There have been many great rivalries in motorcycle racing but every now and then a line is crossed and sporting rivalry turns to sheer hatred. When this happens, normal rules no longer apply and a racer will use every possible means to inflict defeat upon their nemesis, from desperate and dangerous on-track manoeuvres to psychological abuse and venomous wars of words in the press. This is what happens when racing rivalries turn ugly.

Carl Fogarty vs Scott Russell, WSB, 1993–94

Carl Fogarty was the kind of rider who had to hate his rivals in order to be able to beat them. He had no shortage of adversaries like Aaron Slight and John Kocinski but the most memorable was Scott Russell. ‘I found Russell arrogant and mouthy’ Foggy admitted in his autobiography. ‘But I probably needed to hate him because he wanted to win as badly as I did. The rivalry intensified my aggression and made me a better and more focused rider.’

Every round of the World Superbike Championship was televised live in 1993, the first year of Fogarty and Russell’s epic rivalry. That meant viewers could see every moment of it – from Russell refusing to shake hands or even acknowledge Fogarty on the podium to Foggy beating him and making the w*nker sign in his general direction. Russell thought Foggy’s Ducati had a huge advantage, Foggy felt the points system at the time robbed him of a world title (he won 11 races to Russell’s five in 1993 but still lost the title), Russell was a slow-talking, laid back glamorous American, Foggy a tough, grim, wiry Northerner – they were simply poles apart and, in their support of Foggy, British fans came to (unfairly) hate Russell too. Fogarty even named one of his pet Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs after his hated rival. ‘We were never going to get along, were we?’ Foggy said. ‘I’d have little pops at him in the press, psyche him up, anything to distract him, really. I think what happened in ’94 broke him. He couldn’t really race after that. Just faded away. I suppose I broke his spirit, really.’

Foggy won his first world title in 1994 after beating Russell in the final round and, when the American headed off to Grands Prix, the rivalry was over. Somewhat mellowed in retirement, Fogarty surprised the racing world with a Tweet he posted in 2011. It seemed he was finally trying to draw a line under the faux hatred and move on. The Tweet simply said ‘Been thinking…. I just want to say sorry for the things I said when I was racing. Mainly to Aaron Slight, Scott Russell, Colin Edwards and John Kocinski.’ In an interview with Bikesport News last year, Fogarty said that Russell and Kocinski were ‘just nasty guys…’

Phil Read vs Bill Ivy, 125cc and 250cc world championships, 1968

On signing with Yamaha for the 1968 season, Phil Read and Bill Ivy made gentlemen’s agreements that Read should win the 125 world title and Ivy the 250 championship. The agreement had the backing of Yamaha and each rider was expected to back up the other in his respective class and allow him to win without making things look too obvious. Things had gone to plan in the opening two Grands Prix of the season but at the TT, Read told Ivy he wasn’t going to hang around in the 250 class waiting for him. Incensed by Read’s remark, Ivy set a scorching pace in the race and was leading by 14 seconds when Read suffered a puncture and handed his team-mate the win.

Although he had no intention of reneging on his agreement with Yamaha, Ivy determined he would ride as hard as it took to lead Read in the 125 TT to make him think he was going for the win. Only when he had proved his point would Ivy throttle off and hand the victory to his team-mate.

After Ivy set the first ever 100mph lap by a 125cc machine, his Yamaha team suspected he was going to break the (unwritten) team orders and sent a mechanic up to Governor’s Bridge with instructions to stop Ivy to allow Read through. They needn’t have bothered. With an 11-second lead, Ivy coasted to a halt at Creg-ny-Baa on the last lap and cheerfully asked a spectator who was winning. He eventually cruised home allowing Read to win by over a minute and when asked if he’d thrown the race, Ivy claimed – with a wide grin – that his engine had ‘gone off song.’

