they all play a vital part in helping a rider to
achieve his or her goals.
Aucklander Sean Fogarty is one of those rare
breed of motocross people who has experienced
life on both sides of the equation, as a top
national-grade racer and as a top nationalgrade
mechanic too.
He was one of the men on the business end of
spanners and wrenches for the LCM Husqvarna
Team, dedicated to visiting Australian rider
Morgan Fogarty at this year’s New Zealand
Motocross Championships and, despite these
two men having the same surname, they are
in fact unrelated, except that Sean Fogarty
was himself once a Husqvarna team rider in
New Zealand.
There’s a lot of work that goes into being a
motocross mechanic.
“I’m just a construction worker for an Auckland
building company,” Sean Fogarty admits. “I help
out the LMC racing team by going down to the
workshop and help them to get the bikes ready.
“Karl Brabant (the team manager) does most of
the work but I help out around the pits on race
day. Generally we just check over all the nuts and
bolts and do oil changes. We will set up the
suspension and handlebars and so on.
He says he sometimes gets “a bit nervous just
watching”. Sean Fogarty has an emotional
investment as a mechanic, but no control once
the bike and rider leaves the start gate.
“It’s probably worse than riding. You definitely
don’t want anything to happen to the bike or
rider. I finished third overall in New Zealand in
the MX2 class a couple of times, so I know what
it’s like to be a racer.”
KIWI RIDER 99