved it but unfortunately ran out of track and slipped off into the gravel trap.

"Perhaps I made an incorrect tyre choice for the warmer conditions in the afternoon. Whatever it was, I wasn't able to sustain the same pace in the first race."

First race result: 1 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 36m 16.391s, 2

Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 36m 16.494s, 3 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 36m 27.152s, 4 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 36m 28.713s, 5 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 36m 33.636s, 6 Niall Mackenzie, GB (Yamaha) 36m 36.968s, 7 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 36m 39.917s, 8 Steve Hislop, GB (Yamaha) 36m 41.587s, 9 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 36m 46.095s, 10 Peter Goddard, Australia (Suzuki) 36m 47.557s. Second race result: 1 Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati) 36m 07.237s, 2 Carl Fogarty, GB (Ducati) 36m 10.477s, 3 Jamie Whitham, GB (Suzuki) 36m 11.464s, 4 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 36m 12.603s, 5 Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda) 36m 12.788s, 6 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 36m 26.429s, 7 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha) 36m 27.113s, 8 Scott Russell, USA (Yamaha) 36m 27.267s, 9 Neil Hodgson, GB (Kawasaki) 36m 27.545s, 10 Niall Mackenzie, GB (Yamaha) 36m 27.704s.

Championship points after nine of 12 rounds: 1 Corser 275.5, 2 Slight 245, 3 Fogarty 241.5, 4 Edwards 233.5, 5 Chili 228.5, 6 Haga 206, 7 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 132, 8 Whitham 129, 9 Goddard 110, 10 Russell 99.5.

Next round: A-1 Ring, Austria - Aug 30.

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