The rest of the 125 and 250 seasons continued in the same vein. After Ivy had helped Read secure the 125 title as agreed, the Luton rider then announced that he was bucking team orders and going for the 250 crown as well. Read suspected Yamaha was going to pull out of racing at the end of the season so felt he had nothing to lose by disobeying team orders. It was a devastating knife in the back for Ivy after he had upheld his end of the bargain, but he fought with everything he had to claw back the points he had given away to Read. It was all decided in a final showdown at Monza where an oiled plug scuppered Ivy’s chances of winning the title that should have been his and Read completed the 125/250cc world championship double.

Even today, Read defends his actions. ‘After I won the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix Ivy pulled up and shouted “You bastard, you should have ridden to team orders and let me win.” But everyone knew if I’d slowed down to let him win there would have been no glory in it for him because I was letting him win. It obviously upset the Japanese, the way things worked out, and it upset me as well.’

Read was never given a factory Yamaha again and the feud left Ivy so disillusioned with bike racing that he tried his hand at car racing. In 1969 he returned to two wheels but was killed at the Sachsenring in East Germany on July 12.

Kevin Schwantz vs Wayne Rainey, AMA Superbike, Transatlantic Match Races and Grands Prix, 1986–1993

It was hate at first sight for American legends Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey, even if neither rider was exactly sure why. ‘I don’t know why I disliked him’ Schwantz has admitted of Rainey, ‘except that I knew how much he disliked me, so I figured I’d dislike him just as much.’

Whatever the cause, the feeling was most certainly mutual. ‘It was one of those rivalries where you’d race so hard you’d never leave the other guy any room and you’d always be running into them’ Rainey explained. ‘I never did that with anyone except Kevin Schwantz. He was the only guy I’d run into, and he was the only guy who’d run into me. We raced so hard that we didn’t know there were people watching us … we would ride each other right into the grandstands. I just didn’t care.’

The rivalry was already well established in American Superbikes when the pair came to England in 1986 for the Transatlantic Match Races and invented a new style of all-contact road racing, their bikes covered in tyre marks and their bodywork battered and scraped after each encounter. When the rivalry spilled over into Grands Prix it became even more intense and each man existed only to beat the other. ‘I hated him’ Schwantz has said of Rainey. ‘There’s no other way to put it. At one point Wayne and I couldn’t stand to look at each other, the rivalry was that intense. He was the guy I always judged my performance against over the weekend. He was the one to beat and, man, did I want to beat him bad.’

After six years of brutal competition in GPs, the stats were misleading: Rainey had three titles and Schwantz had none, but Schwantz had just one less race win than his rival. But in 1993, everything changed. Rainey was left paralysed following a crash at Misano and Schwantz finally got his world title – but at a price he certainly did not want to pay. The bitter rivalry was forgotten overnight as Schwantz suddenly saw the bigger picture and he and Rainey became great friends and remain so to this day. When he made his comeback at the Suzuka 8 Hour Race earlier this year, Schwantz didn’t wear his own famous helmet design – he wore Rainey’s. The two great rivals, symbolically at least, were riding together one more time, but this time in harmony and not in hatred.

Steve Hislop vs Niall Mackenzie, British Superbike Championship, 1998

As two genial Scotsmen, Steve Hislop and Niall Mackenzie should have got on well and, under other circumstances, they probably would have. But the Boost Yamaha team-mates had very different agendas in 1998 and only one could prevail. Mackenzie was the former GP star and already a two-time BSB title winner – the man everyone in the series measured themselves against. He was also the highest paid man in the BSB paddock. Hislop, a TT legend, was desperate to prove he could also cut it on short circuits, so desperate he’d agreed to ride for free, despite not being a wealthy man. He needed a shop window and there would be no better way of proving his talents than by beating Niall Mackenzie. In just the second race of the season, the battle lines were drawn when Hizzy forced his way past Mackenzie at the final corner at Oulton Park to take the win. Mac was unimpressed. ‘We know the rules now’ he said. ‘There aren’t any.’ Hislop was unrepentant, saying ‘I think he was just pissed off because someone had actually beaten him.’

After watching a replay of the incident on TV Mackenzie said ‘I’m glad Steve did that because it really fired me up and I couldn’t wait to get to the next race to beat him. I felt he’d started something serious and I was ready to play ball. Whatever I had to do to keep my title, I was ready to do it.’

