Carl Fogarty has reacted angrily to comments from new World Superbike champion Neil Hodgson that he was ‘scared of taking on Mick Doohan in GPs’.

The comments, published this week in Motorcycle News, have infuriated the four-times World Superbike champion.

Hodgson, who has joined the D’Antin team in MotoGP for next season, was quoted 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.”

But Carl countered: “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.”