Carl Fogarty made his return to competition without a motorcycle beneath him. The former four-time WorldSBK champion faced Alex Brundle at Bedford Autodrome in a three-part challenge, switching between different cars and tackling one lap in each.

Their first run used an open-top Caterham sports car. Fogarty won the rock-paper-scissors game, but Brundle went out first while Fogarty took stopwatch duty. Brundle set the opening benchmark at 1 minute 31.5 seconds. Fogarty had never driven an open-top sports car before, while Brundle held the circuit lap record in a single-seater.

Fogarty treated the disadvantage as an opportunity for a joke, saying he could beat the time by cutting the chicanes. He then went straight through the first one and repeated the shortcut later in the lap. The resulting unofficial time was 1 minute 41 seconds, with no time penalty applied.

A clean sweep for Brundle

The remaining runs took place in a Ginetta GT and a single-seater. Fogarty stayed competitive through all three contests, but Brundle won every one of them. The result gave the experienced motorcycle racer a spirited challenge, while Brundle converted his familiarity with four-wheeled racing into a complete sweep.

Alex Brundle is known for winning the 2016 European Le Mans Series in the LMP3 class. He is also the son of Martin Brundle, the former Formula 1 driver. For Fogarty, the event offered an unusual return to the circuit: a direct test of his racing instincts in cars rather than on the superbikes that defined his championship career.