At Thruxton, Mackenzie pulled a harsh move on Hislop to take the win and, for the first time, contact was made. Things were getting serious and when Mackenzie made another desperate lunge at the final chicane at Snetterton, he caused both riders to run off track and scuppered what was a surefire 1–2 for the team. ‘It was an absolutely suicidal move’ Hislop complained. ‘Things were getting totally out of hand.’ Boost Yamaha boss Rob McElnea had been enjoying the publicity up to this point but this was a bridge too far. ‘Rob was furious and so was I’ Hislop said. ‘As I pulled into pit lane I was shouting “What the f*ck was that all about?” but Rob told me to disappear and get changed. He wanted to speak to Niall alone and didn’t want me ranting and raving in front of the TV cameras.’

Mackenzie refused to apologise and he and McElnea, great friends for years who had never had a cross word, did not speak for a week. The remainder of the season could have gotten very nasty but Hislop crashed at Cadwell Park and effectively ruled himself out of the championship. When he did return at the last round, he agreed to ride shotgun for his arch rival to help him secure the title. It was a gesture that Mackenzie never forgot and he visited Hislop’s motorhome that same evening to bury the hatchet. Hislop gracefully accepted and the two men finally became friends.

Following his great rival’s tragic death in a helicopter crash in 2003, Niall Mackenzie thought long and hard about why he’d taken such a dislike to him during that 1998 season. The answer speaks volumes about Hizzy’s talent on a racing motorcycle: ‘I realised it was just because he was pushing me so hard on the track and I didn’t like that because I was so used to winning.’

Valentino Rossi vs Max Biaggi, 500cc Grands Prix and MotoGP, 2000–2005

One of the greatest rivalries in the modern era of Grand Prix motorcycling reached its zenith in 2001 on the stairs that lead to the podium at the Catalunya circuit in Spain. Hidden from the public eye and just out of sight of TV cameras, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi actually came to blows, despite being surrounded by officials and team members. When Biaggi appeared at the post-race press conference sporting a slight cut below his eye, he was asked what had caused it. ‘I was bitten by a mosquito’ was his laconic reply. Rossi was, apparently, no more trouble than a tiny, annoying insect.

As two of the biggest stars in Italy, it was somewhat inevitable that Rossi and Biaggi would be enemies. And when the young pretender started regularly beating the Roman Emperor, Biaggi didn’t take kindly. Their clashes on-track were every bit as venomous as their spats in the paddock. Two months prior to Catalunya, Biaggi had deliberately elbowed Rossi off the track at more than 140mph in a move which would probably now result in at least a one-race ban. When Rossi recovered and eventually passed Biaggi, he flipped him the bird on live TV watched by a global audience of millions.

Both riders were sent a letter by FIM president Francesco Zerbi reprimanding them for their on-track clash and warning them of more serious consequences should there be a repeat of the clash. Rossi responded by stating that he would willingly attempt the same move on Biaggi should the need arise in the future.

Although the two men continued their bitter rivalry until the end of Biaggi’s MotoGP career in 2005, it was Rossi’s riding that ultimately won the battle. He won the world championship every year between 2002 and 2005 while Biaggi failed to claim a premier class crown.

Ben Spies vs Mat Mladin, AMA Superbike, 2005–2008

‘He still has his mom hanging around wiping his bum, and I haven’t had that luxury since I’ve been a professional racer.’ So said Mat Mladin of Ben Spies’ close relationship with his mother and manager, Mary. That one line alone would have been enough to guarantee a ferocious rivalry but there were plenty more where that came from and the normally placid Spies eventually Hulked out at his Suzuki team-mate and started fighting back. ‘You cannot know how horrible it was’ Mary Spies said. ‘It got to a point where they (Mladin and his camp) finally got Ben angry. Do you know how hard it is to make Ben mad?’

An aggressive Australian, Mladin had won the AMA championship for six consecutive years between 2000 and 2005 and didn’t appreciate being beaten by his much younger tam-mate (Spies was 12 years his junior). In desperation, he turned to psychological warfare to try to gain an advantage, regularly taking potshots in the press at ‘mummy’s boy’ Spies. But his plan backfired and produced the very opposite effect to the one intended. ‘What’s talking trash have to do with riding a motorcycle?’ Spies said in the press. ‘It means absolutely nothing. All it’s going to do is make me push that much harder in anything I do; training, racing, passing. It’s going to bring it out. If trash talking is used in the wrong way – if it’s directed towards me – it only fuels me and makes me want to win more.’

And win more he did. Spies not only took three consecutive AMA titles, beating Mladin each time, he then went on to win the World Superbike Championship in his rookie year in 2009. As if to rub salt in Mladin’s (mostly self-inflicted) wounds, Spies told the WSB press that ‘It made me mentally stronger as a rider, the stuff Mat did, and that’s fine. So now this (WSB) is easy. There’s no getting around the fact that me and Mat had our differences. He’s the hardest guy I have ever raced, and I don’t think it can ever get any harder, honestly.’

It did get harder when Spies went to MotoGP in 2010, first with the Tech 3 squad and then with the factory Yamaha team. He won just one race in his MotoGP career and recently announced his retirement following a lingering shoulder injury. Mladin referred to Spies as a ‘pussy’ for calling it quits but in the last issue of Bikesport News, Spies retorted with: “I raced him four times and beat him three times…”

Carl Fogarty vs Pier-Francesco Chili, World Superbikes, Assen, 1998

While they didn’t have a prolonged dislike of each other, Ducati team-mates Carl Fogarty and Pier-Francesco Chili had one of the most famous, and amusing, handbags-at-dawn encounters after the 1998 World Superbike round at Assen. Chili was desperate for a race win to stay in the championship hunt so when he crashed out at the final chicane, he blamed Fogarty. The two had been battling hard but Foggy did not touch the Italian and certainly did not cause the crash. But that wasn’t how the emotional Chili saw things. He marched straight up to Foggy in the pits and swung a punch at the English rider before the pair were separated by onlookers and team bosses. Chili marched off to take a shower and then the real comedy began. Still seething, the passionate Italian later tried to assault Fogarty on live TV – while still wearing his bath robe! He then said he would try to block the Englishman from winning the title in the final round even if that meant arch rivals Honda would take the title. It took a serious lecture from Ducati bosses to restore calm.

WHEN MANAGERS GO BAD...

Rob McElnea vs Colin Wright, British Superbikes, Oulton Park, 2008

So incensed was the Burly Humbersider when his man Karl Harris was taken out by Wright’s rider Shane Byrne, he marched from his Motorpoint Yamaha garage round to the Airwaves Ducati pit to have it out with the GSE chief.

McElnea squared up to Wright live on Eurosport, who hurriedly scurried out of harm’s way, with the GSE man looking somewhat shocked at the reaction the incident had provoked from the Scunthorpe man.

Popular legends

Neil Hodgson and Anthony Gobert did not get along. A great story circulated in the World Superbike paddock that the Aussie wild child had managed to get hold of one of the Burnley bullet’s Axo crash helmets and urinated in it. Asked a year or so later if it was true, he said it wasn’t. “I held it while someone else pissed in it…”

Leon Haslam and HM Plant Honda team boss Havier Beltran had a minor contre-temps in the British Superbike paddock which ended with the likeable Honda manager disappearing through one of the garage display walls…

At the end of the 2010 BSB season finale, worse-for-wear Gary Mason and Martin Jessopp had a difference of opinion in the Bikesport News mobile gin palace which had to be broken up by Josh Brookes…

After being beaten at Macau this year, SMT boss and bear of a man Robin Croft wrestled winning team owner Shaun Muir to the ground in the bar of the posh Galaxy hotel. The pair are old friends and have now kissed and made up, said Muir, speaking through a straw.

Guy Martin was once so angry with British Superbike series director Stuart Higgs, he slammed a laptop shut on the ringmaster’s fingers…